LaCie’s premium external hard drives are favoured by photographers, video editors and creative studios: the Rugged portables with their distinctive orange bumpers, the desktop d2 drives, and the 2big and 6big multi-drive units. Owned by Seagate, they are typically well built, but they fail like any drive, and the multi-bay models add a RAID twist that is easy to get wrong. Here is how LaCie recovery works.
LaCie’s single drives (Rugged and d2) are externals that are often encrypted, so they should be sent as a complete unit. The 2big and 6big are configured as RAID units, where one failed disk can mean data loss, and forcing a rebuild after a failure will further degrade your chances of recovering the data.
The LaCie line-up breaks neatly into two categories: single-drive products and multi-drive products. The single-drive products include the iconic Rugged portables (the orange rubber-bumpered drives you see on film sets), the Mobile Drive and the desktop d2. These are essentially a single disk in a smart enclosure, usually connected by USB-C or Thunderbolt. The multi-drive products (the 2big, 5big and 6big) contain two or more disks configured as a RAID array. Each type requires a quite different approach to recovery, so the first thing to establish is whether you have a single-drive or a multi-drive unit.
Single-disk models (Rugged, Mobile Drive, d2) are much like any external drive when recovering data, with one familiar caveat: many are encrypted, whether by LaCie’s own security or through the Thunderbolt/USB bridge, so the bare disk removed from the case can read as unformatted. As with any encrypted external, we recommend sending the complete unit instead of “shucking” it, so we can decrypt the data in its original hardware. Underneath, these drives fail just like any other (mechanical head or motor faults, bad sectors, board damage), and a single LaCie external is from £300 +VAT.
The multi-bay units need extra caution, because they’re RAID arrays and behave accordingly. A 2big is often set up as RAID 0 (striped across both disks for maximum speed and capacity, with no redundancy), so if either disk fails, you lose the entire volume and need recovery. Larger units like the 5big and 6big may use RAID 5 or 6, which can survive losing a disk, but rebuilding them poses the same risks as any parity RAID. The mistake to avoid is the same across all of them: never force a rebuild or re-initialise the unit after a failure. Instead, every disk is imaged read-only first and the array rebuilt offline, the approach explained in our RAID rebuild guide. A multi-bay LaCie RAID is from £500 +VAT.
Whether it’s a single Rugged that has been dropped one too many times or a 2big that has lost a disk, LaCie failures can be recovered with the proper handling. A single drive is repaired just enough to read, then imaged read-only. Multi-bay units have each disk imaged separately, then the RAID is rebuilt offline from the images, so nothing further is written to the original disks. Please send a single drive as a complete unit; for a multi-bay unit, either send the entire unit or all of its disks labelled in bay order. Single drives start from £300 +VAT and multi-bay RAID units from £500 +VAT, always with a free diagnostic and a fixed written quote prior to commencing work, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
Yes. Individual LaCie drives such as the Rugged and d2 are treated much like any other external drive: enough repair is done to allow us to read the drive, then it is imaged read-only. Multi-drive units like the 2big and 6big are RAID configurations, so they are imaged drive by drive and then rebuilt offline. Single drives are from £300 plus VAT and multi-bay RAID units from £500 plus VAT, after a free diagnostic.
Send the unit in its entirety. Many single-disk LaCie units are encrypted, by LaCie security or through the Thunderbolt or USB bridge, so the bare disk removed from its case can read as unformatted. Keeping it assembled lets the data be decrypted in its original hardware. If you are unsure, sending the unit complete is always the safe choice.
Usually, yes, and this is quite common. Many 2big units are in a RAID 0 configuration for better performance, but there’s no redundancy at all, so when one drive fails you lose access to the entire volume. The array is recovered by imaging both drives read-only and rebuilding it offline. Do not force a rebuild or re-initialise it. A RAID recovery is from £500 plus VAT.
Almost certainly because of RAID 0. LaCie’s multi-bay devices are frequently shipped in RAID 0, which stripes data across both disks to provide the greatest possible storage and speed at the expense of having no redundancy; therefore, if either disk fails, the entire volume is lost. That being said, the data is still recoverable from the disks by rebuilding the array offline, but it needs proper recovery rather than a rebuild.
Recovering a single LaCie device such as a Rugged or d2 is from £300 plus VAT, and a multi-bay RAID device such as a 2big or 6big is from £500 plus VAT. The exact cost depends on the type of fault and is confirmed in a fixed written quotation after a free diagnostic, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
Dropped a Rugged, or got a 2big that has lost a disk? Simply send us the complete unit and we will take images and rebuild it offline, with a free diagnostic and a fixed quote first.