Need to obtain data from possibly "dead" Lacie hard drive...

Today I went to plug in my Lacie 250 GB USB external hard drive into my 13 in. MacBook to get a shirt template for a design I am making. I discovered that the hard drive just would not mount and show on the desktop, and I remembered that this happened a few days before, but all I did was unplug it and plug it back in, and it worked... except that today, that didn't work at all. I tried the other USB port, and the hard drive showed up on the desktop for about a second, and then disappeared. I kept on replugging it back into both USB ports, but nothing happened.

Then I tried to see if it would work on the PC beside me, and it was recognized as an external device; however, a message came up telling me the drive was malfunctioning. I am guessing this is from ejecting it incorrectly (because I am in a hurry to head to my next classes... I use this laptop at school), but I have incorrectly disconnected it before in the past and this problem never happened to me before.

Every single project I have ever created for my design career is on that hard drive, and all I want now is to get my files back. All I need it to do is show up on the desktop for just the right amount of time for me to copy my files onto my computer.

I read online to put it into the freezer for a while and it should mount, but that didn't work. I tried using Disk Warrior, Data Rescue 3, and Tech Tool Deluxe, but the hard drive did not show up on any of those apps.

I tried plugging the hard drive into an iMac as well, but it did not show up either.

Thanks in advanced... I really need these files, it's about 5 years worth of designs.

Possibility

Did you try a different USB cable?

Did you restart your MacBook? Or try restarting the MacBook with the LaCie already plugged into it?
Does your System Profiler see it?
Wouldn't the PC say that if the LaCie was formatted for the Mac?

I did try a different one. At first I thought it might have been the cable, but it turns out that it had nothing to do with it (that I know of).

maryloud said:

Did you try a different USB cable?

Did you restart your MacBook? Or try restarting the MacBook with the LaCie already plugged into it?
Does your System Profiler see it?
Wouldn't the PC say that if the LaCie was formatted for the Mac?

Click to expand...

I did restart it both ways, and nothing at all can see it. I am not sure why the PC did not say it was formatted for the Mac...

I had a similar issue when my wife shut down her computer in the middle of a Back up i had started without telling her. Try this, worth a shot - take the case off of the LaCie and then remove the multi pin ribbon from its port but leave the smaller power one connected then plug in the power brick and power it on for 10 - 15 secs. Remove power and reinsert the multi pin plug and try to see if it will mount on desktop.

Collin Bl said:

I had a similar issue when my wife shut down her computer in the middle of a Back up i had started without telling her. Try this, worth a shot - take the case off of the LaCie and then remove the multi pin ribbon from its port but leave the smaller power one connected then plug in the power brick and power it on for 10 - 15 secs. Remove power and reinsert the multi pin plug and try to see if it will mount on desktop.

Click to expand...

Mine does not use a power brick because it does not need an external power supply. Will this still work?

Not sure cos have not tried it - u might have to Google USB powered unit.