Failed Lacie d2 Ethernet Big Disk (RAID)

[hybris2k]

Hi guys!

I was just wondering if someone knows the default stripe size of a 1TB Lacie d2 Ethernet Big Disk. I know that the file system is of the SGI XFS type and that it is some kind of raid.
The unit is built wiith two 500 GB SATA drives. I have cloned the drives and they work perfectly. It is not a spanned volume and when I connect the first clone via USB I see a number of Linux partitions and I can browse the files with UFS Explorer. Well, the file system is a bit broken so some directories are inaccessible. I don't know how to continue without knowing the raid parameters so I can build the raid to one single 1TB drive and do a full scan for lost files etc.

Any suggestions? I'd be very grateful!

[CK]

The last one I had was 256 sectors.

[hybris2k]

Thanks a million! I will try that.

Damn, I hate Lacie

[ocbeta]

I have a lacie ethernet big disk as well. I belive the controller card has died. I was curious what you did to resolve your issue. I was thinking I might be able to plug the drives into my raid array (Nvidia 680i)

[jackanova]

I managed to gain access to ALL data (files, music, movies, etc.) from a completely dead lacie bigdisk 500 gb case, with 2 Raid 0 250 gb disks inside.

It works ! I just finished copying 240 Gb from the "unmountable" lacie bigdisk 500 to a newly bought 500 gb usb drive.

It will work IF both hard drives are physically ok. If one of them is physically dead, sorry, you have lost your data.

Here is how I did it :

• 1. open the case [it void the warranty]
• 2. remove the 2 disks
• 3. connect them both in a PC (desktop with 2 free 3.5 IDE connectors), on IDE cable (with jumpers properly configured)
• 4. boot the pc [IF windows asks to initialise newly connected disks DO NOT D O IT]
• 5. find the following 2 softwares : http://www.runtime.org/raid.htm AND http://www.runtime.org/captain-nemo.htm
• 6. watch this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWNq5rAhZ9Y (or search for "raid reconstructor tutorial" on youtube. This video explained me exactly how to get it back to life, as the soft is not completely trivial.
• 7. open raid reconstructor
• 8. select both hard drives
• 9. "open disks"
• 10. analyse
• 11. put 5000000 in sector to analyse (instead of 100000 wich is not enough)
• 12. if there is a clear suggestion, select proper settings
• 13. back to main screen
• 14. create a VIM virtual image, and save it somewhere on your PC (ex : in my documents)
• 15. open "captain nemo"
• 16. click on "image", sleect the .vim file just created before
• 17. Voilà ! you have access to your data !

Good Luck if you are trying to get back part of your electronic life...

One important reminder : Do NEVER use Raid 0 hard drives to store/backup any data. It is ONLY useful for performance. Not for safety. Raid 1, n is of course ok.

Jack

[toeknee182]

I know this is an old thread, but I did find it useful as it helped me get down to the crux of the problem and eventually fix it. My friend's LaCie 1TB (RAID 0 2x500GB drives) drive would power down intermittently which prevented the Mac from recognizing the drive. I worked on this for 2 days and thought it was the drives' fault. Thanks to this thread I knew that it might be the power source going to the drives that is causing the inconsistency of operation. I had the idea of hooking up the drives only (they were intact) to the power supply of my PC but left the IDE connection in the LaCie case and connected the drive via USB thus leaving the RAID controller of LaCie functional. The drive was recognized by the TransMac utility and I managed to recover all of the 650GB data to an external drive on the PC and then back to another MAC compatible external drive that my friend bought to replace LaCie. The solution worked like a charm.

Just food for thought if you do not want to deal with LaCie support and apre parts.

Toe-Knee