Anyone has a problème with LaCie hard drive?

[Activert]

I think using the LaCie formatted with HFP and a Silicon Mac could be the issue. Before you give up on LaCie I would find a way to get your files - even see if a Windows computer recognizes it since its exFat and then as @Ralph said reformat them for your MPB. This could be your issue. Why: From BH Photo


This file system is only used on old Apple computers now. I believe with High Sierra and later you can use the APFS.

Also the LaCie may have some firmware that needs updating.

FYI the Synology suggestion is not a similar set up. It's a Networked Attached Storage.
Look at some of the basic videos on SpaceRex.com re Synology.
I am using one now but if you want it for editing video might have to go with a model that uses 10gb ethernet.


Here is another point if all else fails.
The LaCie drives:



These drives are high quality and could be removed and put in another device that could be read directly or into a NAS. You still need to try to get the images off them first before reformatting, although if put into a Drive Dock. You may not get the speeds LaCie would deliver so I recommend first the reformat.

So don't give up.

You have options still

Thanks Michael! Wow! Providing me with all the infos. I really appreciate It.
i want a simple solution, workspace and Backup. I don’t know why I feel the NAS is difficult to deal with. I will try to reformat the drive again. But also I need to get something else that I can back up everything in it in case this drive fail again. I don’t know why I don’t trust anymore LaCie, maybe because of their bad service and not take responsibility for a drive that I bought it few months ago and suppose to have a warranty of 5 years.
Big Thanks again!
Lina

 

[Patrick M]

Thanks Patrick. To install the Synology is it easy? Can anyone install with no anterior knowledge with it? I tried to watch some Youtube Videos about it and it looked to me kind of complicated. Am I wrong about that?
Lina

Yes it’s very simple. It the unit, but the dives. Then basiyits plug it in . You probably already have a router. There’s an Ethernet cable from the disc station to your network switch/router and another cable from the router to your computer. Instructions are really easy. Nothing complex.

Check out Hudson Henry’s YouTube videos and also Synology has some too.

 

[BarkingBeans Coffee]

Thanks Michael! Wow! Providing me with all the infos. I really appreciate It.
i want a simple solution, workspace and Backup. I don’t know why I feel the NAS is difficult to deal with. I will try to reformat the drive again. But also I need to get something else that I can back up everything in it in case this drive fail again. I don’t know why I don’t trust anymore LaCie, maybe because of their bad service and not take responsibility for a drive that I bought it few months ago and suppose to have a warranty of 5 years.
Big Thanks again!
Lina

Lina,
I hear you on LaCie. I had a terrible service experience with OWC with my Thunderbolt Pro Dock. I won't buy them again even though many here love them. They are also high priced.

Seagate sells many expansion drives. I highly recommend Carbon Copy Cloner to make copies of your main drive to a back up. CCC is a fantastic Mac software for backups and folder synchronization.

If you reformat and don't have issues then you can just get maybe an expansion drive, or if you really want to be safe get a Drive Dock with separate drives like what is in your LaCie. You keep one off site and rotate them if you aren't going to use the cloud.

Hope that helps.

 

[Ralph]

Thanks Ralph. I thought the technology is better than before to have less issues,. It seems the more we advance, the more problem we get. I remember, with my other drive, when they were connected for the first time, I get a message to how I want to formatted and was easy and simple. Now it comes formatted out of the box with their problem.
i think my solution is get an OWC, transfer everything to it and formatted this drive. The only thing that makes me mad, is how the service is bad at this company and the dealer from whom I bought the drive.
Thanks again Ralph.
Lina

i would just reformat the LaCie drive and see if that corrects the problem. you have nothing to lose unless you just want to return it.

 

[Activert]

Yes it’s very simple. It the unit, but the dives. Then basiyits plug it in . You probably already have a router. There’s an Ethernet cable from the disc station to your network switch/router and another cable from the router to your computer. Instructions are really easy. Nothing complex.

Check out Hudson Henry’s YouTube videos and also Synology has some too.

Thanks Patrick. I will check Hudson Henry!

 

[Activert]

Lina,
I hear you on LaCie. I had a terrible service experience with OWC with my Thunderbolt Pro Dock. I won't buy them again even though many here love them. They are also high priced.

Seagate sells many expansion drives. I highly recommend Carbon Copy Cloner to make copies of your main drive to a back up. CCC is a fantastic Mac software for backups and folder synchronization.

If you reformat and don't have issues then you can just get maybe an expansion drive, or if you really want to be safe get a Drive Dock with separate drives like what is in your LaCie. You keep one off site and rotate them if you aren't going to use the cloud.

Hope that helps.

Oh yeah Michael, you helped a lot. Thank you. I did not about the Seagate expansion drive, they are really at affordable price. I checked the link and it seems good way to use them as back up storage. I believe Lacie is part of Seagate compagny , is it?
I am glad to hear your opinion about OWC, I was considering them

 

[Activert]

i would just reformat the LaCie drive and see if that corrects the problem. you have nothing to lose unless you just want to return it.

Thanks Ralph, I am going to try that!

 

[Whiskeyman]

Thanks Ralph, I am going to try that!

But don't reformat the LaCie drives until you get all of your photos off of them!!!!!


Is there anyone that lives near you that might be able to help you with your issues? Years ago, you might call a local college or secondary school IT department to see if any students might know how to work with your system and also be interested in helping you out. I wouldn't give up on those LaCie drives yet!

 

[Whiskeyman]

Lina,
I hear you on LaCie. I had a terrible service experience with OWC with my Thunderbolt Pro Dock. I won't buy them again even though many here love them. They are also high priced.

Seagate sells many expansion drives. I highly recommend Carbon Copy Cloner to make copies of your main drive to a back up. CCC is a fantastic Mac software for backups and folder synchronization.

If you reformat and don't have issues then you can just get maybe an expansion drive, or if you really want to be safe get a Drive Dock with separate drives like what is in your LaCie. You keep one off site and rotate them if you aren't going to use the cloud.

Hope that helps.

BBC, What specific issues did you have with the TB dock? I've considered getting one, and would like to know what your experience was.

 

[BarkingBeans Coffee]

BBC, What specific issues did you have with the TB dock? I've considered getting one, and would like to know what your experience was.

Wayne this is the reason I started this thread as I was waiting for someone else to come out with similar. OWC Thunderbolt Pro Dock ran hot, and their driver software to eject all drives at once interfered with other programs (as confirmed by other program support reading log files). Using the CFE reader would sometimes cause the ethernet to disconnect. I sent it in under an RMA and they said nothing is wrong, but it still does that and it runs fairly hot still. They also didn't meet their timing commitment on the RMA for returning it. As I recall it was over a week late. Also it's not really pro if it only has two Thunderbolt ports. I needed 3. My bad as I assumed the one to the Mac didn't count. Other than the Thunderbolt port, the rest are slow - 10mbs.

The Hyper one takes care of many of the concerns I have and would be a no brainer with a 10gbs Ethernet port, as that is what I am using with my NAS.

So right now I am using it with one TB drive (an NVME in their enclosure which does about 1300 read/write, my BenQ with Display Port, one Samsung T7 and an Expansion backup drive. I have it lifted up and sitting on a small rock for cooling. It's working ok, but I would not buy it again and I don't consider it Pro.

I haven't tested the CFe speed. It's not blazing fast but not slow. I should compare it to my Angelbird reader plugged directly into the MBP.

Also when I got my Hyper NVMe enclosure which does about 2800 read/write, it ran much slower when plugged into the Dock soI have that plugged into my MBP on the other side of where the dock is plugged in.

So OK dock, not Pro, and not a great service experience.

 

[Activert]

But don't reformat the LaCie drives until you get all of your photos off of them!!!!!


Is there anyone that lives near you that might be able to help you with your issues? Years ago, you might call a local college or secondary school IT department to see if any students might know how to work with your system and also be interested in helping you out. I wouldn't give up on those LaCie drives yet!

Thanks Wayne!
I am now in the process of checking if all the file on the LaCie, are backed up more than one time, to make sure I don’t loose any data before I formatted. I will try that, before I give up.
Unfortunatly none of my friend photographers or people I know use LaCie or big storage. All of them use small drive of 4 Tb and less. they are mostly not wildlife photographer.
Wayne, you really helped me a lot and appreciate that a lot. And thanks for everything

 

[Ralph]

Thanks Wayne!
I am now in the process of checking if all the file on the LaCie, are backed up more than one time, to make sure I don’t loose any data before I formatted. I will try that, before I give up.
Unfortunatly none of my friend photographers or people I know use LaCie or big storage. All of them use small drive of 4 Tb and less. they are mostly not wildlife photographer.
Wayne, you really helped me a lot and appreciate that a lot. And thanks for everything

I use two 12 tb toshiba drives . No issues. Once your sure you have your files off it’s a very simple process to reformat. You can use the information I supplied you with or you can use the info in this link. https://www.lacie.com/support/kb/how-to-format-your-drive-apfs-on-macos-big-sur-and-later/

 

[Activert]

I use two 12 tb toshiba drives . No issues. Once your sure you have your files off it’s a very simple process to reformat. You can use the information I supplied you with or you can use the info in this link. https://www.lacie.com/support/kb/how-to-format-your-drive-apfs-on-macos-big-sur-and-later/

Thank you Ralph! This link will help! I am going to follow what you suggest in all your replies. I do really appreciate your help. I ve never used Toshiba. Maybe I should try
Lina

 

[Whiskeyman]

Wayne this is the reason I started this thread as I was waiting for someone else to come out with similar. OWC Thunderbolt Pro Dock ran hot, and their driver software to eject all drives at once interfered with other programs (as confirmed by other program support reading log files). Using the CFE reader would sometimes cause the ethernet to disconnect. I sent it in under an RMA and they said nothing is wrong, but it still does that and it runs fairly hot still. They also didn't meet their timing commitment on the RMA for returning it. As I recall it was over a week late. Also it's not really pro if it only has two Thunderbolt ports. I needed 3. My bad as I assumed the one to the Mac didn't count. Other than the Thunderbolt port, the rest are slow - 10mbs.

The Hyper one takes care of many of the concerns I have and would be a no brainer with a 10gbs Ethernet port, as that is what I am using with my NAS.

So right now I am using it with one TB drive (an NVME in their enclosure which does about 1300 read/write, my BenQ with Display Port, one Samsung T7 and an Expansion backup drive. I have it lifted up and sitting on a small rock for cooling. It's working ok, but I would not buy it again and I don't consider it Pro.

I haven't tested the CFe speed. It's not blazing fast but not slow. I should compare it to my Angelbird reader plugged directly into the MBP.

Also when I got my Hyper NVMe enclosure which does about 2800 read/write, it ran much slower when plugged into the Dock soI have that plugged into my MBP on the other side of where the dock is plugged in.

So OK dock, not Pro, and not a great service experience.

Thanks, BBC! That is a great amplification of your earlier statement, and just what I was looking for. Some of the issues you speak of aren't really surprising, but would have been ones that I didn't think of when considering purchasing this dock. I would have definitely been less than impressed when I discovered them, as you are.

Thank you again for your great explination!

 

[Patrick M]

Here's one of Hudson's videos

 

[Activert]

Here's one of Hudson's videos

Thanks Patrick. I will watch it. Seems a very good option to keep everything in order And have a lot of space for future back up. Our workflow is increasing too quick and a lot.

 

[SMB]

I would second the Synology NAS recommendation. Look up the YouTube videos by SpaceRex (Will Yarborough) . He has multiple sessions on set up etc. Also you can directly (for a cost !) consult him if you get stuck on the set up.
The beauty of any array like Synology is that they can be expanded with larger drives as you run out of space. Also can be set up so that if any one (or two) drives fail you wont loose data and can replace the bad drive without down time.
If you have good WiFi in your home, the NAS can be set up in your computer area but you can be anywhere in the house with your lap top and have access to your files. Theoretically you can be anywhere with internet and access your files at home. This works for smaller files but when I travel I have tried downloading images to my NAS at home and while it works it is so painfully slow that it is not practical. The lack of speed is usually do to the hotel internet.
I am not a tech person but set up a Synology 1821+ NAS (there are other companies, QNAP, TeraMaster) a year ago with Wills help. Synology offers a number of products, 2,4,6,8 bay arrays and their site will help you calculate your storage needs: https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/RAID_calculator
For what its worth all my drives are formatted with ExFAT on an Apple M1 Studio, Sonoma, without any issues.

 

[alecdann]

I have been using LaCie external drives since 15 years ago. I own around 15 hard drives from the old version to the new one, from 2Tb to 16 TB. Some of them connected correctly to my Mac Pro and works well and sometimes they disconnected with no reason. But it was ok for me and all what I cared about was to have safe copies of my photos until…last Summer. I have actually more than 700 000 photos ( I am keeper and I don’t like to delete any photos except when they are really bad ) plus videos which occupy around 45 TB. I wanted to keep everything on the same drive for easy and quick access.

Last august I bought a LaCie 40 TB 2Big Doc, Thunderbolt 3, which according to the retailer, it works with my old desktop Mac Pro and my new MacBook Pro M2. I tried to transfer all my Lightroom catalogue to it and put most of my important photos files in it. It worked ok with my desktop Mac Pro.

I wanted this hard drive to become the main drive for my Lightroom catalogue that I can use it mainly with my laptop and I can work with it in any place in my home or in the garden. In the beginning it worked ok with my laptop. And suddenly it stopped working completely. When I connect it to the laptop, most of the time I don’t see it neither in the finder nor on the screen. If it is not connected. And if it appears on my screen, I can open it and see all my files in it, but I can’t open any one of them and I can’t transfer anything from or to it. I always get the same message erreur 50.
i contacted the shop from where I bought it, I told them about the problème. They said they can’t help and I have to contact LaCie. I contacted LaCie. The agent, after sharing my screen, and even without being able to make this piece of S…..t working, he said there is no problem with the drive at all. All what he coule do is for me to send the disk to compagny where they will check it, but I will loose all my data and if they don’t find any problem with the drive, I will be charge for the work.
Here I am with a horrible service, a drive that cost me 2700.00 Canadian dollars and it is still on the guarantee and I can’t access my documents, I can’t make it work with my computer and the compagny does not care.
So I need and appreciate all your help and advice that you can give me:
What is the best and safe way to have everything on one external drive to access all the files and Lightroom catalogue ( needed at least 40tb, more will be better). I don’t like to use the cloud, I found it complicated and long to copie 40 tb to the cloud. Do you have a good and reliable compagny that make good quality external hard drive? ( Not LaCie please)
Thank you for your help

LaCie was a good company until they got bought by Western Digital. Since then, their Support service has gone to hell. See below from my experience on that.

If you can see the drive and the files on it in Finder, you may be in luck. The first thing you should do is open Disc Utility (in Applications/Utilities) and try to run Repair on the disk. If disc utility will not solve the problem, consider purchasing a license to Data Rescue. That's an excellent data recovery program. If the disk is completely dead, you can send it to Data Rescue and there's a good chance they can recover a significant portion of your data. When all that is done, send the disk back to LaCie and see if you can get a refund.

If you don't have a backup process, currently running, you should get that going as soon as possible. You want a local backup and a remote backup. For local backup, do you want more than one disc because all disks fail within 3 to 5 years. Since you were running on a Mac, you can use Time Machine and that can be spread across multiple drives. The idea here is that if one drive fails, you still have a backup, and you can replace the fail drive and keep going. For remote backup I highly recommend Back Blaze. When my raid failed, I was able to restore all my files to a new hard drive from back place. Took me two or three days, but considering that Backblaze is only USD $99/yr, it was worth every penny.

My LaCie story is that I had a LaCie 2Bbig ray drive that worked fine for a number of years and when one of the drives failed I was able to hot-swap a new one in and the drive recovered fully. Then one day the drive stopped working entirely, and after a couple of hours spent with tech-support at La, the Support technician said I think your RAID enclosure is dead. I asked "what can I do". He said replace it. When I asked what I could do to recover my data, he said "nothing" I bought a new back up drive and got my backups going again, but I wouldn't buy another enclosure from LaCie.

I like the LaCie rugged drives, and I use one for my older files, but that one just died completely after three or four years. Not inspiring.

 

[1element]

I agree with the NAS comments. Great info in the Synology NAS units. I love mine! The drive fault tolerance will give you some peace of mind but you really need a backup system for the NAS. If you keep a lot of photos and videos I would suggest a NAS that can be expanded. I have a 6 drive (6X10TB) main unit and a 5 drive (5X16TB) expansion bay. Connection is through 10Gb ethernet port and with the raid and network hardwire, it is fast. Added plus: I run Plex on it for ripped movies and home movies. And I put all my personal files on it. Can be setup to be accessed anywhere but with caution.

 

[CJC2]

I also own a LaCie 2 Big system, which contains either Segate or WD drives. I have used this device on an iMac, iMac Pro and now it's on a Mac Studiio. No issues whatsoever. I BELIEVE it's formated in the newer mc format. I use this drive as attached storage for my current images, which will not fit on an OWC SSD system. I store ALL my backup copies on one of three Synology servers and have nore images than you. A few suggestions. I would NOT store all my files on one drive/system due to possible failure. I would also suggest storing, current working copies of any images on an SSD system directly attached (TB3 or TB4) to your computer. Additionally, I store my Lightroom catalogue on an OWC Envoy Pro SX, directly attached via TB 3, for maximum speed and flexibility. Best of luck

 

[Calson]

Synology and QNAP NAS have the best customer support, including ongoing firmware updates and patches, and I would not buy from anyone else. A SSD 2.5" drive is the most reliable overall but they can wear out faster than a hard drive. Power surges can damage the electronics on a hard drive and cause problems. A good NAS enclosure also provides air cooling and the drives operate at lower temperatures which prolongs their life.

Safest to have a multiple drive NAS with a level of RAID1, RAID5 or RAID6 implemented. Drives are cheap and the more drives in a NAS the lower the percentage of data required for the RAID function. With 2 drives it is 50% and with 4 drives it is 25%.

For working files I use a two-drive RAID1 setup inside the workstation. Fastest I/O with this approach and when one of the drives fail all my working files are safe on the other drive. Not perfect as with this approach when a drive fails I cannot access the data on the second mirrored drive until the bad drive has been replaced. An external NAS with a RAID 5 array avoids this problem but the data I/O is limited by the port speeds and port overhead to create and unbundle the data packets for whatever protocol is used. My primary QNAP has a 10GB port and I added a 10GB Ethernet PCIe card to my tower for maximum performance and bypassed my 1GB switch.

With the plummeting cost of data storage new options arise continually. My first hard drive was a 5MB one that cost $5,000 and a few years later I could buy a 200MB drive for $1800. Now a 5TB drive sells for as little as $60. With a NAS the CPU is often the bottleneck and ones providing the best performance have higher performance CPUs and have RIAD implemented in hardware instead of with a Linux based operating system. Individual drive performance is not the limitation in a NAS array and the slower hard drives run a lot cooler.

 

[Activert]

I agree with the NAS comments. Great info in the Synology NAS units. I love mine! The drive fault tolerance will give you some peace of mind but you really need a backup system for the NAS. If you keep a lot of photos and videos I would suggest a NAS that can be expanded. I have a 6 drive (6X10TB) main unit and a 5 drive (5X16TB) expansion bay. Connection is through 10Gb ethernet port and with the raid and network hardwire, it is fast. Added plus: I run Plex on it for ripped movies and home movies. And I put all my personal files on it. Can be setup to be accessed anywhere but with caution.

Thanks. I am looking at some models. Which one do you have? It is good to get one that can be expanded with our files getting larger

 

[Activert]

LaCie was a good company until they got bought by Western Digital. Since then, their Support service has gone to hell. See below from my experience on that.

If you can see the drive and the files on it in Finder, you may be in luck. The first thing you should do is open Disc Utility (in Applications/Utilities) and try to run Repair on the disk. If disc utility will not solve the problem, consider purchasing a license to Data Rescue. That's an excellent data recovery program. If the disk is completely dead, you can send it to Data Rescue and there's a good chance they can recover a significant portion of your data. When all that is done, send the disk back to LaCie and see if you can get a refund.

If you don't have a backup process, currently running, you should get that going as soon as possible. You want a local backup and a remote backup. For local backup, do you want more than one disc because all disks fail within 3 to 5 years. Since you were running on a Mac, you can use Time Machine and that can be spread across multiple drives. The idea here is that if one drive fails, you still have a backup, and you can replace the fail drive and keep going. For remote backup I highly recommend Back Blaze. When my raid failed, I was able to restore all my files to a new hard drive from back place. Took me two or three days, but considering that Backblaze is only USD $99/yr, it was worth every penny.

My LaCie story is that I had a LaCie 2Bbig ray drive that worked fine for a number of years and when one of the drives failed I was able to hot-swap a new one in and the drive recovered fully. Then one day the drive stopped working entirely, and after a couple of hours spent with tech-support at La, the Support technician said I think your RAID enclosure is dead. I asked "what can I do". He said replace it. When I asked what I could do to recover my data, he said "nothing" I bought a new back up drive and got my backups going again, but I wouldn't buy another enclosure from LaCie.

I like the LaCie rugged drives, and I use one for my older files, but that one just died completely after three or four years. Not inspiring.

Thank you? I made a copie of everything that is on the drive. I will reformatted agsin and see if it works.

Thank you for your help and your comments. I appreciate that a lot
Lina

 

[Activert]

I also own a LaCie 2 Big system, which contains either Segate or WD drives. I have used this device on an iMac, iMac Pro and now it's on a Mac Studiio. No issues whatsoever. I BELIEVE it's formated in the newer mc format. I use this drive as attached storage for my current images, which will not fit on an OWC SSD system. I store ALL my backup copies on one of three Synology servers and have nore images than you. A few suggestions. I would NOT store all my files on one drive/system due to possible failure. I would also suggest storing, current working copies of any images on an SSD system directly attached (TB3 or TB4) to your computer. Additionally, I store my Lightroom catalogue on an OWC Envoy Pro SX, directly attached via TB 3, for maximum speed and flexibility. Best of luck

Thanks for sharing the way you backup and how do you work. Very help and excellent suggestions.
Lina

 

[Activert]

Synology and QNAP NAS have the best customer support, including ongoing firmware updates and patches, and I would not buy from anyone else. A SSD 2.5" drive is the most reliable overall but they can wear out faster than a hard drive. Power surges can damage the electronics on a hard drive and cause problems. A good NAS enclosure also provides air cooling and the drives operate at lower temperatures which prolongs their life.

Safest to have a multiple drive NAS with a level of RAID1, RAID5 or RAID6 implemented. Drives are cheap and the more drives in a NAS the lower the percentage of data required for the RAID function. With 2 drives it is 50% and with 4 drives it is 25%.

For working files I use a two-drive RAID1 setup inside the workstation. Fastest I/O with this approach and when one of the drives fail all my working files are safe on the other drive. Not perfect as with this approach when a drive fails I cannot access the data on the second mirrored drive until the bad drive has been replaced. An external NAS with a RAID 5 array avoids this problem but the data I/O is limited by the port speeds and port overhead to create and unbundle the data packets for whatever protocol is used. My primary QNAP has a 10GB port and I added a 10GB Ethernet PCIe card to my tower for maximum performance and bypassed my 1GB switch.

With the plummeting cost of data storage new options arise continually. My first hard drive was a 5MB one that cost $5,000 and a few years later I could buy a 200MB drive for $1800. Now a 5TB drive sells for as little as $60. With a NAS the CPU is often the bottleneck and ones providing the best performance have higher performance CPUs and have RIAD implemented in hardware instead of with a Linux based operating system. Individual drive performance is not the limitation in a NAS array and the slower hard drives run a lot cooler.

Thanks Carlson for your feedback. I am convinced that the best way to backup and store data is using NAS. I am j happy that they have good custom support, not like LaCie. I appreciate your reply.
Lina