LaCie 1TB Big Disk Extreme + and Win 7

[Guest Babs]

Hi there everyone!

 

This is my first post so please excuse any lapse of posting etiquette on my part.

 

After a clean installation of Win 7, I found that windows would not recognize nor install the drivers for my LaCie 1TB Big Disk Extreme+. I have searched and searched and tried many "fixes" for the problem....none, however have proven themselves noteworthy.

 

So far I have tried changing "OHCI Compliant Host Controller to (Legacy) which caused my computer to freeze. Once rebooted (and Restored) from the crash, I found that the Compliant Host Controller had been reverted. So I changed it again, created a Restore Point....same results.

 

Everything I owned was backed up to this external drive. I'm praying and hoping that someone on this forum might have an answer. I will paste the reply I received from LaCie below so you can see their "solution" to the problem. I'm a bit afraid to try their suggestions.

 

Pasted Text from LaCie:

 

My name is Jon, and I’ll be answering your questions today.

 

Unfortunately, this unit was not ever tested or certified with Windows 7.

 

It's remotely possible that the firmware update for the drive might help. There is an element of risk associated with this update however, so I would encourage you to find a way to back up the information you need off this disk prior to attempting to apply this firmware update:

 

http://www.lacie.com/us/support/drivers ... m?id=10065

 

Even if this update applies correctly to the drive, it's still quite possible the unit will not work correctly on Windows 7.

 

While we do not generally expect our units to have problems with new operating systems, there are sometimes exceptions to this. If your symptoms are specific to the new OS only, then it is likely you are simply running into a compatibility problem with the newer Windows version.

 

We do not have any information at the present time when or if this unit will be certified for use with Windows 7. Since this model has been discontinued for a couple years now, it's unlikely this will ever happen officially.

 

I apologize that I don't have a better response for you on this. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, otherwise you can close the ticket if you feel we are finished.

 

I appreciate your patience.

 

Regards,

 

Jon

******************************

 

Thanks a million for any suggestions,

Babs

[Vadim]

Hi Babs

 

When did you buy this drive? How old is it? I ask because that support guy "Jon" gave you a link to firmware that's almost 3 years old. Being that your drive is a 1TB drive it seems like the drive is probably newer than that stupid firmware update.

 

I tried to find another update for you on the Lacie support site - but wow, that site really sucks... Is this your drive? : http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11513

 

Anyway, its been my experience that when you flash the firmware on a hard drive, you will lose all your data. I just did this on one of my Samsung drives a few months ago. So be "very" careful!

 

So - A few more questions:

1 - So I take it you've been using your Lacie drive on Windows 7 in the past?

2 - Is this a USB or Firewire drive?

3 - Can you plug in the drive at work on a different computer for testing?

 

My thoughts are the drive might have a bad USB cable, or perhaps your USB port is having issues. One of the great things about Windows 7 and USB/Firewire drives is they just work....

 

Let me know

[Guest Babs]

Good Morning, Vadim.....and thank you kindly for your reply;

 

Gosh, but you did, indeed, bring up some mighty interesting questions for me, Vadim. Firstly, the dive isn't that old. It was purchased September 23, 2008 and has a "3 Year Limited Warranty for Hardware." The legalese in the limited warranty document, is written in such a squirrel manor that it's nearly indecipherable to the layman and quite elusive to me, in particular.

 

As you so astutely surmised, the offered firmware update is quite a bit older than the LaCie itself.

 

The LaCie I own can be viewed here (with the 3 year limited warranty information available): LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ Triple. Truly, the LaCie is an awesome device. It has an internal fan, a sleep mode and never overheats on me. Until Win7 I've never experienced a bit of trouble with this particular product. I own two other externals which I transferred all data from over to the LaCie when it first arrived, freeing up space on my other externals for other uses (one I use for my PS3, the other as added drive space for my DISH DVR.

 

No.....actually (and to answer your next question), I was originally using the LaCie on a Windows Vista system....same computer. I've only had this clean install of Win 7 on here five days.....and it's gone to hell several times already (long story...lol). With a Windows technician's help, we finally managed (after three tries) to get a clean install of 7 and all the updates done. Unfortunately, with the attempted installation of different hardware devices (such as the LaCie and my new Hp Photosmart, I've had to "Restore" the system at least 13/14 times....ugh!

 

To your next question, I am running the LaCie through a FireWire device. After failing miserably with the FireWire installation, I attempted an USB connection....with the same dismal results.

 

Sorry....No, to your next question. I do not work; therefore have no other computers running Vista. My Toshiba Laptop has no FireWire Portal so I tried installing the LaCie to that PC via USB.....not a chance! The machine froze but did boot back into Windows without having to Restore to an earlier restore date.

 

I have tried two brand new USB cables. And a completely different FireWire connection port and cable...it's all a no go.

 

I'd so appreciate it if you'd take a look at that limited warranty to see if fresh eyes can make better sense of it than I could. It would certainly be nice if they'd replace the drive for me. It is, after all, just over two years old.

 

Thanks so much for your interest...and your help, Vadim!

 

Regards,

Babs

 

Hi there everyone!

 

This is my first post so please excuse any lapse of posting etiquette on my part.

 

After a clean installation of Win 7, I found that windows would not recognize nor install the drivers for my LaCie 1TB Big Disk Extreme+. I have searched and searched and tried many "fixes" for the problem....none, however have proven themselves noteworthy.

 

So far I have tried changing "OHCI Compliant Host Controller to (Legacy) which caused my computer to freeze. Once rebooted (and Restored) from the crash, I found that the Compliant Host Controller had been reverted. So I changed it again, created a Restore Point....same results.

 

Everything I owned was backed up to this external drive. I'm praying and hoping that someone on this forum might have an answer. I will paste the reply I received from LaCie below so you can see their "solution" to the problem. I'm a bit afraid to try their suggestions.

 

Pasted Text from LaCie:

 

My name is Jon, and I’ll be answering your questions today.

 

Unfortunately, this unit was not ever tested or certified with Windows 7.

 

It's remotely possible that the firmware update for the drive might help. There is an element of risk associated with this update however, so I would encourage you to find a way to back up the information you need off this disk prior to attempting to apply this firmware update:

 

http://www.lacie.com/us/support/drivers ... m?id=10065

 

Even if this update applies correctly to the drive, it's still quite possible the unit will not work correctly on Windows 7.

 

While we do not generally expect our units to have problems with new operating systems, there are sometimes exceptions to this. If your symptoms are specific to the new OS only, then it is likely you are simply running into a compatibility problem with the newer Windows version.

 

We do not have any information at the present time when or if this unit will be certified for use with Windows 7. Since this model has been discontinued for a couple years now, it's unlikely this will ever happen officially.

 

I apologize that I don't have a better response for you on this. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, otherwise you can close the ticket if you feel we are finished.

 

I appreciate your patience.

 

Regards,

 

Jon

******************************

 

Thanks a million for any suggestions,

Babs

[Guest Babs]

Sorry about the link not appearing as such. Here's the correct addy:

 

http://www.lacie.com/us/support/support ... m?id=10238

[Steve Krause]

Hi Babs - Welcome to the site!

 

Well, I think the entire issue here is a bit odd. Looking at the drive, Microsoft shows it as supported with no action required: http://is.gd/gP7bS/lacie+windows7+groovypost/

 

My suggestion would be to plug it in via USB

 

1 - Click Start Button and type Device Manager. Search should find it. Click it.

2 - Inside Device Manager do you see the drive show up with a red or yellow escalation or any other issues?

3 - If yes, Right Click it and Click Uninstall

4 - After your computer works a bit, unplug it and reboot.

 

Once your fully rebooted and logged in, plus it in again to the USB port. Hopefully it comes up and works this time.....

 

Keep us updated!

[Guest Babs]

First: thank you kindly for both your reply and your suggestions.

 

I am both elated and completely disgusted concerning this blankety-blank LaCie! Your suggestion worked like a charm....of course, it worked like a charm yesterday and the day before that, as well. Once I'm booted into Windows, I plug in the LaCie USB cord, turn on the LaCie, and Microsoft immediately begins the download and installation of drivers and software.....wonderful!!!! I then go to the Device Manager and, sur'nuff, there she sits (the LaCie) .... nice and prettily listed under "Disk drives." And, wonder of wonders, I can actually access the drive.

 

The unfortunate part comes when I have to either Shut Down or Restart Windows....or rather, when I "attempt" to either shut down or restart. Fore, upon reboot, the computer stalls and will NOT access Windows. So it's back to the Windows 7 CD to try a Windows Repair. Unless the Windows CD is in the drive, Windows will not even access the Welcome screen.

 

So far, this morning, I have installed the drivers and software for the LaCie at least five times. This last times I had one hell of a time even accessing the Windows CD.....took seven tries. Also, this last time, I had to Restore to an earlier restore point.....there was no "repairing" Windows.

 

Here's the last correspondence I received from Jon at LaCie....they simply are not interested in helping. Guess I'm just going to have to buy a new external and hope like hell that I can get both externals working at the same time without having to reboot so I can get the data transferred....sigh.

 

Thank you both for your excellent attempts to help me out with this problem.

Sincerely,

Babs

*****************************************

Pasted text:

If you wish to speak to a technical support representative, we can be reached at 503.844.4503.

 

The hours are 7am to 5pm Pacific time, Monday-Friday.

 

Otherwise, I can continue to assist you through this online interface if you prefer.

 

This unit was built in mid-2008. This makes it nearly 2 1/2 years from the date of manufacture at this time. It's not unusual for a unit to spend some time on the shelf between the date of manufacture and when you purchased it; however, we can only build the unit to work with operating systems that exist at the time when the unit is assembled. In this case, this happened more than a year before Windows 7 was released.

 

The warranty on the unit covers defects in manufacturing, and instances where the drive does not perform as expected. This unit is not expected to work on Windows 7, therefore there is nothing happening here that would be covered under the warranty of the unit.

 

If you no longer wish to run an operating system that is supported with this drive, that is certainly your choice. At that point, you may wish to purchase a newer drive to replace this one that would be supported under Windows 7.

 

Please let me know if you have any other questions regarding this. Thank you very much for your patience.

 

Regards,

Jon

[shockersh]

You "could" just ditch the External USB drive or rather - the external enclosure ya know. I've done that with a crappy Seagate 750TB external Firewire drive.

 

The drive would work sometimes but sometimes not.... So, I got out my screw driver, took the drive out of the external enclosure and just installed it into my computer in the spare Hard Drive bay. To this day, it purs like a kitten.

 

So don't forget, it might not be the drive but rather, the circuits or code on the external drive enclosure. Those things are crappy IMOP. Just shove it into your computer and be done with it.

[Guest Babs]

That would be a great idea, Shockersh....if I only had a regular tower. But, in fact, I have an HP Pavilion Slimline (big mistake) with no available drive slots. This, my newest hard drive, which was installed two weeks ago, is the third to be replaced in the same number of years. These Slimline towers create far too much heat for the hardware components.

 

But! The good news is..(BIG Drum Roll here, please!)..my LaCie Big Disk Extreme IS actually working with Windows 7 now!!!!!!! And I'm quite sure I know the reason why. When Windows Restored to an earlier set point, my HP Photosmart C7280 (which I've had trouble with from the get-go), was wiped off the computer. Instead of trying to reinstall the printer immediately (a task I'm completely dreading), I tried one more time to get the LaCie recognized.....and, Viola!, the software and drivers were installed (as usual). But the big difference was, when I held my breath and restarted, my machine booted into Windows without incident. And, believe it or not, when I turned the LaCie on, there it was (in all its glory) registered, without conflict, in the Device Manager. To say the least, I am one Happy Camper!!!! The big question is: will it continue to be recognized once I've reinstalled (or....attempt to install) the software and drivers for my HP printer????

 

Thanks to everyone who lent a helping hand with this LaCie incident!!! Your help was immensely appreciated!

 

Regards,

Babs

[Beyond_Life]

Hang on, your working with Win7. And I know for a fact that ANY LaCie drive will work with ANY version of win7.

But a HP Photosmart doesnt. You have to install a freaking massive (312mb) new win7 driver for that. You can find it here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/soft ... g=en&cc=us