So, I came across this LaCie D2 Quadra 1TB external hard drive.
It's a pretty slick looking little drive, and aesthetically it fits in well with many workspaces. I can see it being something I keep on my desk for regular backups and archiving. It features number of connection interfaces, including FireWire 400, Dual FireWire 800, USB 2.0 and eSATA.
Of course, that doesn't even begin to tell the story of this drive. LaCie drives are notorious for their power supply issues. You didn't think I could just find a free LaCie Quadra without some kind of a catch, did you? This drive would click over and over when powered on as the voltage out of the power supply dropped whenever a load was applied. The challenge I faced was sourcing a replacement power adapter without shelling out $70 for yet another flaky LaCie adapter. The supplied LaCie adapter is rated for 12v, 3A and uses a 2.5mm barrel type connector. Every power adapter I could find with a compatible rating used a 2.0mm barrel connector and therefore wasn't sufficient for the task.
The solution, make it work.
The donor 12v, 5A power adapter thankfully used separate positive and negative cables, which made soldering the wires to the replacement 2.5mm barrel head (only $2.45 AU for a brand new one) only too easy, once I figured out how to make it strong enough. I ended up looping the copper wire cores through the holes in the tabs and soldering them on both sides. Some copper is still exposed at the tips, but it makes no difference. Give it a sharp pull and those wires don't even budge. They're perfectly fine.
With the cap screwed into place over the solder work, it looks and feels very professional.
Best of all, it takes the flaky LaCie power supply out of the loop and provides an additional 2A overhead over the factory adapter.
Of course, now that I am able to power up the Quadra, it became apparent that the 1TB Seagate 7200 hard drive inside the enclosure was well and truly dead. It won't partition, it won't format, it won't mount, it won't read, it won't write. Having come this far though, and having a spare 1TB Seagate 7200 drive around the place, I decided it was worth bringing this to completion. Thankfully there's no glue or tape in these enclosures, so swapping it over was a breeze, and it now works beautifully.
It's my new backup drive and by far my favourite external drive enclosure. It certainly helps a little as well when you make it yourself and know that you did a top-notch job on it. I have every bit of faith in the work on this drive and look forward to using it, even if it is just an external hard drive.
Next up, the Time Capsule conversion. I'll leave that one for another day.
Cheers,
Mic.
It's a pretty slick looking little drive, and aesthetically it fits in well with many workspaces. I can see it being something I keep on my desk for regular backups and archiving. It features number of connection interfaces, including FireWire 400, Dual FireWire 800, USB 2.0 and eSATA.
Of course, that doesn't even begin to tell the story of this drive. LaCie drives are notorious for their power supply issues. You didn't think I could just find a free LaCie Quadra without some kind of a catch, did you? This drive would click over and over when powered on as the voltage out of the power supply dropped whenever a load was applied. The challenge I faced was sourcing a replacement power adapter without shelling out $70 for yet another flaky LaCie adapter. The supplied LaCie adapter is rated for 12v, 3A and uses a 2.5mm barrel type connector. Every power adapter I could find with a compatible rating used a 2.0mm barrel connector and therefore wasn't sufficient for the task.
The solution, make it work.
The donor 12v, 5A power adapter thankfully used separate positive and negative cables, which made soldering the wires to the replacement 2.5mm barrel head (only $2.45 AU for a brand new one) only too easy, once I figured out how to make it strong enough. I ended up looping the copper wire cores through the holes in the tabs and soldering them on both sides. Some copper is still exposed at the tips, but it makes no difference. Give it a sharp pull and those wires don't even budge. They're perfectly fine.
With the cap screwed into place over the solder work, it looks and feels very professional.
Best of all, it takes the flaky LaCie power supply out of the loop and provides an additional 2A overhead over the factory adapter.
Of course, now that I am able to power up the Quadra, it became apparent that the 1TB Seagate 7200 hard drive inside the enclosure was well and truly dead. It won't partition, it won't format, it won't mount, it won't read, it won't write. Having come this far though, and having a spare 1TB Seagate 7200 drive around the place, I decided it was worth bringing this to completion. Thankfully there's no glue or tape in these enclosures, so swapping it over was a breeze, and it now works beautifully.
It's my new backup drive and by far my favourite external drive enclosure. It certainly helps a little as well when you make it yourself and know that you did a top-notch job on it. I have every bit of faith in the work on this drive and look forward to using it, even if it is just an external hard drive.
Next up, the Time Capsule conversion. I'll leave that one for another day.
Cheers,
Mic.
