How We Saved a LaCie 2big 20TB in 2 Days: Mac Time Machine RAID 1 Recovery Case Study

LaCie Data Recovery: A 2big 20TB Drive from a Sydney Mac User

David is a Mac user from Sydney whose LaCie 2big 20TB external hard drive simply stopped being detected. He’d already done the obvious troubleshooting himself: tried a new power supply, swapped the Thunderbolt and USB-C cables, plugged it into different ports. None of it changed the result. The Mac couldn’t see the drive at all. He brought the LaCie to Payam Data Recovery’s lab in Rhodes, New South Wales, where owner Payam Toloo took the case on. This LaCie data recovery case study walks through what was actually wrong inside the enclosure (it wasn’t either of the drives), how the unit’s actual RAID configuration turned out to be a plea

sant surprise, and how the data came back in two days at the lab’s most affordable service tier. If you’re looking for the matching service, see our hard drive data recovery service.

 

The Problem: A LaCie 2big That the Mac Couldn’t See

The LaCie 2big is a two-drive external enclosure popular with Mac creative pros for video editing, photography archives, and Time Machine backups. It connects via Thunderbolt or USB-C, looks elegant on a desk, and combines two internal drives behind a hardware RAID controller built into the enclosure itself. When the drive doesn’t appear on the Mac at all (no Disk Utility entry, no “drive not readable” prompt, nothing in System Information), the failure point is rarely the drives themselves. The failure is usually inside the enclosure: the RAID controller chip, the power conversion circuitry, or the bridge board that translates Thunderbolt/USB-C to SATA for the internal drives.

David had already ruled out the easy stuff. New power supply: didn’t help. Different cables: didn’t help. Different ports and different Macs: didn’t help. That pattern of symptoms made the failure inside the enclosure almost certain.

The first concern with any LaCie data recovery on a 2big enclosure is what RAID mode the unit was set up in. LaCie 2big units shipped with Thunderbolt or USB-C are typically configured at the factory or by the customer in RAID 0 for maximum speed. RAID 0 stripes data across both drives, doubling sequential read and write performance for video work, but if one drive fails, every byte written across both drives becomes unreadable because half of every file is gone. The alternative is RAID 1 (mirroring), where both drives carry an identical copy of the data. RAID 1 is half the capacity and slower than RAID 0 on writes, but it survives a single drive failure cleanly.

Knowing which mode the customer’s unit was running in changes the recovery path completely. RAID 0 LaCie data recovery on a unit with a failed enclosure controller and unstable internal drives is a complex job. RAID 1 is one of the simplest jobs in the lab.

The LaCie Data Recovery Process

Step one of the LaCie data recovery was to take the enclosure apart and pull the two internal drives. Inside the LaCie 2big sat two Seagate 10TB SATA hard drives. The enclosure itself, with its RAID controller and Thunderbolt/USB-C bridge board, was set aside. The drives went straight onto a drive dock connected to the recovery workstation.

Both drives mounted immediately. That was the first surprise. If the unit had been running RAID 0, the individual drives would have shown raw striped data with no recognisable file system on either one (a RAID 0 stripe is not readable as a standalone disk because half of every file is on the other drive). Instead, both drives presented as cleanly mounted Time Machine volumes. Each volume held approximately 6TB of identical data.

Two Time Machine volumes with identical content meant the LaCie 2big was actually running RAID 1, not RAID 0. The hardware RAID controller in the failed enclosure had been mirroring David’s Time Machine backups across both drives the whole time. Each drive was a complete, standalone copy of the data. The “failure” of the LaCie wasn’t a data emergency at all. It was an enclosure failure on a unit that, by virtue of being mirrored, had a built-in second copy of the data sitting on the other drive.

Step two of the LaCie data recovery was to consolidate the recovered data onto a fresh drive that would work with David’s Mac directly. He’d supplied a new 10TB drive as the target. The target was formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Case-Sensitive), which is the format Time Machine uses on a non-APFS backup volume. Carbon Copy Cloner was used to make a complete file-by-file copy from one of the recovered Time Machine volumes onto the new drive. Carbon Copy Cloner preserves the Time Machine backup structure intact, including the hard links that Time Machine uses to deduplicate snapshots, so the resulting drive is a working Time Machine volume rather than just a folder of recovered files.

The clone took approximately 12 hours, which is normal for a 6TB Time Machine volume across HFS+ with millions of small files and hard links involved. From start to finish (intake, dock-up, RAID assessment, target drive formatting, Carbon Copy Cloner clone, verification, customer pickup), David’s full LaCie data recovery closed in 2 days.

LaCie Data Recovery Results

David’s complete data set came back. Both Time Machine volumes were preserved during the recovery (one was used as the source for the clone, the other was kept aside as a verified backup of the source data) and the new 10TB target drive went home as a working Time Machine volume he could plug straight into his Mac.

The faulty LaCie 2big enclosure itself was set aside for warranty replacement. The internal RAID controller in the enclosure had failed, which is the most common fault profile for these units when the symptom is “Mac doesn’t see the drive at all”. With LaCie’s warranty handling that side of things, David’s only out-of-pocket cost on the recovery was the basic backup service rate of $375 plus the cost of the new 10TB drive he’d supplied.

Why Professional LaCie Data Recovery Matters

The reason this case looked simple to the lab is the same reason it would have looked impossible to David at home. The LaCie 2big enclosure had failed. From the Mac’s perspective the drive didn’t exist any more. There’s no consumer software that fixes that, because the failure is on the hardware path between the Mac and the drives, not in the file system on the drives themselves. A Mac user who tries the obvious things (new cables, new power supply, different ports) and gets nowhere has effectively run out of consumer options.

The next temptation is to pull the drives out and try to plug them into a Mac directly. That step actually does work for LaCie data recovery from a failed enclosure, but it requires SATA hardware most Mac users don’t own. Modern Macs don’t have internal SATA ports any more. There’s no built-in way to read a bare 3.5″ SATA drive on an iMac, MacBook, Mac Mini, or Mac Studio. You need a SATA-to-USB drive dock, an enclosure, or a PCIe expansion card on a Mac Pro. Most Mac users have none of those. That’s the practical reason these jobs come into the lab even when, technically, the data is fine on the drives themselves.

Once the drives are dock-mounted, the rest depends on what RAID mode the unit was in. RAID 1 LaCie data recovery is straightforward, exactly as David’s case turned out. RAID 0 is far more complex because the data has to be reassembled from the stripe across both drives, requiring RAID rebuild software like UFS Explorer to detect the stripe size and drive order. The lab handles both, but the difference in complexity (and price) is significant.

For background on how RAID 0 and RAID 1 differ in practice, the Wikipedia article on standard RAID levels covers the read/write performance and redundancy trade-offs. For more on the HFS+ Journaled Case-Sensitive file system Time Machine uses, the Wikipedia article on HFS Plus explains the journaling and metadata structures that have to be preserved during a clone.

Payam Data Recovery is also listed by Apple as a recommended data recovery provider, alongside DriveSavers and Ontrack, on Apple’s official support page. According to that page, products that have had data recovery performed by an Apple-recommended company can still be returned to Apple for service, and Apple won’t exclude coverage on the basis of any modifications made during recovery. The cost of the recovery itself isn’t covered by Apple’s warranty, and devices that failed due to drops, impact or liquid damage aren’t eligible for warranty exchange anyway, but for Mac users sending Apple-ecosystem cases like a LaCie Time Machine recovery, the Apple-recommended status matters.

LaCie Data Recovery Service Tiers

LaCie data recovery jobs are quoted after a free assessment, because the work depends on which mode the RAID controller was set to (RAID 0 vs RAID 1), whether the drives themselves have any physical faults, and whether the file system on the drives is intact. Three turnaround tiers are available so customers can pick what fits their situation:

Basic Backup Service. The lab’s most affordable tier, used for cases like David’s where the drives are healthy and the recovery is essentially a clone-onto-new-media job. $375 plus the cost of the new target drive (which the customer can supply, as David did, or buy through the lab). Turnaround typically 1 to 3 days.

Economy. The right LaCie data recovery choice for cases that need real recovery work but where you’re working to a tight budget. Economy LaCie jobs typically run $350 to $4,000 depending on which RAID mode, the file system state, and whether either drive has bad sectors. Turnaround 5 to 10 business days.

Priority and Emergency. Faster paths through the lab for jobs where waiting isn’t an option. Priority turns around in 2 to 4 business days. Emergency runs 24/7 with typical turnaround of 24 to 72 hours. Pricing for both tiers is quoted on the free assessment.

For most LaCie data recovery jobs the lab works on a No Fix, No Fee basis: there’s no upfront cost and you only pay if the data is recovered. For cases requiring component-level repair on either internal drive (head swap, motor swap, PCB), an attempt fee of $500 applies. The attempt fee is part of the total quoted price, not added on top. We always provide a free assessment first.

Because every step happens in house in Australia, there are no overseas handoffs and no waiting on a third-party lab to schedule your job.

Frequently Asked Questions About LaCie Data Recovery

Q: My LaCie 2big has stopped being detected by my Mac. Is the data lost?
Almost never. The most common failure mode on these units is the RAID controller inside the enclosure itself, not the internal drives. David’s LaCie 2big 20TB was completely undetectable on his Mac despite him trying new power supplies and cables, but both internal Seagate 10TB drives mounted cleanly the moment they came out of the enclosure and went onto a drive dock. The data was always there. The enclosure was the failure.

Q: How do I know if my LaCie 2big is in RAID 0 or RAID 1 before I send it in?
Without opening the enclosure or referring to the original setup notes, you usually can’t tell. Both modes look the same to the Mac when the unit works. The default factory configuration on Thunderbolt and USB-C 2big units is typically RAID 0 for performance, but customers (and resellers) often switch units to RAID 1 for the Time Machine use case. David’s unit turned out to be RAID 1 even though both he and the lab assumed it might be RAID 0 on intake. The free assessment confirms which mode is actually in use.

Q: What’s the difference between RAID 0 and RAID 1 for LaCie data recovery?
RAID 0 stripes data across both drives. If the LaCie enclosure fails or one drive fails, the data has to be reassembled from the stripe before it can be read. That’s a real recovery job involving RAID rebuild software like UFS Explorer to detect stripe size and drive order. RAID 1 mirrors the same data across both drives. Each drive is a complete standalone copy of the data, so if the enclosure fails, recovery is essentially a copy-onto-new-media job. RAID 1 is far simpler, faster, and cheaper to recover from.

Q: Can I just take the drives out of my LaCie and plug them into my Mac myself?
Technically the drives can be read directly when they come out of a failed enclosure, but most Mac users don’t have the SATA hardware to do it. Modern Macs don’t have internal SATA ports, and reading bare 3.5″ SATA drives requires a USB drive dock or enclosure that most Mac users don’t own. There’s also a non-trivial risk during the disassembly: getting the enclosure apart cleanly without breaking SATA connectors or damaging cables takes care, and a reseller-supplied unit may have warranty seals that you’d void by opening it. The lab handles all of that, plus the file system formatting and Carbon Copy Cloner work that consolidates the recovered data onto a working Mac volume.

Q: Will recovering my LaCie data with Payam affect my Mac warranty?
The recovered data goes onto a separate target drive, not back into the Mac, so Mac warranty isn’t affected by the LaCie data recovery itself. More broadly, Payam Data Recovery is listed by Apple as a recommended data recovery provider on Apple’s official support page, alongside DriveSavers and Ontrack. Per Apple’s published policy, products that have had data recovery performed by an Apple-recommended company can still be returned to Apple for service. Apple’s warranty doesn’t cover the cost of data recovery itself, and storage devices that failed due to drops, impact or liquid damage aren’t eligible for warranty exchange regardless of whether recovery was performed.

Q: How long does LaCie data recovery take?
David’s case closed in 2 days end to end on the basic backup service. Standard turnarounds run 1 to 3 days for basic backup service jobs, 5 to 10 business days for Economy, and 2 to 4 business days for Priority. The clone step alone usually takes 8 to 12 hours for a multi-terabyte Time Machine volume because of the millions of hard links Time Machine creates between snapshots.

Q: What does the basic backup service cost?
$375 plus the cost of the new target drive. The basic backup service tier is for cases where the source drives are healthy and the work is essentially a clone onto fresh media (like David’s case). It’s the lab’s most affordable option and is the right tier for a high proportion of LaCie data recovery jobs where the failure is in the enclosure rather than the drives themselves. The free assessment confirms whether your case fits this tier.

Q: I’m not based in Australia. How does shipping and customs work?
Start with our free quote form so you can see whether the indicative pricing fits your budget. If it does, fill out the submit-a-job form to receive a job number and delivery instructions, then ship the LaCie unit in via a trusted international courier (FedEx, DHL, or UPS work well). On the customs declaration, the items should be declared as faulty hardware for repair with a very low declared value. The drives aren’t being sold or bought, they are faulty for repair, so a low value is accurate and avoids unjustified customs duties or import taxes. We organise return shipping at the end of the job, and we can upload urgent files to Google Drive or another cloud service if you need them before the physical drive lands back with you.

Q: What should I do right now if my LaCie has stopped being detected?
Stop trying to reconnect it repeatedly. Each unsuccessful connection attempt with a faulty enclosure controller can stress the controller chip further, and on a unit running RAID 0 there’s a small risk of the controller writing inconsistent metadata to one or both drives during a failed bring-up. Power the LaCie off, disconnect it, and bring it in for a free assessment. Don’t disassemble the enclosure yourself if it’s still under warranty: the warranty seals usually prohibit customer disassembly.

About Payam Data Recovery

Payam Data Recovery is an Australian company, in business since 1998, with more than 150,000 successful recoveries to date including thousands of LaCie data recovery jobs and other external Mac drive cases. Every recovery happens in our own labs in Sydney, Rhodes (where David’s case was handled), Melbourne and Brisbane, with drop-off points in Adelaide and Perth and free shipping both ways inside Australia. Our equipment includes Ace Lab PC-3000, DeepSpar Disk Imager, Atola Insight Forensic, and UFS Explorer Professional Recovery, plus a Class 100 cleanroom for any physical drive work. Payam Data Recovery is also listed by Apple as a recommended data recovery provider, alongside DriveSavers and Ontrack, on Apple’s official support page. Nothing is ever outsourced. The team that opens the assessment is the same team that finishes the recovery, start to finish. We regularly take international cases referred by managed IT service providers, IT managers, and other data recovery companies from around the world. Visit our homepage or read more about our hard drive data recovery service.

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Video Transcript (click to expand)

Hi, it’s Mike, and today I’m visiting Payam Data Recovery’s lab in Rhodes, New South Wales, to go behind the scenes and see how they recover data from a LaCie 2big 20TB external hard drive. I’m meeting with the owner, Payam Toloo, who’s working on a case from David in Sydney. The drive wasn’t being detected on his Mac despite trying a new power supply and cables.

Payam explained that LaCie units with Thunderbolt or USB-C are usually set up as RAID 0 for speed, where data is split across both drives for performance. But RAID 0 means if one drive fails, all data is lost. The alternative is RAID 1, also called mirroring, where both drives contain identical data for redundancy.

Payam removed both Seagate 10TB drives and plugged them into his drive dock. Surprise: two Time Machine volumes mounted with identical data, about 6TB on each. This was RAID 1, not RAID 0, which was an easy recovery.

Payam plugged in a blank 10TB drive, formatted it as Mac OS Extended Journaled Case-Sensitive, the same formatting Time Machine uses, then used Carbon Copy Cloner to make a complete copy. This would take about 12 hours.

This is what Payam calls a basic backup service, their most affordable option at $375 plus the cost of a new drive David purchased. Many Mac users can’t plug into SATA drives themselves, so Payam handles it professionally. David got his data back in 2 days at the Rhodes lab.

The LaCie enclosure likely has a faulty RAID controller and will be sent for warranty replacement. Payam always offers free assessments. If it’s quick and easy, they keep costs low. If you have a similar LaCie problem, contact Payam Data Recovery.