How to unlock an external LaCie Hard drive?

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Level 1

9 points

How to unlock an external LaCie Hard drive?

I was using an external LaCie Hard Drive as a Time machine. I had a problem with the iMac, and used Diskwarrior, which altered the disk directory. The LaCie no longer recognizes my iMac as it's intended user. Thus, it only mounts as a locked drive and resists my efforts to unlock it or change ownership. I would like to be able to access the backups that have already accrued, but I cannot access permissions or even open the drive.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to:

1) unlock this drive
2) change the ownership
3) access the (previous) backups, even though it no longer recognizes this machine as its owner

Thank you for your help.

Joel

iMac 27/3.06/2x2GB/iTB/4670-256MB, Mac OS X (10.6.5), iPhone, iMac G5, Powerbook G4, Powerbook 145B

Posted on Nov 28, 2010 1:32 PM

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Answer 1

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Nov 28, 2010 4:18 PM in response to Joel C Frost

What kind of problem did you have with your iMac?

It sounds like the disk is failing, has already failed, or is so corrupted it's beyond fixing. 😟

+*Repair Disk+* via Disk Utility might be able to fix it.

You might be able to view the backups via the +*Browse . . .+* option, per #E2 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).

If not, your backups are effectively gone. You may be able to re-use the disk by reformatting it.

By the way, avoid using the Finder or Terminal on a Time Machine volume. Apple doesn't do a very good job of warning folks, +*never move, change, or delete anything in your backups -- that can corrupt them.+*

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