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Lacie External Hard Drive disappeared!

Updated my G5 and iBook last night to 10.4.9. This morning noticed my Lacie HD, connected via firewire to my G5, wasn't showing on the desktop. At first I thought it might be connected to the update, so I plugged it into my old G3, running 10.4.8, but there was no sign of it there either. I have searched for it using Disk Utility, System Profiler and Tech Tool Deluxe, to no avail. The HD itself looks and sounds as though its working normally, light on, sound of spinning etc. I unplugged everything on the G5, ran repair permissions, restarted, turned off and left for 20 min, restarted and plugged the Lacie back in. Nothing. I swapped cables, no cigar, and then tested my Firewire scanner on the same ports, it showed up immediately. Lastly I plugged the Lacie into a friend's G4, who also uses Lacie HD's, again, it failed to show.
Does this mean it's definitely the Lacie that's the problem, or is there anything else I need to tinker with on the computer?
Thanks very much!

iMac G5 iSight 2.1GHz, iBook G4 1.42GHz, iMac G3 Snow 700MHz, 2x iSight Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Mar 14, 2007 4:26 PM

Reply
80 replies

Mar 14, 2007 5:19 PM in response to Hooligran

Hey Hooligran,

Firstlly, good on you for trying all those things to try and figure out the problem. From reading it I reckon it is a Lacie problem,

Two suggestions: Try a usb cable if it has the usb port and/or try gettin a new driver for it at Lacie's Website.

Also: with my Lacie HD it spins up when it's connected to a computer, so power it on, but don't let it spin up (press the blue button on it, if it does). Plug it in and see if it spins up it self, if it does than it is talking to the comp

When did you buy the drive?

Mar 14, 2007 5:43 PM in response to Christopher Klein1

Andrew: thanks for the reply. Just two firewire ports on the rear of the Lacie, so can't try usb. Tried Lacie update, but, like the other applications I mentioned, it can't see the HD, so it says there is nothing to update.

Unplugged Lacie from computer, turned power on, spinning up starts. Pressed blue button to stop it, then reconnected firewire cable to computer, spinning up then starts again. Does this mean that, to some extent at least, the computer knows it's there? HD bought approx 2003 btw.

When I updated to 10.4.9 I repaired permissions before and after, and subsequently, but Lacie still invisible..

Christopher K: Yes it was attached, and on... oops! Don't understand why mine wont work on a pre-update computer though?

iMac G5 iSight 2.1GHz, iBook G4 1.42GHz, iMac G3 Snow 700MHz, 2x iSight Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Mar 14, 2007 5:56 PM in response to Christopher Klein1

Chris: Hope that it turns out ok, Would be a bummer to loose all that stuff...If it doesn't work get in touch with Lacie, if they cna't help then there are some companies that might be able to to recover the data you had on the drive,

Hooligran: If you still don't have any luck try uninstalling the 10.4.9 update, you never know,

All the best to you both

Mar 16, 2007 3:45 AM in response to Justin William Smith

I have the same problem with my Intel iMac. applied the 10.4.9 update and now my Lacie USB2 drive just contantly searches as it does when you first boot up and it connects to the mac. Problem is it just keeps thrashing the drive, blue light flashing on the front.

However, if I launch Windows XP which I have on another partition through Boot Camp, XP finds the drive no problem with all files intact.

This is definitely an OSX problem.

Anyone else?

Mar 16, 2007 4:52 AM in response to Bobberuk

"Anyone else?"

Yup, add me to the list.
My Firewire/USB enclosure with old laptop drive did show up fine in 10.4.8, but after the Intel 10.4.9 upgrade it disappeared, even in DiskUtility, apart from two times where it showed as unformatted.
Tried a different firewire cable and a USB cable to no avail.
It still shows up fine on an iBook G4 with 10.4.8 (I won't upgrade that one until this is resolved 😉. Also it was disconnected at the time. Strangely another FireWire drive (LaCie) still shows up as usual.
I tried both, first the combo update (repairing permissions before and after), which made the drive disappear and the normal upgrade, which didn't bring it back either though.

Mar 16, 2007 9:12 AM in response to Bobberuk

I am having the same problem. I just purchased a LACie 1TB USB external drive 2 weeks ago and all was working fine until I upgraded to 10.4.9. Since then neither my mac mini or macbook can see the Disk.

I thought it was a faulty disk and was going to send it in for a replacement until I attached the disk to my airport extreme base station and can now see the disk.

Definitely a bug with USB on 10.4.9.

Lacie External Hard Drive disappeared!

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