I recently bought a Lacie RiKiki usb 3.0 external hdd. My computer is a Sony Vaio VPCF13S0E with two USB 3.0 ports. Spec: Processor System bus 2.5 GT/s Processor family Intel Core i7 L3 Cache 6 MB Chipset Intel PM55 Express Processor Model i7-740QM Processor Clock Speed 1730 MHz Disk drive Total Storage Capacity 500 GB Hard disk interface Serial ATA Hard disk rotational speed 7200 rpm My problem is that I experienced slow file transfers with my LaCie hdd hardy any speed difference at all when comparing to a USB 2.0 hdd. I mailed LaCie about this and they gave me a nice guide how to fix this but it is a very "technical" guide and since my computer technical skills are limited I would like som advice from anyone who has good knowledge about this. I'll post the guide on the next post.
the guide: My name is Alan, and I will be happy to help you with your LaCie product. First of all, I would like to thank you for choosing LaCie, and we appreciate your patience and trust in our products. If I understand your issue correctly, you seem to be having an issue with your drive as it is too slow. I want to let you know that the symptoms indicate there might be volume corruption. As you may know; volume corruption can occur from a variety of causes. To fix this problem, the best way is to reinitialize the drive, then reformat. If a backup of the data is not available, data recovery should be done first. The reformatting process will erase the disk permanently, so it must be recovered prior to attempting to fix anything. IMPORTANT NOTE: Following the procedure below will ERASE ALL DATA on the drive. Prior to following these directions, verify important data is stored securely on a different storage device. Begin by clicking Start, then Run. If "Run" is not available, press the [windows button] and [R] on the keyboard at the same time. In the box, type: cmd Click OK. A DOS window will open. Use a command called "diskpart" to perform the beginning part of the format process. Type: diskpart then press enter. The system will change the prompt to say DISKPART> Next, type list disk, then press enter. Doing so will display a list of all hard drives attached, the size of the drives, and the disk number assigned. Identify the corrupted disk. This can be difficult if there are multiple, identical disks. If this is the case, unplug the drive, then type list disk again. Note which drive is missing, then reconnect it. Type list disk once again to get the new listing, and identify the proper drive. The next step is to target the right disk with the program. Type: select disk followed by the corrupted disk's disk number. In the example, we used the command: select disk 2 Disk 2 is the problematic one, so that was correct. This differs from system to system, so ensure the correct disk is selected. Press enter when ready. Finally, type the command: clean then press enter. This will erase the partition information, and allow a new format to be applied. The message "DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk." The DOS window can be closed, now. The next step is to apply a new format to the disk, and perform a test to see if the drive is physically working properly. Use a program called Disk Management to do this. To access the Disk Management program, press [windows button] + [R] again to open the Run window. Type the command: diskmgmt.msc Click OK. The Disk Management program will open. If a window called the "Initialize and Convert Wizard" appears, click cancel. The top frame lists partition summaries for connected drives. The bottom frame shows how the disks are physically related to these partitions. We are interested primarily in the bottom frame. Look for the disk number selected earlier in the DiskPart program. It should have a different icon (a red arrow, specifically.) Right-click that symbol, and choose to "Initialize Disk". A new window will appear asking for confirmation. Confirm this command. When it has completed, it will now appear like so: Next, space must be allocated to hold files. Computers call these "Partitions." Right-click the area marked "Unallocated", and choose to make a "New Simple Volume." For the following choices presented, the default is the most desirable option. It will set up the entire disk as one drive, make it the Windows file format, and run a read/write test on the drive. Read each question carefully to ensure that it will meet any required needs, as reformatting erases the data, again. Once it has completed, the drive will be accessible. Im very thankful for any advice!
Before doing any stupid formatting. I recommend you find a proper USB 3.0 driver for that laptop. http://esupport.sony.com/EN/VAIO and type in your model VPCF13S0E and should be under Device Driver.
Where exactly are you having the trouble? Is there a particular place in their instructions that baffles you?