imac won't see La Cie drive

Hello

I have a mid 2011 iMac running latest version of Lion. Just purchased La Cie safe 500gb drive with Firewire 800 and trying to get it running with Time Machine.

First off wouldn't see drive at all, then I read that La Cie will only see 32 bit, so started in 32 and sure enough installed the La Cie software and now can see drive in disk utility (won't appear on desktop otherwise). So the drive is on the desktop and I can verify in disk utility but nothing more. It shows the 10gb of files which are obviously the software, but says I can read only and not partition or anything else. I tried USB as well, just the same. The drive is running fine, powers up no problem.

So when restarting in 64 I find precisely the same situation as above, open disk utility and it appears on desktop but still not accessible, can just verify as before. Also can pull the Firewire lead and still verify, and icon stays on desktop!

Am I missing something obvious?

All suggestions gratefully received!

is it formatted HFS+ or FAT32?

Hi Mike

I just did 'verify' again, and it says 'Checking non-journaled HFS Plus Volume'

Says this whether its plugged in or not!

Martin

Hrm, I'm at a loss. I've seen odd behavior with FW800 and FAT, but not HFS+. Since it's staying 'mounted' when disconnected though, perhaps there are some corrupted SMC settings. I'd start with resetting that, and perhaps PRAM.

I have it from La Cie support in black and white. The D2 Safe Drive software will NOT work with Lion. Everyone please note!

What is the recommended hard drive for Time Machine backup? I would like to know the easiest and most reliable...