External HDD for my MAC packed up!

wibbly

wibbly

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I've been using a LaCie external HDD to back up my MacBook for a while now, without any drama, however this morning I've come to back it up and it's told me the back up cannot be completed and the disk cannot be read.

I've run the repair disk utility from my Mac but to no avail...

Any ideas on what else I can do?

Sods law, I emptied all of my photo's off my MacBook on Monday as I was running out of HD space on my MacBook and now this :shrug::bonk:
 
neil_g said:
open the lacie enclosure and take the disk out, purchase an icy box replacement enclosure.

lacie enclosures have a particularly poor lifespan in my experience.
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Thank you, for your help... are you thinking the HDD is still OK then? Daft question maybe, but when I ran the first aid utility on my Mac (I know you're not a fan ;)) it told me the HDD was not repairable. :eek:

Y15HAL said:
Don't tell me you lost all your pics then??? :eek:
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I really really really really really really hope not! :bang:
 
Y15HAL said:
Hope you get it sorted mate! :shake:

Probably too late to say, but its always worth having 2 external HDD's both mirrored, so if one goes.................
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Yeah, we won't be making that mistake again... mind you, hardly the point if I've lost most of it and all my back ups :'(
 
wibbly said:
Thank you, for your help... are you thinking the HDD is still OK then? Daft question maybe, but when I ran the first aid utility on my Mac (I know you're not a fan ;)) it told me the HDD was not repairable. :eek:
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usually its just the enclosure that has failed. if the mac cant see the hard drive because the interface in the enclosure has died then stands to reason.

the hard drive may be perfectly fine.
 
neil_g said:
usually its just the enclosure that has failed. if the mac cant see the hard drive because the interface in the enclosure has died then stands to reason.

the hard drive may be perfectly fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks once again, amazingly I've just managed to get into the HDD and back my machine up, so the problem is intermittent.

I've had a quick google search for your recommendation but it appears places such as Amazon have them as out of stock. I'll keep hunting...

Really appreciate your help here :thumbs:
 
If you have a hard drive that has an intermittent fault I'd get a replacement asap. It may be the next time you start it up it will fail permanently. OK it may cost you some money, but how valuable are those pictures it has on it.

I'd always recommend a backup anyway. Drives do fail and it may not simply be the controller
 
neil_g said:
open the lacie enclosure and take the disk out, purchase an icy box replacement enclosure.
Click to expand...

If the drive is still under warranty try to get it replaced, as it should not have failed. If not then do as the Neil said, buy the icy box enclosure, they are good. :)

neil_g said:
lacie enclosures have a particularly poor lifespan in my experience.
Click to expand...

Not really true, having 4 Lacie external drives, oldest now is about 5 years old. None has failed or malfunctioned in any way. And they do get quite a lot of use and they travel with me. :)
 
kokakaste2 said:
If the drive is still under warranty try to get it replaced, as it should not have failed. If not then do as the Neil said, buy the icy box enclosure, they are good. :)

Not really true, having 4 Lacie external drives, oldest now is about 5 years old. None has failed or malfunctioned in any way. And they do get quite a lot of use and they travel with me. :)
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What's not true we've had several lacie enclosures fail at work, you can almost set your watch by them :P

Careful sending back on warranty, they won't save and/or recover your data.
 
Maybe a bad batch? Never know. All my 4 Lacie are different models/sizes (old 160GB, Rikki 320GB, old 500GB and 1TB Quadra).

But as common sense - always keep back ups of everything (and preferably even a back up of the back up) :)
 
I've had it for a while now, may 12 months or so, so I'm guessing it's out of warranty.

I'm going to take a look for an alternate enclosure as suggested and maybe get another HDD as well.

Mac Time Machine anyone? :)
 
kokakaste2 said:
Maybe a bad batch? Never know. All my 4 Lacie are different models/sizes (old 160GB, Rikki 320GB, old 500GB and 1TB Quadra).

But as common sense - always keep back ups of everything (and preferably even a back up of the back up) :)
Click to expand...

Different models and ages :)
 
Maybe nothing, but can you try with a different power supply. All the Lacie drives we've had go down at work, it's never the drive always the power supply without fail.
 
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