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2008 MP - ODD sata ports working?
- Thread starter mrcandy
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ODD only for internal use
I can confirm that the 2 ODD Sata ports only work for internal HDD use.
I have my boot drive moved to one then the other ODD ports, both work without exception.
Neither one worked with the internal to external SATA cable that came with my NexStar enclosure. The drive works through eSATA on my MacBook Pro, so I know it works, but sadly not on the MacPro. Could be a faulty converter cable.
I have the new 2008 Mac Pro Single Quad
I can confirm that the 2 ODD Sata ports only work for internal HDD use.
I have my boot drive moved to one then the other ODD ports, both work without exception.
Neither one worked with the internal to external SATA cable that came with my NexStar enclosure. The drive works through eSATA on my MacBook Pro, so I know it works, but sadly not on the MacPro. Could be a faulty converter cable.
I have the new 2008 Mac Pro Single Quad
I had read that same information and was sure that I had the WD MyBook drive powered up during testing as well. As you've proven that they work, I'll put mine back in it's enclosure and give it another try.
Thanks rtrt that did it, my WD 1TB MyBook external drive is now working.
Since I had the MyBook case apart I also enlarged the opening around the eSATA port since I was never sure the connector was going all the way in properly. It's now a clearance fit and feels much better.
May have been a combination of poor cable fit and power up sequence that originally prevented mine from working properly.
Sure, since I had to take everything apart again anyway, I decided to take some pictures. Taking that front fan unit out only takes a minute now that I've had so much practice!
Pictures are here.
Thanks rtrt that did it, my WD 1TB MyBook external drive is now working.
Since I had the MyBook case apart I also enlarged the opening around the eSATA port since I was never sure the connector was going all the way in properly. It's now a clearance fit and feels much better.
May have been a combination of poor cable fit and power up sequence that originally prevented mine from working properly.
Sure, since I had to take everything apart again anyway, I decided to take some pictures. Taking that front fan unit out only takes a minute now that I've had so much practice!
Pictures are here.
Thanks mate. Incredibly helpful. eSATA is in the post, but still awaiting my MacPro. Very helpful indeed.
Was working - now broken!
Oh man I can't believe I just found this thread. I've been struggling with this for months!
I got a Mac Pro 8 core in August or September 07 with the specific *hopeful* intention of using those two extra ports. Bought the esata extender cable from newertech.com, installed, used two Lacie D2 Quadra external drives with esata, made sure to not hot swap them (plugged in with power off, powered on) and I set the drives to "ON" instead of "auto" so they would not try to power save. *WORKED A TREAT!* for several months in fact, and I even had them raided as a striped array. Superfast, awesome. I was happy. Then, at some point I didn't use them for a few weeks as i was tied up with other work, and in that period I installed the firmware update in November I think it's 1.1, AND leopard. One of these two installations has now BROKEN those two sata ports in the mac. The other four drives bays (all used with 750Gb drives) work perfectly as usual, but the two extras are broken.
At first I thought it was the Lacie drives after suggestion from somebody about chipset incompatibility, but that didn't seem right to me, I tried another drive finally today, a seagate 500Gb external esata, and it also does not work.
Here is what happens:
cold boot with lacie drives (either one or both), system boots, behaves strangely in other words icons take a long time to appear on desktop, and the drive is visible on the desktop, even shows the correct size, name, and available space on the desktop icon, but if you double click it, the window opens but no files show up, then I get the beachball, then the grey curtain comes down, and I need to restart. With the seagate drive, repeatedly, it will just give a grey screen on start up, with no activity. It will not let me even boot into the tiger start up CD if the seagate is plugged in, so that indicates me to this is either a) a hardware defect or b) a firmware issue.
Man I hope I can get some help here, i've tried everywhere and on and off when I had time, been searching all over the place I really need those two extra ports, or, failing that a pci card to provide the equivalent...
HELP!
Thanks,
Oh man I can't believe I just found this thread. I've been struggling with this for months!
I got a Mac Pro 8 core in August or September 07 with the specific *hopeful* intention of using those two extra ports. Bought the esata extender cable from newertech.com, installed, used two Lacie D2 Quadra external drives with esata, made sure to not hot swap them (plugged in with power off, powered on) and I set the drives to "ON" instead of "auto" so they would not try to power save. *WORKED A TREAT!* for several months in fact, and I even had them raided as a striped array. Superfast, awesome. I was happy. Then, at some point I didn't use them for a few weeks as i was tied up with other work, and in that period I installed the firmware update in November I think it's 1.1, AND leopard. One of these two installations has now BROKEN those two sata ports in the mac. The other four drives bays (all used with 750Gb drives) work perfectly as usual, but the two extras are broken.
At first I thought it was the Lacie drives after suggestion from somebody about chipset incompatibility, but that didn't seem right to me, I tried another drive finally today, a seagate 500Gb external esata, and it also does not work.
Here is what happens:
cold boot with lacie drives (either one or both), system boots, behaves strangely in other words icons take a long time to appear on desktop, and the drive is visible on the desktop, even shows the correct size, name, and available space on the desktop icon, but if you double click it, the window opens but no files show up, then I get the beachball, then the grey curtain comes down, and I need to restart. With the seagate drive, repeatedly, it will just give a grey screen on start up, with no activity. It will not let me even boot into the tiger start up CD if the seagate is plugged in, so that indicates me to this is either a) a hardware defect or b) a firmware issue.
Man I hope I can get some help here, i've tried everywhere and on and off when I had time, been searching all over the place I really need those two extra ports, or, failing that a pci card to provide the equivalent...
HELP!
Thanks,