LaCie Data Recovery

However, as with any type of external hard drive, problems do occur, and you may be left in a situation where you need to perform data recovery to find lost data or lost files. It becomes infinitely more challenging to recover data if you do not keep backup files or cloud copies of your important office documents, making it impossible to retrieve the data needed.

How do I recover data from a LaCie hard drive?

The good news is that Gillware’s engineers are experts in recovering data from all types of LaCie hard disks, and it is absolutely possible to recover data or deleted files; it doesn’t matter if its an entire LaCie hard disk impacted or if it’s just an individual file recovery that is needed.

If you are experiencing problems with data stored on your LaCie external hard drive, you need to make an immediate decision regarding the risk of data loss. Are you happy to risk losing data by attempting a home fix, or do you have important files that are needed by your business that you cannot risk losing? If you get this wrong, then data loss is a highly likely outcome.

Can you recover lost data from a Lacie?

The typical LaCie Hard Disk we encounter is used within a business environment; data loss is not acceptable. You need a data recovery expert like Gillware to investigate the problem, discover the root cause, and then fix it. In most circumstances, we can fix file system corruption and recover files from the majority of accidental deletion scenarios. Gillware is the LaCie Data Recovery expert!

There are two types of data recovery scenarios that can affect a LaCie External Hard Drive; these are events caused by logical errors or physical defects. As of yet, we have not been asked to recover lost data from LaCie hard drives that malfunctioned for unknown reasons – we have always found out what went wrong.

A logical fault is any lost data caused by disk corruption of the external hard drive file system. These errors are generally easier to fix, but as a word of caution, off-the-shelf data recovery software may not work, especially if any disk encryption is used, a feature often enabled by default on a LaCie External hard drive. Gillware uses a proprietary, in-house data recovery software tool called Hombre, and you will not find it anywhere else! But more about Hombre later.

The second type of fault is caused by physical damage affecting the external hard disk or the LaCie internal hard drive enclosure. With physical damage, preventing further damage to the LaCie hard disk is really important. You may have a hard drive that’s beeping, clicking, or ticking, and you will likely get a warning light on the LaCie disk enclosure.

How do I verify the fault that is causing my LaCie External Hard drive issue?

LaCie external hard drives have LEDs that can help you determine whether there is an issue with your external drive. Here are some examples of LED signals for a few LaCie hard drives:

d2 Network (Version 1) Devices

Example model numbers:

• STHA18000800
• STHA16000800
• STHA14000800
• STHA10000800
• STHA8000800
• STHA6000800
• STHA4000800

LED behavior:

• Front LED is blinking – the device is booting up, or a backup is in progress
• Front LED is blinking red – the device is at a critical temperature and must be shut down, or if connected to a UPS, the power supply has failed
• Front LED is solid red – the device is shutting down due to heat level or power has been cut

2big Network and 5big Network Devices

Example model numbers:

• STGB36000400
• STHJ36000800
• STGB32000400
• STHJ28000800
• STGB28000400
• STGB20000400
• STHJ16000800
• STGB16000400
• STHJ8000800
• STGB8000400
• STHJ4000800

LED behavior:

• Front LED is blinking blue and the back LEDs are alternating red and blue – the device RAID has been recently damaged and is re-syncing
• Front LED is blinking red and one or more of the back LEDs are solid red – disks with the solid red indicator on the back have failed and must be replaced – data may be lost if the disks are not redundant
• Front LED is blinking red but no back LEDs have turned red – the device is too hot and must be shut down or cooled
• Front LED is solid red and the back LEDs are blinking – the device is in the process of shutting down due to temperature
• Front LED is solid red and some of the back LEDs are solid red – the RAID has failed and data is not available – the failed disks must be replaced and the RAID must be rebuilt

6big Thunderbolt 3 and 12big Thunderbolt 3 Devices

Example model numbers:

• STFK108000400
• STFK84000402
• STFK60000402
• STFK48000402
• STFK24000402

LED behavior:

• Blinking red – warning
• Solid red – error

To verify the warning light on a LaCie External Hard Drive enclosure (or any external drive or other devices) you will need to access the control panel (you should have installed the software when purchasing the device). To launch the LaCie application, double-click on the LaCie icon on the computer desktop. If you are unsure how to access the control panel, check the steps mentioned in your product’s complete guide (user manual). Useful links – Installer, User Manuals.

From the LaCie control panel, you can access the Log Files that will help diagnose any issue you are experiencing. You can also initiate by selecting “recover partitions” on your operating system; afterward, click Scan for the scanning process to begin. After the scan completes, a list of all found files will be displayed. Always proceed with caution; take a data backup of your files first (make a 1:1 copy if you don’t have any data backup software)

With a physical fault, it’s very difficult to verify yourself. We recommend you have the LaCie external hard drive looked at by a data recovery expert like Gillware. Physical faults nearly always require some form of spare part replacement, and this involves stripping the external hard drive in a cleanroom environment. Most data recovery software will likely not work here, and a home fix will introduce, dirt, dust, and grime into the external hard drive, trashing data in the process and making it extremely difficult to recover data (even for Gillware).

How do Gillware Restore Data from my LaCie?

The first thing to do is to reach out to Gillware, the data recovery experts. We offer a risk-free data recovery services quote and assessment for all of our customers, completely free of charge. We do this so you can make an informed decision about whether you want to go with Gillware to recover data. After making contact, our customer team will provide a shipping label to mail us your LaCie external hard drive.

Depending on the fault, you may be asked to complete some basic troubleshooting, such as checking the power cable, resetting a surge protector (if you use one), or attempting to run a deep scan on the LaCie drive. Then, if requested, you just need to send us the LaCie hard disk (or we may need the entire storage device). Either way, our experts will talk through this process before collecting your LaCie storage media.

Upon arrival, the LaCie external hard drive is cataloged by our goods-in team, and you will be allocated a login to our website. On the site, you can track the progress of your LaCie hard drive around the Gillware lab, and we can also upload your recovered files for immediate download. Our lab is located in Madison, Wisconsin, and we also have a site office in Detroit Metro in case you are located there.

Your case will be allocated to a data recovery expert. You can find out more about our amazing team here. An initial assessment will take place wherein the engineer will work out exactly what is wrong with the LaCie device and will advise if it’s possible to recover from data loss, and if so, you will be given an approximate percentage of the lost data we can recover.

In most scenarios, we can recover everything, but in badly damaged LaCie products, for example, a LaCie external hard drive damaged by fire or flood, it may be impossible to avoid complete data loss. But even then, we will get you the best possible outcome.

Can data be recovered from a logically crashed LaCie hard drive?

To fix logical errors, our Gillware data recovery experts will connect the LaCie external hard disk to Hombre, Gillware’s propriety data recovery software. Hombre will attempt to image the media in a raw format. During the process, our data recovery engineer will work out the cause of the data loss.

There are many different ways hard drives can sustain logical damage. Logical damage can be self-inflicted—the result of your LaCie external hard drive inadvertently writing corrupted data to itself. It could also be caused by user error, usually by accident. In a logical crash scenario, the drive’s physical components are almost always totally healthy; perhaps the hard drive had a little bit of a hiccup when your LaCie external hard drive was prematurely unplugged and wrote corrupted data.

Logical damage can also be the result of accidentally deleting your files or reformatting your drive, resetting your computer, or reinstalling your operating system. Either way, Hombre can rebuild the logical structure of the disk and fix all logical issues in the overwhelming majority of cases, allowing our engineers to retrieve data from the external hard drive.

Can data be recovered from a physically crashed LaCie hard drive?

Fixing a physical problem is a much harder prospect for Gillware data recovery services. Gillware has pioneered numerous technologies to help fix physical faults on a hard disk because when a hard drive breaks down, it takes specialists in the field of hard drive repair to recover files.

A hard drive is a very complex computer component made up of moving parts, motors, and printed circuit boards, all housed inside a vacuum-sealed metal casing. The sensitive components inside your hard drive have razor-thin margins of error. A LaCie drive is a well-designed product, typically using Seagate or Western Digital components, with all this machinery inside them usually lasting for years and years.

However, it doesn’t take much to break those components down and cause data loss. Some possible reasons for a physical crash include loss of power, dropping the device, or parts simply wearing out that can stop the hard drive from spinning up. A physically damaged LaCie external hard drive can make clicking, beeping, whining, screeching, or grinding noises as well. These signs indicate a kind of severe failure that almost always requires a trip to a professional data recovery lab.

The innards of a LaCie external hard drive are extremely sensitive to dust and other outside contaminants. A single grain of dust on a hard disk platter surface can mangle a set of read/write heads and cause some irreversible data loss. To recover data from a broken hard drive, skilled engineers must open them up and replace their failed parts inside a clean room data recovery lab.

The typical fix for a LaCie external hard drive is repairing broken read/write heads or a shorted control board. Hard disk drives with scratched disk platters must be polished with our specially-designed burnishing tools.

The Next Step

Gillware will recover data from LaCie devices. We are experts in data loss, and we help thousands of customers a year recover data that they need. Get in touch today!