Broken USB on Lacie Stark external hard drive

[brea_peterson]

Tonight, the usb broke on the inside of my Lacie Stark external hard drive. It wasn't dropped, I was just sitting at the desk when the cord came loose. Figured it was bumped, went to plug it in, and it's gone. Now the little usb piece is hanging out inside the drive. The hard drive shouldn't be damaged right? I'm slightly freaking out, my laptop broke a few days ago, so this was my backup, and the new computer comes tomorrow and now I don't have my hard drive to put on there. Needless to say, it's not a good night/week I've read you can solder the usb back together or take the hard drive out and put in another case, the only problem is I don't know how the heck you'd get it out of this thing, it's a heavy piece of metal with no screws. I'm assuming somehow you can pull/push it out the front or back, but I don't want to risk ruining the data that should still be ok, I just need some help please! I emailed Stark, but wanted to check here, too, I'm guessing they won't recommend me taking it out myself.....thanks!

 

[Hawkeye22]

If it's under warranty, you can see if they can swap out the drive for you, but more than likely, they will just give you a new one. You will most likely have to crack the case and remove the drive and put it in a new enclosure. If there are no screws, you need to find a thin screwdriver or something that you can pry the two halves of the enclosure apart.

 

[fzabkar]

Is the drive powered from the USB port? If so, then there is a real chance that it integrates the micro-USB connector and USB-SATA bridge chip on the drive's own PCB. In this case a board swap would be much less feasible than a soldering job. This is because modern drives usually store unique, drive specific "adaptive" data in a serial flash memory chip.

Another possible problem may be hardware encryption, in which case your data won't be accessible from within another enclosure.

 

[Glen76]

The exact thing with the usb port just happened to me. Lacie are saying that all they can do is reformat the drive which I do not believe is true. The data is 100% intact and it is not powered via the usb so there should not be a huge problem for them to simply replace the casing under the warranty.

What they actually mean is that yes, they can just replace the casing and all will be fine but as Frank from Lacie pointed out to me "Please Note: Removing the drive's seals by opening the enclosure will void the warranry and as a result the drive will be repaired for a fee in case it is proven defective"

So.....they are just after getting a fee for either data recovery or the casing.

I am going to fight this as I do not believe that they are acting as they should and I further believe that they are acting simply for a fee and not withing the limits of the warranty.

I might lose my fight. The thing to take from all of this is DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH LACIE!

 

[bcashion1]

Did anyone ever get there drive fixed??? The connector is on a little computer chip all they need to do is replace the board and all is fine. there is a way to do it and not break the seal.

 

[lazeray]

Did anyone ever get there drive fixed??? The connector is on a little computer chip all they need to do is replace the board and all is fine. there is a way to do it and not break the seal.

I have twice re-soldered the USB connector back onto the connector board. This is a surface-mount board and a very poor design choice for a mobile drive that will be constantly unplugged and plugged in. Although I was able to get it to work, the flimsy connector has broken off again. I've requested a replacement board for the drive from Lacie and am waiting reply.

The data on your drive should be in-tact, you just need to re-connect to it. I examined the drive for the possibility of just connecting it directly to the PC but again - they have a surface mount connector that contacts an IC chip of some sort with not observable power or SATA connectors anywhere on the drive. Sad. When my Seagate case died, I was able to just remove the drive and insert it directly into my PC's drive bay, hook it up and use a file recovery tool to mount the volume.

 

[fzabkar]

If you can tell me the model number of the actual HDD, I can show you how to convert it to SATA.

 

[descudero72]

I have twice re-soldered the USB connector back onto the connector board. This is a surface-mount board and a very poor design choice for a mobile drive that will be constantly unplugged and plugged in. Although I was able to get it to work, the flimsy connector has broken off again. I've requested a replacement board for the drive from Lacie and am waiting reply.

The data on your drive should be in-tact, you just need to re-connect to it. I examined the drive for the possibility of just connecting it directly to the PC but again - they have a surface mount connector that contacts an IC chip of some sort with not observable power or SATA connectors anywhere on the drive. Sad. When my Seagate case died, I was able to just remove the drive and insert it directly into my PC's drive bay, hook it up and use a file recovery tool to mount the volume.

How did you get the HDD out of the casing? dont want to pull or push, there should be some release parts, as there no screws.
Thanks for your help

 

[brucinho]

How did you get the HDD out of the casing? dont want to pull or push, there should be some release parts, as there no screws.
Thanks for your help

Maybe you already figured this out, but just peel back the rubber feet on the bottom and you find four philips screws, take those off, and that's it. The drive slides right out.
The feet have some adhesive on them and should go back on easily without needing to apply more. Or you could use some double sided tape if needed.

 

[brucinho]

Mine just broke off too, freaked me out. I'm going to solder it back on. Luckily I just figured out how to remove the case, which is very easy. This is my 3rd and last LaCie drive. The previous 2 crashed after only 1 year. No excuse for bad craftsmanship inside although the outside S+ark design is beautiful.

 

[tom-gillia]

Tonight, the usb broke on the inside of my Lacie Stark external hard drive. It wasn't dropped, I was just sitting at the desk when the cord came loose. Figured it was bumped, went to plug it in, and it's gone. Now the little usb piece is hanging out inside the drive. The hard drive shouldn't be damaged right? I'm slightly freaking out, my laptop broke a few days ago, so this was my backup, and the new computer comes tomorrow and now I don't have my hard drive to put on there. Needless to say, it's not a good night/week I've read you can solder the usb back together or take the hard drive out and put in another case, the only problem is I don't know how the heck you'd get it out of this thing, it's a heavy piece of metal with no screws. I'm assuming somehow you can pull/push it out the front or back, but I don't want to risk ruining the data that should still be ok, I just need some help please! I emailed Stark, but wanted to check here, too, I'm guessing they won't recommend me taking it out myself.....thanks!

Hi, how are you doing? I just had the same problem with my lacie hd. Were you able to fix it?