Hi,

I have a 600Gb Big Disk Extreme which is starting to fail. I can read data off it to back it up, so I haven't lost it. But if I try and use data from the disk (eg playback a video that's stored on it), it fails and says that the data isn't a video.

It's started making clicking noises, so I'm presuming the HDD is dying.
It's a handy case though, with 2x FW800, 1x FW400, 1xUSB2. and I'm wondering if it's possible to open the case, take out the drive and replace it with another of the same/similar/larger size.

Has anyone tried this before? I've seen guides of how to do it with the Porche Style drives.
Are there any traps, eg the Chipset wont handle more than a certain capacity drive... etc.

Thanks,

23MAL

Never pulled apart a Big Disk but most external enclosures are pretty straightforward to pull apart and generally even the complicated enclosures just require methodical disassembly.

The internal drive? determine whether it is a SATA or IDE and just buy a new drive. If the bridge handles 600GB it will handle any capacity current 3.5" drive (your enclosure/bridge supports 48 bit addressing which equals capacities up to 144 PB. They just are not going to make drives this big any time too soon).

Lacie used to apply some firmware ID locking, so that you can only use a Lacie flashed HDD in a Lacie case. Might want to watch out for that, I'm pretty sure they still do it.

Yeah its pretty simple. My Lacie was held together by 2 screws then a standard ide cable

was a very easy 5 minute swap out

They definitely do this for their FW DVD burners. A frigging pain in the bum. Apply the firmware updater and you can fry the new DVD burner (applies the firmware update to both the bridge and the drive).

That said, Jeremys story makes it sound positive in regard to HD's.

Yeah they do some form of firmware locking on the Big/Bigger Disk models. A couple of years ago I tried replacing the drives in a Bigger Disk, couldn't get them recognised. I doubt LaCie flash the hard drive firmware but instead limited the enclosure firmware to recognising the band/model of the original drive.

That would imply your unit has two 300GB hard drives. You'd need to figure out which one is failing then try to obtain the same brand (possibly model drive) to be successful.

I have pulled it apart, and there are 2x 300Gb Maxtor Drives. Any idea how to find out which is failing? Disk Utility sees it as one volume, so how can I check?

How can you find a flash upgrade for the bridge? how can I find out what type of bridge it is?

TIA
23MAL

You'd have to install them internally (individually) in a computer. A PC would be fine if you have access to one. If one of the drives is seriously damaged it should trigger a S.M.A.R.T. alert (at boot on a PC or within Disk Utility on OS X). If not you'd need to run a diagnostic tool on them Seagate SeaTools would be what you'd need for a Maxtor drive and a PC. Otherwise you could install them in a single external enclosure and use something like Techtools Pro to check them, but S.M.A.R.T. won't work on an external drive.

I doubt you could I've never seen a bridge chipset manufacturer release a firmware upgrade.

EDIT: System profiler should tell you the chipset used otherwise you could just check the markings of the chips on the PCB and google it. If LaCie stuck to the reference design for the PCB and you can get the OEM firmware you might be OK. If they've altered the PCB design then it's probably using a customised firmware and the OEM would likely kill it.

Thanks for all the help.

I've taken it all into consideration, and I've bought 2x Seagate 500Gb IDE HDD's.
If it doesn't work I can return them.

I'll post how it goes.

Well, it didn't go successfully. I installed the 2x Seagate 500Gb IDE HDD's, and they failed to be recognised as a disk. I've also contacted LaCie to ask for further information about the drive, to see if there are any options to be able to remove/upgrade etc the device.

Sorry to hear, not terribly surprised though.

I have come across a blog post by someone who has found a utility for adjusting a LaCie Big Disk Extreme enclosure with an Oxford OXFW912 controller. Might be of some use to you, Link.

I have further information from LaCie about my Big Disk Extreme issue.

So according to LaCie I can replace the drives... just not with Seagate drives.

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but you did take note of the jumper settings on the old drives (slave, master or CS) and set the jumpers on your new drives accordingly?

I did take note, and as I wasn't sure what the slave setting was (whether it was the 2nd pins, 3rd pins, or no pins), I tried all those options, and they didn't work. Good point to ask about though.