[john crossley]

Just taken delivery of a LaCie D2 Quadra external hard drive.
Followed the instructions to connect to the PC.
Double clicked on the LaCie icon as instructed.
Launched the LaCie set up assistant to optimize the drive.

At the end of the final stage message appears "failed to optimize"

Now I can't do anything with it.

Is it me, or the drive at fault.

[Chris H]

What operating system are you using mate

[silkstone]

Faulty drives are not unknown (eh Chris? ) and (assuming you're using Windows) you could look in Disk Manager to see what it makes of it. You can then reformat the drive but you'll lose whatever was on it.

I wonder what the set-up optimiser was supposed to do? These things are usually just PnP and the only software you get (if any) is a backup application.

[AQ]

I have a company Lacie external drive and it was just plug and it works faultlessly out of the box. I would just send it straight back.

[Dave Canon]

I had a Free Agent Pro external Hard Drive last October and that gave me problems from the outset. I eventually recorded and error message and returned it to the retailer requesting a new replacement which I received. The replacement has worked fine.

Dave

[john crossley]

Originally Posted by silkstone

I wonder what the set-up optimiser was supposed to do? These things are usually just PnP and the only software you get (if any) is a backup application.

From what little I know it formats the disc and gives access to the instruction manual and othersoftware. If you don't optimize you cannot use the disc or access any of the pre installed software.
You can format the disc manually, but why should I when it is supposed to it for you. Maybe my expectations are to high - wanting something to do what it says it will do.

It's now on its way back to the supplier.

I've also sent a pompose letter to the managing director of LaCie.

I had a Free Agent Pro external Hard Drive last October and that gave me problems from the outset. I eventually recorded and error message and returned it to the retailer requesting a new replacement which I received. The replacement has worked fine.

Dave
I bought a Free Agent back end of last year - it lasted 3 days.

[Charlotte]

John, you didn't answer Chris re: what OS you use. I've been looking at getting an external HD and picked up a tip from the reviews I've read (on Amazon), and that is to reformat it to NTFS, especially if you use Vista, because the Ext. HDD will likely have been formatted to the FAT system. I'm not a PC expert, but I'd follow that advice simply because a lot of reviewers indicated that it was important. Thought I'd pass it on to you anyway.

[silkstone]

NTFS is the native filesystem of XP and Vista, but both should be able to read FAT32 drives. Many external drives come formatted NTFS these days. One drawback of FAT32 is that there's a maximum file size of 4GB - that may not seem important unless you use backup or imaging software that puts everything into a huge ZIP file, which is likely to be much larger than the 4GB limit.

One reason for using FAT32 is compatibility between different operating systems (Windows / Mac / Linux) all of which will read and write FAT32, but not necessarily NTFS. Obviously this isn't an issue if you are Windows-only (or use the latest versions of Linux which can read/write NTFS).

[VinnyP]

Only after I had a LaCie external go belly up did I read all the reports; they do seem to have more problems than most. Despite returning it after 8 months I got a full refund without having to wait for a replacement or repair because of all the problems they had had with them.

[Charlotte]

Which dealer was that Vinny?

[VinnyP]

overclockers.co.uk

Edit sorry on checking it was IT247.com and it was the LaCie Big Disk 1TB