Lacie d2 USB 3.0 User Manual - Page 27

LaCie d2 USB 3.0 • Design by Neil Poulton User Manual Troubleshooting page 27 Problem The drive is not running noticeably faster when connected via USB 3.0. The drive is making clicking noises. The drive does not turn on automatically when connected to the computer. Available disk spaces does not increase after deleting files. After formatting, the drive volume is less than advertised. Question Solutions Is the drive connected to a standard USB (2.0 or 1.1) port on your computer? If your drive is connected to a standard USB (2.0 or 1.1) port, this is normal. A USB 3.0 device can only operate at USB 3.0 performance levels when it is connected directly to a USB 3.0 port. Otherwise, the USB 3.0 device will operate at the slower USB transfer rates. For more information, please see section 1.5. Cables and Connectors. Check to see that the USB 3.0 drivers for both your host bus adapter and device have been installed correctly. If in doubt, uninstall the drivers and re-install them. Also, make sure that you are connected directly to a Hi-Speed USB 3.0 port on your computer. Does your computer or operating system support Hi-Speed USB 3.0? See section 1.2. Minimum System Requirements for more information. Is the sound "soft clicking" or "hard clicking"? Soft clicking can be the normal sound of the drive working. If the drive is functional, this is normal. Drives do not typically give an indication of any problems prior to failure, so it does not mean it is about to fail if the drive is making a clicking sound and still functioning. If the drive is non-functional, there are two possible causes: ✦✦ The drive could be corrupted. Reformatting the drive can solve this issue. ✦✦ The drive could have a failure in the external power supply or power cable. Try using a different one, if possible. Hard clicking is a very noticeable sound, and is akin to hearing metal-on-metal impacts. Hard clicking may be a sign of physical failure. If nothing traumatic happened to the drive prior to this behavior, consider it to be soft clicking, and troubleshoot the problem as suggested above. The automatic power on/off feature works by measuring power changes in the data cable. Unfortunately, not all computers change the amount of power coming from those ports. As the power amount doesn't change, the drive is unaware when to shut down. Verify this by shutting down the computer, then unplug the computer from power for a while. The drive will shut down when the power stops coming from the ports. When a file is deleted, the space used on the disk is not reclaimed until the file is truly erased. The trash (Recycle Bin on Windows) is actually a hidden folder located in each hard drive. To completely delete the file, another step must be performed. To remove the file and reclaim the space, click the Trash icon. A Finder window will appear with an Empty button in the upper right. Click that button. After formatting, the available capacity of a drive will show less than advertised on the box. Simply put, the issue is related strictly to mathematics. The exact same hard drive containing 500,000,000,000 bytes divided by 1,000,000,000 will equal 500GB (as shown on the box by the manufacturer); but divided by 1,073,741,824 by the computer after formatting will show 466GB. Remember, its the same amount of bytes, just divided into "gigabytes" differently.