The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer

I have the same problem too on my 2big form lacie . If I use 2x 1,5 tera disk in "fast mode" or in "big mode" my disk manager only shows 746 gigs available (it should be at least 2,5 terra).
If I use "safe mode" so my system can see 1,3 tera available, wich is normal for a raid mirror configuration.
I hope to find a solution quickly.

Let's not take this as a solution so much as an intuition. I believe you may have run up against a limit of physical disk space that XP can administrate.

DO me a favor and don't give my rating a thrashing if I'm wrong.

Best Regards,

Marcus

Try a different "data" cable between your computer and the external disk-drive.

Try connecting the unit to a different computer.
If it fails there, then the unit itself has a problem:
Either:
* the USB-to-disk-drive adapter (inside the casing) has failed;
* the disk-drive (inside the casing) has failed.

Disassemble the external unit, and remove the disk-drive. Connect it as a "slave" disk-drive in some Apple Computer, to see if the data on the disk-drive can still be accessed.

Check with LACIE, to see if their "warranty" is still valid, or if it has expired.

If the drive front LED alternates between Red and Blue, whilst the rear LEDs are normal, then it is a tempertaure warning. Ensure that there is plenty of space around the drive and at the rear.

The hard disk might originally came from a computer with raid 0 configuration that is why no matter what you do to reformat, it will always give you the same drive space as your Raid 0. The solution to your problem is actually deleting the partition first from another computer before formatting.

You will be needing a windows installation disk and you can plugin the big quadra thru the usb cable in another computer. Run the windows installation disk (this could be xp or vista) and when it prompted you to choose a task, just press enter to start windows installation (DO NOT press R to go to recovery console). Next, the system will search of every available partition and will show you the drive partition for your Big Quadra. Select for it and delete the partition from there. After it has been deleted, you can cancel that installation process from that computer and try re-formatting your drive into Raid 5 again as you have been doing before.

Should you have any question, please feel free to ask. Good luck!

Win XP will not be able to recognize whole 3TB storage drive. You need to use some kind of 3rd party utility and then partition it and format as well.. AS a note win xp size is limited up to 80-100 GB.

did you checked disk management? is it formated to basic or dynamic?

One way around is to install Mac Drive on your system. First you format your hdd in HFS+ on a mac platform, with any size you want.Then, after you installed Mac drive on your PC, it will work.

your partition size is incorrect not disk manager

It's all about the interfaces.
The Quadra has four interfaces: • eSATA • FW 400 • FW 800 • USB 2.0
The triple has all but the eSATA interface listed above.
For doing video work you want a big drive with a fast interface. If you have eSATA available then that's the fastest. If you don't then you're just as well off to go with the triple interface. The FW 800 would be the next fastest, then the USB 2.0, then the FW 400.
Because of the way that data is transferred I believe that when doing video work you would be best served by the FW 400 instead of the USB 2.0 even though the USB is faster I don't believe it is a full duplex communication so the FW 400 is actually better for video.