[sdiy] OT: how to save a dead Raided Drive?

[Dan Snazelle]

at this point it looks like sourcing an exact replica of my LACIE drive is going to be impossible

it is the model number lacie 300794u  (500 gig extreme) and it is from around 2006 or 2007.

no one has it for sale (well one person for 285

SO i think i will get 2 external IDE to USB enclosures, hook em up to my MAC and try to get the RAID decoded with 
software? or i have a sometimes working Vista machine...

once i buy the enclosures I will report back

Thanks To everyone for the help




> From: prof at electrotoys.fsnet.co.uk
> To: subjectivity at hotmail.com
> Subject: Re: [sdiy] OT: how to save a dead Raided Drive?
> Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:26:30 +0100
>
> Dear Dan
>
> I think it is a dead controller, or at least in part.
>
> The Xilinx bit is definitely not good news: they mainly make FPGA chips, so
> there could be anything in there. Replacing the chip would be a bit
> difficult, (SMT rework is for serious heroes), but getting the data to
> program it might be even harder.
>
> If there are no nasty clicking noises, then I think there is an better than
> even chance that the drives are good.
>
> What state the controller failure has left the data in is a different
> problem.
>
> I think the best strategy would be to find or borrow a working Lacie, and
> put your drives, (in the same order), into it, and then spool off all your
> data. For now, a cheap basic drive could be used to hold it all, and I'd buy
> a decent after market external box to put it in. The Western digital 'green'
> series drives run cooler than most, and if you buy the 'raid edition' model,
> they have a 5 year guarantee.
>
> Hope you get it all back. Backup is getting harder and harder these days,
> and an external hard disc seems the nest option. Have you seen the cradles
> that take bare SATA drives? - use a bare drive as one big storage module.
>
> Here's an example from my local supplier: http://snipurl.com/kzien
> [www_scan_co_uk]
>
> Best wishes
>
> Mike
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dan Snazelle" 
> To: 
> Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 2:01 PM
> Subject: RE: [sdiy] OT: how to save a dead Raided Drive?
>
>
>
>
> thanks
>
> i had another lacie psu on hand and switched it this morning
>
> now the drives are spinning up, i can hear them and feel the vibrations
>
> which is good
>
> BUT it is still not showing up on the computer
>
>
> dead controller?
>
>
> the chipset uses 2 Texas Instruments chips and a xilinx (sp?) chip
>
> thanks for any help
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------
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>
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>
> (updated monthly)
>
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>
>
>
> http://www.indie911.com/dan-snazelle
>
> (or for techno) http://www.myspace.com/snazelle
>
> ALSO check out Dan synth/Fx projects:
>
> AUDIO ARK:
>
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>
> www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqIa_lXQNTA&feature=channel_page
>
> www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4nJPjGgOcU&feature=channel_page
>
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>
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>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------
>> From: prof at electrotoys.fsnet.co.uk
>> To: subjectivity at hotmail.com
>> Subject: Re: [sdiy] OT: how to save a dead Raided Drive?
>> Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:10:10 +0100
>>
>> Dear Dan
>>
>> I might be able to help with this.
>>
>> Sad to report, the Lacie external drives don't have a very good reputation
>> in the UK. Lacie is a popular brand amongst pro photographers - the make
>> very good, photo quality, colour graded monitors, and so the photographers
>> also used to go for their hard drives as well. I've had to fix 3 or 4. In
> 3
>> cases, it was actually the power supply, not the drives box. The PSU runs
>> quite warm, and seems to last less than 2 years. These things are very
>> dangerous - they are mains driven switch modes.Don't try fixing it
> yourself,
>> you can easily get a mains shock. They used to be fairly cheap to buy.
> I've
>> forgotten the rating of the supply - it's on the label, so you could try
>> another supply to see if the drives boot up. It must be exactly the same
>> voltage rating, and the same or higher current rating. You could test the
>> original supply with a dummy load, and your test meter. Might be worth
>> putting the scope across the load: a bad supply often has a lot of High
>> Frequency ripple.
>>
>> I never did find out the drives configuration: if it's a stripe, and one
>> drives has failed, I'm afraid you've lost the lot, as the data is divided
>> 50 - 50 between the two drives. If they are set up as 'JBOD', (Just a
> Bunch
>> of Discs), then some stuff may be recoverable. If it's the PSU, then you
>> should get it all back.
>>
>> If it's not the power supply, then I'd email Lacie and ask if they do
>> recovery, they will at least know exactly what the disc format is.
>>
>> Sadly I'm in the UK, if you were here I'd get you to send the drive box
> over
>> and take a look.
>>
>> If you really want to go it alone, first of all, find out the name of the
>> chipset in use. There are only a few IDE/USB sets out there and that would
>> let me know what to look for - it's quite probable that another external
>> drive case uses the same set, and for a reasonable cost you could check if
>> it was a drive or the interface that had failed. If it's the drives, you
>> coudl 're-engine' the box with another couple of drives.
>>
>> Hope this helps
>>
>> Mike
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Dan Snazelle"
>> To: "sdiy"
>> Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 2:28 AM
>> Subject: [sdiy] OT: how to save a dead Raided Drive?
>>
>>
>>>
>>> I am asking on this list because I know that many of you have a lot of
>> experience with computers:
>>>
>>>
>>> tonight i had the worst possible thing happen to my computer
>>>
>>> my 3yr old 500 gig lacie ext hard drive died. (and no, i had not backed
> it
>> up...money for a new drive had been non-existent)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> this had three years worth of Logic song projects (many unmixed) ALL My
>> datasheets, schematics, etc, as well as all my family's photos, etc.
>>> and over 100 gigs of itunes.
>>>
>>> now since it is 2 WestDigital 250gig drives in the box, i am assuming it
>> is a raid setup with a disk controller card of some kind
>>>
>>> one thing i see happen a lot with my clients is that the disk controller
>> dies,
>>>
>>> BUT then i wonder, if i get these drives into their own new enclosure,
>> since they were in a RAID array, how do i get the
>>> computer to read them properly? does the raid system split the data among
>> the 2 drives, or is it really just 2 separate drives that could
>>> be read separately?
>>>
>>> it is very unlikely that both drives would mechanically fail at once
>> right?
>>>
>>>
>>> anyway.....
>>>
>>> at least i got my OTA problem solved
>>>
>>> :(
>>>
>>> any help, thoughts , appreciated
>>>
>>>
>>> thanks
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Synth-diy mailing list
>>> Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>>> http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>>>
>>
>>
>
>