Lacie 2TB Big Disk Extreme Firewire 800 firewire 400 hi-speed usb2 7200 rpm sku 301201u knocked

The drive you provide the link to is not the exact same drive. I passed on an exact one for $185 and have seen 1/2 dozen sold on eBay having sold for as low as like $40. So I guess chances are I will see more of them again. . The question is not finding the drive but rather what you or anyone thinks about what I have set out to do and associated risks. 25 years of my life is on the drive and frankly if I had the money, I would send it in for recovery. But if I can get away with what I have set forth ( assuming drives are ok and circuit/power is the culprit )

Being :

If drives are not the culprit , I figure after a swap with a new enclosure and everything other than drives, the thing should not even be noticed and all should work as they did before the accident? If the drives are the cause , then the thing has been on 1/2 hour after the accident so the swap should not do any more damage or cause future recovery attempts any more issues than already might be there?

The Raid0 thing is also another end. I assume the drives are raided . Am I correct making that assumption ? I only have used FW400 connection for this drive and the manual / data sheet says that it uses Built in Raid0 on Firewire800 and nothing about FW400 connection. Does this specific drive raid the drives if one was connected by fw400 only? Does this specific drive raid the drives no matter what connection is used?

Also SKU 301201U is important as that would be the exact same drive but even then since I am illitrate in raiding , would there be different sets of this exact model that raid differently? I already have received an artile from a friend which basically provided someone's example of doing the same thing but on 500 Meg drive not 2tb , and the person that does it , runs software recovery programs on it. I am only focused on drive swap only , and weather assuming that drives are intact , weather I can accomplish bringing them back t o life with sswapping the drives in to a perfect housing , supply and board, and what can happen if scenario is different.

Ok, Great. I appreciate your time and notes. Its good to have someone else confirm what is on my mind as soud possibilities.

You know , on this exact drive ( SKU 301201U ) , I already know of a difference between models with same SKU , being that on some Cache Memory is 32 mb and on some 64 MB ( Box says 32mb and other literature says 64mb ) . I am not sure if even something like this or perhaps a small firmware change between two units assumed to be the same could cause this not to work.

I guess the bottom line is to get a drive that I can at best podssible rate as the same exact drive and then do the swap and see if I can get away with murder!( meaning really total success and minimum effort and cost ).

Another advise is that in order to accomplish this without adding to problems, is to not to attempt to repair the drives by software means if doing what is set forth does not solve the problem.

The one bad thing about the circuitry is that other than the smell mentioned , visually it does not look damaged with diode at power intercept still there and looking normal. Many people than mention burned circuitry, usually also point out physicall damage visible on diode , capacitors, or board. I though have not examined the back of the board. Perhaps its a good idea to take it out and examine the back. Another thing is that how they are connected, one must make sure that drives ( caklling them 0 and 1 ) are connected in the same exact manner ( i might have swapped them inadvertantly and I gues will somehow make sure that the correct drive is connected to the correct spot on the board.

I think reiterating the facts does help them get settled in the correct places in mind for when one actually attempts to do this.

So again, thank you very much.

Great , Thank you again for notes and link. I think I will first try to find an exact like new drive. That way I think is the easiest way out as everything will be like new and makes the swap so much more straight forward.I will post updates on what I will do on this link as I do them.

Thank you again.

So it took two weeks to try to locate another hopefully exact drive. I purchased a used lacie 301201u drive. The only verification test I did before swapping disks was to try to bring the same computer up with it connected to see what happens. On boot ,, it puts out a message that it sees the drive and its not of apple format or something like that and asks if it should be initialized , or ignored , or just cancel. So I Ignore. Then I try to run disk utility and it does show the drive as a LAcie 1.8 gig in the menu. So I guess the driver is ok and visible to the system.

Then , I open both drives and swap my two disks with the two disks in the newly purchased drive, keeping all order the same. Hook the drive up to the same computer and try to bring the computer up again . The drive does not show and when I run disk utility , again the drive does not show. So I guess so much for a fast and easy elimination of problem. Back to the drawing board. I guess I can take the madness one level up by considering swapping the circuit boards on actual disks? Or I guess just send them to lacie and hope that 1) they can recover data, 2) that it will cost more like their no clean room rate of $600 as oppose to clean room rate of $3000 and hope they actually can recover the data or 3) kick them see if they start working? or 4) just forget about the whole thing and bury the disks. Ideas?

The funny thing was that the purchased drive also had a loose screw inside! And then I found a second loose screw in the original drive when making the disk swap? ( I kind of used the first loose screw and screwed it in the one open spot on the circuit board.

I tried the two good disks in the main chasis with new cables and power supply , and I could not get them to come on or show.

I put the good disks back in the second chasis with new cable and power suppy and it again shows ( prompts telling you that it sees a readable MAc OS disk and asks if you want to Initialize it ).

I put the first set together again with new cable and power supply and the light does not come on anymore . being hearing impaired , i put my head on the drive and hear this clicking sound every one or two seconds. The fan operates . The drive does not show when rebooting and it does not show on the disk utility. The drive does not smoke but smell of burned mica ( circuitry ) is still in my throat after a couple of hours.

From what I have learned the possibility exists that each drive is calibrated and the calibration is added to the control board , So like chances are that even if the two original drives are good and connected properly and everything else is good, they might and probably just wont work with a control board of another even exact drive. There are three tables / charts marked on each drive and specific locations marked on each chart which differ between drives . These I think are from calibrating the drives.

So I guess its data recovery...

Lacie Data Recovery wants $600 ( $300 x 2 drives ) if they recover data without need for a clean room , $3000 ( $1500 x 2 drives ) if there is need for clean room. If they don't recover , you dont pay , if they recover and you do not want to pay, then they just send you the damaged disk ( or perhaps keep it , or smash it then return it to you) .

There are many other data recovery services so I guess a few days to sift through them but I guess the maker reference should be the best way ( I think its actually a sub-company that lacie forwards data recovery to.

Too many factors are involved. One that will such be a secure thing to do or 6 months later you find out that someone opened 10 accounts under your name , or emptied your bank account ( thats actually not a problem because there is almost never any money in my bank account) . So security is a concern. I have encountered individuals that make it their business stealing peoples stuff from their disks. Once I even had one Tech guy which was refered to solve a problem I had , copying disks contents right in front of me for absolutely no reason. So I ask him what are you doing, and he says , I am copying everything just to make sure they are safe ( : ) )

Then there is the dalai lama , everything happens for a reason scenario. In which case I guess I have to consider the whole thing as Good Omen. and just forget about it and go on with my life ( maybe I go work in Mc Donalds : ) )

The bottom line is I can't believe that I am such an idiot not to have a proper backup system in place .

Thank you for the links, I will check them out.