1TB LaCie d2 Quadra after upgraded HDD inside to 3Tb Hitachi 7K3000 (SATA3 / 7200rpm / 64Mb Cache) could recognized 800Gb ONLY by Mac OS X Lion!?!

You probably just need to get a new enclosure, being unable to prove for sure what the source of the problem is: bug in Mac OS X's driver, or bug/spec deviation in the enclosure chipset.

eSATA and SATA connectors are not the same, so you'd need to first see if there even is eSATA in the mini. If not, easier/safer to just get a new enclosure. The alternative of making a SATA to eSATA cable yourself and powering it is risky if you don't know exactly what you're doing and test it (multimeter) before using it. You don't want to end up with a dead mini, in addition to an enclosure that you can't use.

It's the way hard drive space is addressed (in 512 Byte Logical Blocks), the computer is using a 48-bit address, the hard drive is using a 48-bit address, the USB controller (in the housing) is using a 32-bit address; a 32-bit address can only access 2.19TB, what you see is the lower 32-bits of the 48-bit address (800 Gig); accessing the drive with eSATA is bypassing the USB controller so you get 48-bit to 48-bit.

It's because manufacturers never thought anyone would make a hard drive bigger than 2TB...

That does not explain why he sees 3TB when the exact same hardware and physical setup is booted into Windows.

Hi,

Just to let you know: I have the same problem. 😟

I'm on a 10.6.8 iMac with a new 3To Seagate placed in a LaCie d2 Quadra out of warranty and I can only access 800Go of the hard drive...

So, not a question of Lion here, and I tried on a PC, it works just fine.

I guess that I will have to change the LaCie after all...

While the disk is attached, could you go to terminal and type the following command:

diskutil list

Find the disk in that listing, it will probably be something like /dev/disk1 or /dev/disk2, and then type the following command and post the results:

diskutil info /dev/disk2 [making sure you use the number for this Seagate/LaCie drive]

Note that I want the info for the drive, not the slice/volume which has a designation like disk1s2.

OK so in fact Mac OS is only seeing ~800GB of physical sectors on the disk, which we know isn't true because it's a 3TB disk. So it's definitley some incompatiability between the enclosure and Mac OS. I'm just not sure why Windows doesn't have this problem but Mac OS does.

So Windows sees this as a 3TB disk? Or does it see it as something in between 800GB and 3TB?

Well, Windows sees it just a little bit under the 3TB obviously but everything is there. I event tried to put a big file in it and it worked fine...

Thanks for your help! 🙂

I had the same problem after installing a 3TB WD Green into my 2008 LaCie d2 Quadra (which origanlly had 500GB) and only seeing 800GB. I installed the firmware update from LaCie , and after ejecting and remounting the drive got the full 3TB capacity.

Thanks to X423424X and The hatter for the suggestion.

Hi All, I have just had the same issue and fixed it in about 5 minutes incase anyone is looking for a real answer for this issue.

I have 2 Lacie D2 Quadra (usb 2, FW800, 2009) enclosure with a 1tb drive in each, I have just changed out both drives for a 3TB Seagate drive in each.

Initially the new Seagate drive was showing up as only a 800MB drive.

The problem with the Lacie enclosure is the version of firmware it is running. You can download the firware update tool for any enclosure from the lacie website at http://www.lacie.com/au/support/index.htm?rid=10033

If anyone needs any help just reply.

Cheers! 🙂

Hi dada6 and nbidgood... When you updated your d2 enclosures did you use FireWire or USB? In the firmware update window, the drive does not appear when conencted via USB, it does over FireWire 800 but then throws up an error message. I am connecting to FW800 via a FW to Thunderbolt adapter on my Retina mbp so that might be the issue.

I used a FW 800 cable directly to a FW 800 port, the adapter might be causing the error you are getting.

If you have accesss to another Mac with a FW800 port, I would try that to see if that help.

Cheers!

That has done it dada6, going to a friends iMac with built-in FW800 and boom! Firmware upgraded. Thanks for your suggestion. I can now confirm that that this firmware update applied over FW800 allowed my Quadra purchased 2009 to run 3TB Seagate drive. Much more cost effective than buying a new enclosure.

Glad i could help, hope everything is working well now, is the drive working with the lightning adapter now??