In nearly all cases when a LaCie fails it is because there is an issue with the connection (interface), and not with the mechanism. An example would be that inside each orange Rugged LaCie case is a normal 2.5-inch disk, usually Seagate. This explains most LaCie failures.
A typical LaCie has a standard Seagate or Western Digital (WD) mechanism paired with a custom (proprietary) bridge, Thunderbolt, or RAID board. It is generally the case when one of these boards stops working, the internal disk itself remains healthy but unreachable as opposed to being damaged.
Although the Rugged’s orange bumper really does help to reduce shock (so your chances of having an accidental drop damage your hard drive are reduced), the hard drive inside remains a standard 2.5" drive with a bridge board. So two things follow. First, if it clicks after a fall, you should shut it off immediately in case there was enough force on the head for it to suffer a head crash. Second, a Rugged that doesn’t show up at all or is completely quiet is far more likely to have a bad bridge, bad connector, etc. than a failed disk, which would mean the contents of the Rugged are safe.
Newer Rugged units now have USB-C or Thunderbolt, which have much more complicated controllers than their predecessors, and are therefore a much higher percentage of what can fail on you rather than the hard disk that they’re controlling.
The d2 line has a single 3.5" drive in a thick aluminium housing. It uses an external power brick. An unusually large number of “dead” d2 units were simply dead (bad) power bricks. Eliminate this possibility first (as a substitute power brick of the correct rating will cost you nothing to try), before assuming your unit is toast. Beyond that, you get the typical: the bridge failure mode is silent or a format prompt; mechanical failure makes lots of noise.
The RAID 0 or RAID 1 on two or more drives in a 2big, 5big (or similar) setup utilises a specific hardware controller to store data across all the drives. In this case, if the controller dies, the individual drives will probably still be okay but they won’t have enough info to determine which drive has what data so we’ll image each drive read-only and then we can go back and figure out how things were laid out, just like we would do with any other RAID.
Specific risks are due to user interaction. User interaction may include removing the disk and placing it back into a slot using a different configuration, or by simply plugging the disk into a computer, initialising it, which can completely eliminate all recoverable data. If a multi-bay LaCie has failed, please remove the disks if possible, label each with its bay order and send them to us.
Single drive LaCie units (e.g., Rugged, d2, mobile, Porsche Design) start at £300 +VAT, whilst multi-disk LaCie units (e.g., 2big, 5big etc.) start at £500 +VAT because of the cost associated with recreating the array. We offer a free 48 hour diagnostic, along with a written quotation prior to proceeding with any work. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Where donor work is necessary, this is typically paid for via a 50% deposit.
LaCie does design enclosures, but they don’t develop their own internal components; the drives themselves are standard (usually Seagate, which has owned LaCie since 2012) with some earlier models being made by Western Digital (WD). This is why most LaCie failures seem to be related to the bridge circuitry, the controller or the power supply as opposed to the actual hard drive itself.
Usually not. Most of the time a “dead” Rugged will be due to a faulty bridge board or damaged connector as opposed to a failure in the actual hard drive. Typically you can test this by trying a different cable and/or different USB ports; if neither of these tests produces results then the issue is clearly within the unit.
First look at the power supply. The d2’s power supply comes from a separate external brick and we’ve seen more dead d2s than we care to admit were caused by a single bad power supply. If swapping in a properly rated replacement power supply gets things up and running again, copy all your files off right away; do not continue to rely on the unit.
Yes. This is done by imaging each disk read-only (to prevent data loss) and deriving the disk array configuration from those images. There is no reason to rely on the proprietary disk controllers once they have failed. It is essential to avoid reinserting the disks in a different order or initialising any of the disks with the operating system, as either may cause a resync to occur and overwrite your data.
A single LaCie device, like Rugged or d2, costs from £300 + VAT, whereas a 2big, 5big or other multi-drive enclosure cost will range from £500 + VAT. All quotes will be fixed in writing after a free 48-hour diagnostic.