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SciFrog
Jun 18, 2010, 12:30 AM
Using a Mac Pro 2,1 fitted with 4 750GB drives in RAID 5 with the Apple RAID card. I noticed this computer was fitted with two extra eSATA ports using the two extra SATA ports in the motherboard. So I bought a 2TB Seagate and a 2 bay eSATA enclosure from OWC. Everything worked for a while but the drive started to dissappear once and a while which needed a reboot. But now the drive isn't recognized at startup. I can reformat it with Disk Utility, but if I try to do anything like transfering files it becomes intermittent, or Disk Utility cannot even verify or repair the disk. Then it looses the partition entirely. The disk shows in System Profiler, but sometimes after problems the System Profiler says there was a problem with the SATA bus (an error has occured). Firmware is CC32 which is old. I bought a new drive and the same problem occurs, this one has firmware CC35. I tried to switch cables and ports, same thing.

I am a bit at a loss what to do.


CaptainChunk
Jun 18, 2010, 01:55 PM
Hmmm...

Do you have different make/model drive lying around you throw into the OWC enclosure to see if the problem repeats itself? If two of the same Seagate drive (albeit different firmware) are causing the same issues, it could be an incompatibility between that particular drive and the enclosure.

I run eSATA enclosures from my Mac Pro all the time with no issues.
SciFrog
Jun 19, 2010, 06:30 AM
No other enclosure or drives...
Loa
Jun 19, 2010, 06:55 AM
Hello,

I presume you bought 2 SATA to eSATA cables. How did you get those cables to go from inside your Mac to the external enclosure?

Also, did you get this enclosure:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MESATATBEK/

Loa
SciFrog
Jun 19, 2010, 09:29 AM
Yes it is this enclosure. TheSATA internal to eSATA external is the simple dual kit sold everywhere.
Loa
Jun 19, 2010, 09:56 AM
Yes it is this enclosure. TheSATA internal to eSATA external is the simple dual kit sold everywhere.

Ok. Your drives are as close to being internal as you can get, so it's not likely that your set-up is the problem.

I don't think there's much you can do except run diagnostics on those drives, using tools like Tech Tools Pro or Diskwarrior.

Is there any critical, un-backed-up info on the drives?

Loa
SciFrog
Jun 20, 2010, 12:33 PM
Nothing critical, all backed up... Very annoying.