PowerMac G5 - OS not found

[CptSky]

Hi,

I have a PowerMac G5 (Quad) with two Seagate drives (ST2000DM001) in RAID-0. So, I've around 4 TB... The only problem is that when I turn off the G5 and wait before restarting it, it won't find the OS. I need to use the alt key to show all the boot volume (I'll see both partitions which form the RAID volume).

Well, I've reset the PRAM and I'm thinking that maybe the battery is almost dead so it can't maintains the default boot drive. But, it doesn't seem that I lost the time too, so I'm unsure. Plus, with or without the default boot drive, it should be able to find that the RAID volume is the ONLY bootable partition and boot on it...

Else, the ASD don't find any major problems.

[havokalien]

I believe you gut feeling was correct as the battery needs replaced. The clock as long as the computer is plugged in will retain the time ( unless you hit the power button with computer unplugged ). The capacitors will hold that info for quite a while with the charge built up in them. Also repair permissions aft replacing the battery in the disk utility.

Good luck

[Intell]

Originally Posted by havokalien

I believe you gut feeling was correct as the battery needs replaced. The clock as long as the computer is plugged in will retain the time ( unless you hit the power button with computer unplugged ). The capacitors will hold that info for quite a while with the charge built up in them. Also repair permissions aft replacing the battery in the disk utility.

Good luck

Quad G5's have a lithium coin battery that has a life of at least ten years. They are not due to start dieing anytime soon. Even with a dead battery, the machine will start to look for a bootable volume to boot from. The battery is not the problem.

[drorpheus]

you can run the g5 without the battery, the clock will just reset when it loses power. it sounds like an SATA2/3 jumper problem, i've never used seagate drives so i dont know if you can jumper it down to force it into SATA1, but that should fix the problem. typically put the pin on the 5/6 pins or the 3rd from the left. but again I'm not sure if seagate supports the jumper down, Western Digital does.

heres a seagate thread although it seems that seagate says its not supported, which is stupid.

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Barracu...mper/m-p/70246

[PowerPCMacMan]

Hey,

Check system preferences and goto startup disk.. Are any of your system discs and or system disc highlighted? Choose one and reboot.. it should boot up to the OS.

It could be a dying PRAM battery, but if IntellMR says they last 10 years, then I doubt from 2006 to now its been that long.

[CptSky]

Originally Posted by drorpheus

you can run the g5 without the battery, the clock will just reset when it loses power. it sounds like an SATA2/3 jumper problem, i've never used seagate drives so i dont know if you can jumper it down to force it into SATA1, but that should fix the problem. typically put the pin on the 5/6 pins or the 3rd from the left. but again I'm not sure if seagate supports the jumper down, Western Digital does.

heres a seagate thread although it seems that seagate says its not supported, which is stupid.

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Barracu...mper/m-p/70246

Well, seems to be a logical cause of the problem. I'll check when I have time. It's not really a big problem as the G5 is almost always running or sleeping.

Originally Posted by PowerPCMacMan

Hey,

Check system preferences and goto startup disk.. Are any of your system discs and or system disc highlighted? Choose one and reboot.. it should boot up to the OS.

It could be a dying PRAM battery, but if IntellMR says they last 10 years, then I doubt from 2006 to now its been that long.

Yes. The only bootable volume is selected. Anyway, with a PRAM battery lasting around 10 years, I doubt too. Plus, with or without a working PRAM battery, it would be logical to boot on the only bootable volume...

[PowerPCMacMan]

Also,

It might be a good idea to check on the health of your hard drives. you mentioned you have set up a RAID 0 which will increase speed and performance, but beware... Should one of your drives fail, your data will be lost and or unrecoverable.

Download smart utility by voltans and see if your drives are passing SMART or not. A SERIOUS warning sign that your drive or RAID is FAILING is if the drive does not appear on the desktop and you have trouble mounting it.

[Intell]

Originally Posted by PowerPCMacMan

It could be a dying PRAM battery, but if IntellMR says they last 10 years, then I doubt from 2006 to now its been that long.

At least 10 years. I have some of those old lithium coin batteries still keeping the clock running in really old 1990's computers. I believe their lifespan is about 15 years. That's the age upon which the older Pokémon Red and Blue games start to loose their saved games. Those have the same coin battery in them as well, the good old CR 2032. They're starting to fail in large numbers. Seeing as those games came out in 1998, that'd be about right.

[CptSky]

Originally Posted by PowerPCMacMan

Also,

It might be a good idea to check on the health of your hard drives. you mentioned you have set up a RAID 0 which will increase speed and performance, but beware... Should one of your drives fail, your data will be lost and or unrecoverable.

Download smart utility by voltans and see if your drives are passing SMART or not. A SERIOUS warning sign that your drive or RAID is FAILING is if the drive does not appear on the desktop and you have trouble mounting it.

I'm aware that a RAID-0 setup will loose all data on hard drive failure. But as I have a backup of essential data on a NAS using Time Machine (and most of the rest is not important, so I don't care), it's not an issue.

The drives are new and I tested them with tools as I do with RAM each time I get a new parts. The drives are passing SMART too. (Already using SMART Utility with email notification)

[rickvanr]

LCS? Take a look inside for any signs of leakage, my G5 started acting weird towards the end of it's days

[666sheep]

Isn't this issue caused by ~4TB volume size? 2.2TB APM limit thing (I know, I know, GermanyChris ). It's logical, not physical volume but I believe that it does apply to any volume type.

[Intell]

Originally Posted by 666sheep

Isn't this issue caused by ~4TB volume size? 2.2TB APM limit thing (I know, I know, GermanyChris ). It's logical, not physical volume but I believe that it does apply to any volume type.

It could be. But I thought RAID volumes had different rules when it came to that. One of which being that each physical drive cannot exceed 2.2TB in size.

[666sheep]

Originally Posted by Intell

It could be. But I thought RAID volumes had different rules when it came to that. One of which being that each physical drive cannot exceed 2.2TB in size.

I thought so too. But I've encountered an issue which told me that in some cases limitations of physical volume do apply to logical one. Below example is a little different than OP's case, but it illustrates the idea.

I've built RAID 0 using 2x 120GB drives connected to 28-bit LBA limited onboard controller. Logical volume had ~240GB, OS installed smoothly, booted normally but soon after boot it did freeze.
Tried it another time on different machine uisng PCI card (old Sonnet or Acard with 28-bit LBA) with 2x 80GB (RAID volume ~160GB) drives and this time installation also went smoothly, but volume wasn't even recognized as bootable.

[CptSky]

Originally Posted by 666sheep

[...]Tried it another time on different machine uisng PCI card (old Sonnet or Acard with 28-bit LBA) with 2x 80GB (RAID volume ~160GB) drives and this time installation also went smoothly, but volume wasn't even recognized as bootable.

I know that OS X can't boot on volume attached to a PCI card. The only bootable volume have to be on the motherboard. So, it could be the issue on the second machine.

[Intell]

Originally Posted by CptSky

I know that OS X can't boot on volume attached to a PCI card. The only bootable volume have to be on the motherboard. So, it could be the issue on the second machine.

Mac OS X has been able to boot from a PCI volume ever since Macs had PCI slots.

[CptSky]

Originally Posted by Intell

Mac OS X has been able to boot from a PCI volume ever since Macs had PCI slots.

I've read somewhere, but I can't say where, that if I added a PCIe card with SATAII/III ports in my G5, I would still have to put the boot drive on the motherboard.

I would tend to say that you're right, but it's what I've read.

[666sheep]

Originally Posted by CptSky

I've read somewhere, but I can't say where, that if I added a PCIe card with SATAII/III ports in my G5, I would still have to put the boot drive on the motherboard.

It depends on card. Some are bootable, other are not. Mine was bootable, it worked with these 80GB drives (non-raided) without problems.
BTW, if you want bootable PCIe SATA III card for your Quad, ASM1061 based one should work (according to GermanyChris experience). And it's cheap.

[PowerPCMacMan]

How much is this card and where can I find it? Its good to know SATA III will work on a PowerPC G5 Quad.. I think I could benefit greatly with that.

BTW, if you want bootable PCIe SATA III card for your Quad, ASM1061 based one should work (according to GermanyChris experience). And it's cheap.[/QUOTE]