I have a 1 TB LaCie D2 Quadra Hard Drive and its power supply ** is not working right now (blinking blue light) – just when I need it. So I may be looking for a replacement. I could of-course send for another power supply – but somehow I lost trust in this product so I am looking alternate external hard drives.
I just called LaCie and their customer service was superb! and they have agreed to send a new power supply to test out. I like good customer service!
If I do get a replacement – the Seagate’s FreeAgent looks promising and reasonably priced – looks like ‘Go’ and ‘Desk’ are both varieties that work with Macs Time Machine. I am leaning towards the Desk model as it is a bit larger at 1 TB and 1.5 TB.
Update – I decided to cancel my SeaGate order after I learned that new technology (coating and electronics) enabling managing a large disks have a few problems (discovered in the Barracuda drives – but FreeAgent, I believe are made up of Barracuda drives. One problem is a firmware problem and SeaGate has come out with a fix, others are not convinced the fix is not enough because in addition to the firmware they think the new coating on the platters causes problems. One is that the coating flakes from the coating and obstructs the read/write heads – that in turn can ruin sectors that in turn aggravates the problem.
Interestingly, LaCie also includes Barracudas and that is the drive that failed for me in the first place. I will hold off a few days before deciding which disks to get – who knows I may return to SeaGate if the Firmware solution is working.
3 Responses
June 21st, 2009 at 11:49 am
I’d be curious to know what you ended up doing. I also have a Lacie, though the 500GB safe drive, also with a failed power supply. I called Lacie, now almost two weeks ago and they said it sounded like a failed power supply and that they would send a new one right out. I offered to pay extra for shipping as I desperately needed to access some of my files on the hard drive, and the agony of not knowing if it was in fact a power supply problem, or drive issue was just makin me crazy. They said they could not take payment to upgrade shipping but could expedite it for me. As I mentioned that was TWO weeks ago. I spoke to them on a Monday, three days after reporting the problem, to see if they could email me tracking info so that I could make certain to have my dogs restrained the day of the delivery. I was told that the power supply had not yet shipped, as they were BUILDING IT!!!!
What?!?!?! Building it?!?!?! The CS person told me that once it was built, he would email the tracking info. Still have not heard a peep. I managed to find an acquaintance with a spare power supply that he was not using, and was able toplug mine in, and that did solve the problem. Now I am just waiting to see how long it takes LaCie to resolve this issue………building the power supply…hmmmm aren’t they a worldwide company?!
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Hi Kristi, thanks for the comment on my neglected blog. I need to get back to it soon.
I am sorry you too are having problems with the LaCie – but at the same time glad that you have narrowed down your problem.
The power supply seems to be an on-going issue of LaCie drives (not sure about the updated versions). For me, it was not the power supply, the disk is completely dead – even with the spanking new power supply they sent me (it took 2-3 weeks to receive it). They may be right that they are sending them as they are done at the factory as mine looked very new and it smelled rubbery, brand new rubbery smell. I just sent the disk in to be repaired (or replaced) last week so I guess I will have to wait and see (hopefully not for too long).
But still I agree that it is peculiar that it takes so long…
My external disk setup is now with OWC (the Elite Al Pro) and WDs My book studio. I have had slight problems with the WDs (not mounting quickly, but they seem OK now) and no problems with the OWC drives. I am not holding my breath for the LaCie, but I will use it whenever it arrives.
Let me know how long it takes –
My thought right now is that large disks 500G and more are really not that reliable – the technology for capacity is ahead of reliability. So if I use large disks I will use at least a couple as backup that I rotate.
Thanks again for commenting (:
Maria
July 4th, 2009 at 7:21 am
I got my refurbish disk and so far it works perfectly -it is quit and solid – I will need to wait for a few more months to see how it holds up. Great customer service from LaCie – and with this size disk there will be some with problems regardless of manufacturer.
Leave a Comment