Lacie Firewire HD problems

**smalls** · 05-21-2007, 12:40 PM

I'm on a Lenovo T60 and recently purchased this PCMCIA firewire card for this harddrive. I got a great deal on the HD, which is why I went firewire. However, the damned thing apparently hates me. My computer breifly recognizes the HD when it is initially plugged in, then I get a message saying that "Windows has stopped this device because it is not working properly". I'm on XP SP2 (if that helps at all).
The HD works fine on my friends mac (I can't afford one, don't tell me to get one). Any thoughts on what to do? Is the problem with the card or the system? I have no clue, but I do know that my internal HD only has 22 mb left, so I gotta figure something out soon if I want to sort through my sister's wedding photos. Thanks for the help.

advres · 05-21-2007, 12:50 PM

Have you ever unplugged your drive without ejecting it (don't)? We have had tons of problems with Lacies in the past. You may want to run a disk utility on it to make sure nothing is messed up. Also, check to see if you have the most currect drivers from Lacie, your computer manufacturer and the card company.

**smalls** · 05-21-2007, 01:14 PM

I have not ever unplugged it without ejecting it. I can't run a disk utility, since Windows doesn't really recognize the disk (unless I can? insight?). After contacting Lacie, they told me that no drivers were necessary, as did Koutech (the card company).
Lacie did mention a firewire registry patch for windows that may be necessary, but warned me against downloading said patch unless I am familiar with messing with the Windows registry (which I am not). So yeah. Still at a loss.

**RShea** · 05-21-2007, 08:25 PM

There has to be drivers for the card, but they very well may be incorporated in Windows XP and provided by the company to MS not needed to be loaded from a disk. If you see the card in the device manager then there is a version listed on the driver tab and it will tell you the manufacturer or provider of the driver.
Do you have a spare Firewire cable to make sure that is not the issue?

Otherwise, the drive should be recognized if the card is showing up in the Windows Device manager, it is plugged in and the drive is powered up and lit. If it still has issues, then I would try another card if you have a tried another firewire cable...

That being said, the drive may have some firmware updates also but Lacie should have told you that if they had issues. What registry edit do they want to have you do? If you do a system restore point and export the registry (back-up the full thing not just the selected branch) then you should be safe if the directions are complete and correct.

I am not all that impressed with Koutech support and cards, but it has been a while since I've dealt with them on any products. Adaptec or Orange Micro have been reliable brand Firewire cards in the past for me.

**mtbakerskier** · 05-21-2007, 10:38 PM

1, sell that Piece of

computer.
2, return the porche drive and buy any other lacie drive. The porche drives SUCK! They do not have fan and are not the most reliable lacie drives out there. Second, make sure that you are not ussing the power set to the automatic setting.

BTW the Lacie Biger disk series kicks ass.

**Arty50** · 05-22-2007, 12:33 AM

I've been pretty lucky with my LaCie, but I've read about tons of problems people have had with them. OWC's (Other World Computing) Mercury Elite line gets rave reviews and the Mercury Elite-Al line looks really nice.

**smalls** · 05-23-2007, 10:12 AM

Well the drive is on its way back to Lacie. I was sick of dealing with it and them.

arty, thanks for the tip on the mercury elites. those look to be at the top of my list of contenders.

any other external HDs (that are easily portable/usable while on the road) that those more knowing than I would recommend?

**RShea** · 05-23-2007, 11:24 AM

Originally Posted by smalls

Well the drive is on its way back to Lacie. I was sick of dealing with it and them.

arty, thanks for the tip on the mercury elites. those look to be at the top of my list of contenders.

any other external HDs (that are easily portable/usable while on the road) that those more knowing than I would recommend?

You can go a few different ways, if you stay firewire and want the unit to not require AC plugin (this is easier under USB 2.0) then stay with the 2.5 inch drive enclosures. (There was a thread about this some time back too).

You can just buy an enclosure then buy your own hard drive, or get one of the companies that sell the full package with the enclosure, drive, etc. all together. There are advantages both ways but if you are not super knowledgable then the full package from one company offers the single call to the tech support.

Are you sure the card is not the issue (was it showing up always in the device manager?) The reason I ask is if it was not then the next drive no matter who you go through could have the same issue as the card has to provide the Firewire interface for your system.

advres · 05-23-2007, 12:54 PM

I am a big fan of OWC firewire drives. I have used many of their drives over the years and their sales/support staff is excellent.

They also have many build your own options which will save you money and are pretty easy to build even if you aren't really tech savy.