Lacie 500GB Big Disk Stripe Issue

[AlexBohner]

Hi All,

I just ran into a problem with my Lacie Big Disk 500GB Firewire drive
that I hope someone has seen. It contains 2x WD 250GB disks, and when
one went south I lost tons of stuff that I really didn't want to lose,
but that's a story for another day.

I just received an identical replacement disk, replaced the crashed
disk, plugged the baby back into my desktop, and voila, I now see 2x
250GB disks from my operating systems, rather than one single 500GB.
Stripe lost. Somehow, someway I need to restripe these disks.

I talked with Lacie, but since I opened the enclosure they are unable
to help me (it was just over the 1 year warranty so they wouldn't help
me anyway). If they had the enclosure they would be able to 'fix' it,
but wouldn't give me any idea how to restripe this sucker.

With that said, does anyone have any suggestions that might allow me to
restripe these disks? I have cleared the MBR of each disk, but to no
avail. Any thoughts or suggestions to help me resolve this will be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
James

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hi All,

I just ran into a problem with my Lacie Big Disk 500GB Firewire drive
that I hope someone has seen. It contains 2x WD 250GB disks, and when
one went south I lost tons of stuff that I really didn't want to lose,
but that's a story for another day.

I just received an identical replacement disk, replaced the crashed
disk, plugged the baby back into my desktop, and voila, I now see 2x
250GB disks from my operating systems, rather than one single 500GB.
Stripe lost. Somehow, someway I need to restripe these disks.

I talked with Lacie, but since I opened the enclosure they are unable
to help me (it was just over the 1 year warranty so they wouldn't help
me anyway). If they had the enclosure they would be able to 'fix' it,
but wouldn't give me any idea how to restripe this sucker.

With that said, does anyone have any suggestions that might allow me to
restripe these disks? I have cleared the MBR of each disk, but to no
avail. Any thoughts or suggestions to help me resolve this will be
greatly appreciated.

I would suspect that they have some software that does it.

Advice: Live with two separate disks. Striping does not
help much on a firewire interface anyways. And don't buy
LaChie anymore...

Arno

 

[AlexBohner]

I would suspect that they have some software that does it.

According to Lacie, the disks should auto-stripe once the disk is
replaced. They also said that performing a firmware update may help
intiate the restripe. Neither is true, so I agree, they must have some
other method which they are not willing to share.

Advice: Live with two separate disks. Striping does not
help much on a firewire interface anyways.

I was just hoping to have a single large volume for backups, but I'm
afraid I'm SOL here.

Unfortunately I learned a very difficult lesson. I understand hardware
may fail, but why would I purchase something the manufacturer won't
even stand behind? My frustration stems from a couple of very
difficult conversations with the Lacie support guys, and their
disinterest in helping me to resolve a problem. I'm not asking to
repair/replace my hardware, just a little information to lead me in the
right direction.

And don't buy LaChie anymore...

Amen to that.

 

[Paul Rubin]

I was just hoping to have a single large volume for backups, but I'm
afraid I'm SOL here.

You're trying to set it up the same way as before? Did someone once
say the definition of insanity was repeating the same action and
expecting to get a different result?

Most of those two-drives-in-one-box setups will let you configure them
to mirror instead of striping. That means if you have another drive
crash, you're protected.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Arno Wagner wrote:

According to Lacie, the disks should auto-stripe once the disk is
replaced. They also said that performing a firmware update may help
intiate the restripe. Neither is true, so I agree, they must have some
other method which they are not willing to share.

I was just hoping to have a single large volume for backups, but I'm
afraid I'm SOL here.

Unfortunately I learned a very difficult lesson. I understand hardware
may fail, but why would I purchase something the manufacturer won't
even stand behind? My frustration stems from a couple of very
difficult conversations with the Lacie support guys, and their
disinterest in helping me to resolve a problem. I'm not asking to
repair/replace my hardware, just a little information to lead me in the
right direction.

I can understand that. But let's be hones. WD is the cheapest brand
(at least here) of disks. There is some indication they have
reliabioity issues. Striping halves the reliability. Even putting
out such a product shows a considerable disregard fotr the customer's
needs. Why would support be any better?

The state of computing is that you still need some expert knowledge
yourself to make good hardware and software choices. The crime of
companies like LaChie is that they suggest it is just going to work.

Arno

 

[Arno Wagner]

You're trying to set it up the same way as before? Did someone once
say the definition of insanity was repeating the same action and
expecting to get a different result?

Most of those two-drives-in-one-box setups will let you configure them
to mirror instead of striping. That means if you have another drive
crash, you're protected.

Or you can mirror manually by copying critical data to both disks.
Of course a redundant backup should really go onto two completely
independend devices...

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Which suggests that it is not hardwired RAID0.

Without configuration software support presumably it takes its
configuration from the drives themselves.
You could try copying the first and last tracks of the remaining
disk to the new one, hoping to copy any metadata, if it still exists.

I would suspect that they have some software that does it.

Of course they have.
If only to write configuration data to the drives in the factory.
The bridge chip Raid controllers can be configured for different RAID
configurations. Some fixed by firmware, acting on the setting of a switch,
others by external software configuration. What's odd is that they don't
deliver the configuration software from the chip manufacturers with the
drives themselves but sell them preconfigured as one fixed type of RAID.
Presumably they sell that as a convenience feature: "Ready to use".