missing LaCie icon

Question

Level 1

9 points

missing LaCie icon

I recently accidentally unplugged my La Cie 100 GB external hard drive without ejecting it properly and since then it seems to not be working. I have no icon. The drive shows up in grey in Disk Utilities but will not mount. I can also see it in system Profiler. I tried it on a friend´s computer and it didn´t show up there either. The green light is on and I can hear noises but no icon appears... 😟 Help please!

iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Jan 13, 2007 12:39 PM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 10

91,618 points

Jan 30, 2007 5:00 PM in response to Naomi Barron

Hello Naomi

Try this LaCie update!

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers/lacieupdatetool.html

It helped another person that seemed to have the same issue a few month ago.

Dennis

17" iMac Intel Core Duo 1.5GB Ram Mac OS X (10.4.8) Maxtor 300GB FireWire 2G Nano

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 10

91,618 points

Jan 31, 2007 5:32 PM in response to Naomi Barron

Naoni

The only other thing I can think of is to try another USB port!
If you are having issues with other USB devices see this article on USB devices

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58033

Your profile shows 10.3.9 to be sure go to: "Apple / About this Mac" If true you should update to "10.4.8

http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/

Sorry wasn't more help!
Dennis

17" iMac Intel Core Duo 1.5GB Ram Mac OS X (10.4.8) Maxtor 300GB FireWire 2G Nano

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Answer 3

Jan 21, 2007 7:23 PM in response to Naomi Barron

Is your external drive still not working?

I'd switch off the drive and unplug it.

Restart your Mac.

After your Mac is fully started, don't open any applications.

Plug in your hard drive, then switch it on.

If it doesn't mount in about five minutes (it may not mount as quickly since it was removed improperly), switch the drive off for 10 seconds after you hear the drive become quiet. (My Lacie's power/disk access light will stop blinking when it's safe to flip the power switch.) After 10 seconds switch it back on.

If it still hasn't mounted in five minutes, check to see if Disk Utility will mount it, if you haven't another drive utility on the drive.

If it still hasn't mounted try another restart of your Mac with the drive plugged in and powered on.

If it still won't mount, I'd suspect the drive was damaged. Do you see the disk activity light blink when you first start up the external hard drive?

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Answer 4

Naomi Barron Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 30, 2007 12:07 PM in response to cheshirekat

Hi and thank you for responding!
I actually followed your instructions (adapting them accordingly since my external drive does not have an on/off switch) and still nothing. As a last ditch effort I decided to take it to a local computer store and miracle of miracles, the drive works perfectly on there PC. A good sign no doubt. As I mentioned before, I tried it at a friend´s house on a Mac and nothing there as well. Now I am baffled. I came home and have now plugged it in again this time with the power USB as well (which in theory shouldn't be necessary, nor was it before). Still nothing. It still is showing up in disk utilities however in grey and will not mount. Any ideas? I now have renewed hope...

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Answer 5

Naomi Barron Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 31, 2007 7:37 AM in response to den.thed

Hi Dennis,

Thank you for your reponse.
I downloaded the update and tried to install it but a message came up stating that there are no updates required...and then my mouse froze.
I have the most basic LaCie model and it only connects by USB not firewire. I don´t know if that information helps at all but it seems that the update is intended for higher models which use firewire and have on/off switches.
Do you have any more ideas?
Thanks,
Naomi

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Answer 6

Naomi Barron Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 12, 2007 5:17 AM in response to den.thed

Hello and thank you for your help,

Unfortunately none of the suggestions led to successful resolution of the problem... However!!! Today I decided to take the hard drive back to a local computer store (only had PCs) and just as before, the hard drive worked perfectly on their computers. As I mentioned earlier, it ceased to work on any Mac. At the store they ran some kind of repair program on it, some errors were found and now I am up and running again on my Mac 🙂 Very happy.
Maybe that will be of help to someone in a similar predicament.

Now that I am up and running again, I have a question about partitioning. I actually never partitioned the drive and I am not exactly sure what that means and if it is really necessary. I already have data on there so I am also wondering if partitioning the drive now would erase that data. Sorry for my ignorance!

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Answer 7

den.thed

Level 10

91,618 points

Feb 12, 2007 11:21 PM in response to Naomi Barron

Naomi

Quote from Disk Utility Help:

You can use Disk Utility to divide a disk into sections, called "volumes." You can use volumes to store and organize your information for your convenience. Partitioning a disk erases all the information on the disk, so be sure to back up any important information before you partition the disk.

To learn more about using Disk Utility, open Disk Utility, in the Applications/Utilities folder, and choose Help > Disk Utility Help.

Dennis

17" iMac Intel Core Duo 1.5GB Ram Mac OS X (10.4.8) Maxtor 300GB FireWire 2G Nano

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