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LaCie Disaster
Sorry to vent on something slightly OT, but I want to warn everyone.
We had some files backed up on three seperate LaCie FW disks. They were the small single-disk non-RAID models. One of our editors needed to retrieve some footage. He tired all three but they wouldn’t power up. Turns out he was using the wrong AC power adapter. The adapter was still LaCie and it the connector was the same. So I don’t think he did anything wrong whatsoever in assuming it was the right plug. The problem is that it was the large AC adapter came with one of the large-size RAID models which we also have a handful of.
When we found the right adapter, the disk still wouldn’t turn on. They were totally hosed. I even opened them up, took out the actual disk drive and plugged it into a G4’s IDE port (after setting the jumper properly). None of them would mount and we could smell the melted plastic. All three of them were totally fried.
I find this absolutely unacceptable. Lacie should have used different connecters for the power plugs if this kind of thing can happen. One could blame user error, but not in this case. Every electronic device I’ve ever seen that uses AC adapters uses a unique plug, and the voltage and amps are printed next the the connector so you can be 100% certain the plug is the right one. But LaCie chooses not to print this info on their hard drive enclosures. The wrong adapter was from the same vendor, similar product, and used the same connector. There was no way of telling it was the wrong one.
Sean
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28 Replies
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[Sean ONeil] “I find this absolutely unacceptable. Lacie should have used different connecters for the power plugs if this kind of thing can happen. One could blame user error, but not in this case. Every electronic device I’ve ever seen that uses AC adapters uses a unique plug, and the voltage and amps are printed next the the connector so you can be 100% certain the plug is the right one. But LaCie chooses not to print this info on their hard drive enclosures. The wrong adapter was from the same vendor, similar product, and used the same connector. There was no way of telling it was the wrong one.”
This is why I label each and every cable and power cord in our shop. LaCie is not the only manufacturer who has similar power cords that are different voltage and amps. We have some Maxtors we use for backup purposes the same way, the cords look exactly the same, but they’re not.
Yes, this is user error, especially since you said [Sean ONeil] “The problem is that it was the large AC adapter came with one of the large-size RAID models which we also have a handful of.”
Since you knew you had multiple units with similar power cords, it’s up to you to distinguish between them so this type of thing doesn’t happen.
[Sean ONeil] “The wrong adapter was from the same vendor, similar product, and used the same connector. There was no way of telling it was the wrong one.”
Go to Staples.com and order a label maker. Ours was only $30 and it stops this very type of situation from happening.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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But once again the ugly reality of a completely undependable product comes roaring forth. Check out the history of threads on this subject and you would never consider buying a LaCie product again. As I have stated in many other threads, these LaCie FW drives are completely unreliable, they spin down at the slightest hint of chakra weirdness, disappear from the desktop intermittently, will not mount. And you can forget any kind of real customer service from LaCie. Expect a email response in a couple of days that tells you to “repair permissions…. blah blah blah. I have gone through the “replacing AC adapter’ business too…. and I can tell you the drives are still unreliable.
I have a stack of em just gathering dust in a corner someplace.
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[Mark brinster] “But once again the ugly reality of a completely undependable product comes roaring forth. Check out the history of threads on this subject and you would never consider buying a LaCie product again. As I have stated in many other threads, these LaCie FW drives are completely unreliable, they spin down at the slightest hint of chakra weirdness, disappear from the desktop intermittently, will not mount. And you can forget any kind of real customer service from LaCie. Expect a email response in a couple of days that tells you to “repair permissions…. blah blah blah. I have gone through the “replacing AC adapter’ business too…. and I can tell you the drives are still unreliable.”
So it’s completely undependeable that the user connected the wrong power supply and caused the drive to fail? Why does that make LaCie undependable? That’s user error.
We run about 6 LaCie’s in the shop and they’ve all been reliable, with some of them being 4 years old in a backup role. We’re switching our main HD suite to the LaCie S2S 2.5TB units. Had a hiccup with them talking to the Mac Pro at first, but it looks like we have resolved as with everything else, it’s a case of getting everything to work in “Intel World.”
I recommend LaCie almost every week and have never had a complaint from someone who got them. I always see the same few people on these forums complaining about LaCie but they’re still the top selling hard drive products around.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Hello Mark,
I am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with our drives. It sounds like the drives were working fine before the power supplies mix up. When you manufacture a lot of different products, you tend to use similar small parts such as power connectors. I understand where the confusion could come from. I am sorry it happened to your editor.If your drives are under warranty I would suggest that you contact our tech support (support@lacie.com or 503.844.4503. Tech Support is in the US and wait time is usually less than 5 minutes. Turn around for a repair order is usually 1 day.
On a side note regarding product reliability and online forums. We are more visible than other manufacturers so there are more people using our products and posting comments. If you do a search for “LaCie” on The Cow for the past 3 months, you will not find many posts about issues with our drives. Most negative comments would be from the same customers who had a bad experiences in the past. Considering that we shipped more than 2.5M external devices last year, we continue to experience an extremely low defective rate.
Feel free to email me directly if I can help you in any way.
Mat
mgasquy@lacie.com -
[walter biscardi] “Go to Staples.com and order a label maker. Ours was only $30 and it stops this very type of situation from happening.”
White ‘artist’ tape- around $2 or $3 a roll at Pearl Paint in New York, and a Sharpie- maybe a buck and a half. I used these to label 4 hard drives & 6 power supplies (there was also a DVD burner & a different model HD) to avoid this kind of thing before flying to Moscow.
Arnie
On location in Moscow for Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog -
[Arniepix] “to avoid this kind of thing before flying to Moscow.”
I saw that in your signature. Sounds like a pretty cool gig.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[walter biscardi] “Sounds like a pretty cool gig.”
It is, but “Assignment Earth” sounds pretty cool, too!
Arnie
On location in Moscow for Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog -
Mat
I understand why LaCie would make every effort to respond here in a forum but I can tell you from experience that REAL customer service with a REAL LaCie person is something else. In my experience with the LaCie big disk… I have 3 of them. Each and every time I would get into this dilemna with spin down, disappearing and general “unreliability” issues (which I have experienced with each and every one) and try to contact LaCie for support I can tell you without exception the response was always the same..email response no less than 2 days later with… “repair permissions and then.. oh and I love this one… and you repeated it in your response….”if your drives are under warranty” so I guess the issue of completely undependable AC power adapters only applies “if your drives are under warranty” If on the other hand your drives are NOT UNDER WARRANTY well I guess then the admitted UNRELIABLE AC POWER ADAPTER PARTS AND CABLES ARE YOUR PROBLEM.
Now… since you brought up the reliability issue vis a vis on line forums…. do a google on LaCie Big Disk spin down issues and tell me that the over 23,000 entries are all raving about the dependability of these disks.
But hey… like you said … you shipped 2.5M external devices last year what do you care? Especially since the warranty period will expire quickly.
Geeez!
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[Mark brinster] “In my experience with the LaCie big disk… I have 3 of them. Each and every time I would get into this dilemna with spin down, disappearing and general “unreliability” issues (which I have experienced with each and every one)”
We have two here, over two years old, never saw anything like this.
[Mark brinster] “Now… since you brought up the reliability issue vis a vis on line forums…. do a google on LaCie Big Disk spin down issues and tell me that the over 23,000 entries are all raving about the dependability of these disks.
But hey… like you said … you shipped 2.5M external devices last year what do you care? Especially since the warranty period will expire quickly.
Geeez!”
Excellent way to treat someone from the company who’s willing to come on the Cow and respond to this issue. That really makes manufacturers want to support these forums.
I have never, ever seen or heard of the “spin down” issue. Of the 23,000 entries, how many are unique and how many are the same core people ranting over and over again, much like we see here on the Cow.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Look Walter, we have been through this exact thread many many times before. Are you stating that the only reason a manufacturer would participate in on line forums is if we candy coat the issues and treat them like someone special. Look ….who is the customer? Who should demand quality service and a reasonably honest dialogue about the pros and cons of products? You have stated before that you have had no problems with your LaCie drives…. well fine. But don’t try to dismiss this issue because you went out and bought a label maker and labeled your adapters, cables etc. ok? Many hundreds of the thousands of entries on the issue of LaCie Big Disk spindown, disappearing and intermittent mounting issues have not been resolved and I am one of the customers who is pissed that LaCie doesn’t offer a better explanation or remedy to the issue.
Just another thought… I think I can reasonably state that being nice to LaCie will have no impact on whether or not they participate in this or any other forum. I think the fact that they “shipped 2.5M external devices…” and hope to ship a whole lot more will be the guiding motivation.
The plain fact of the matter is that I and many other LaCie customers who purchased these drives are out several hundred bucks for each drive and are not happy about it. You want to argue about customer satisfaction? Fine. You are a happy customer. I am not.
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