Icy dock 4 bay enclosure connected to Mac mini via eSATA does not show hard drives

[Sossity]

I was recently discussing a 4 bay enclosure and using it with my 2011 mac mini via thunderbolt and a lacie esata thunderbolt hub.

I bough this; http://www.amazon.com/Bay-3-5-Sata-Esata-usb/dp/B003CNQPGU

and have connected it via esata to my mac mini through this; http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-eSATA-Hub-controller-eSATA-300/dp/B007SYXER2/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1360661172&sr=1-1&keywords=la+cie+esata+hub

the hub connects to my mac mini via thunderbolt, & the icy dock is connected to the hub via an esata cable. ( I did notice that the esata cable that came with the icy dock had a very sloppy fit when plugged into the lacie hub's esata port, it kept falling out with any bit of movement, & the way it is flat makes it hard to plug in as well.)

I installed a hard drive into one of the trays to see how it works.

I then powered up the icy dock with 1 hard drive installed, & nothing, the icy dock powers up, the hard drive powers up, & the little light shows up showing hard drive access, I can hear the hard drive spinning & running.

but nothing, the hard drive does not mount in mac os.

I went into system profiler, & under thunderbolt, the la cie estata shows up, but then it shows no device connected to it.

what is wrong with the estata? why is it not working?

[OllyW]

The Lacie eSATA Thunderbolt Hub doesn't support port multiplier enclosures so it's not compatible with your Icy Dock.

This thread lists some enclosures which are known to work with the Lacie hub.

[Sossity]

Originally Posted by OllyW

The Lacie eSATA Thunderbolt Hub doesn't support port multiplier enclosures so it's not compatible with your Icy Dock.

This thread lists some enclosures which are known to work with the Lacie hub.

well, thanks for the reply, at least I know now what is wrong,

so essentially, I can only use usb 2.0 if I want to use a multibay port multiplier enclosure with my 2011 mac mini?

are there any esata hubs that I could use with my mac mini with a multibay enclosure?

[OllyW]

Originally Posted by Sossity

well, thanks for the reply, at least I know now what is wrong,

so essentially, I can only use usb 2.0 if I want to use a multibay port multiplier enclosure with my 2011 mac mini?

are there any esata hubs that I could use with my mac mini with a multibay enclosure?

I think the only other Thunderbolt eSATA option is from Sonnet and that has the same port multiplier limitation as the Lacie hub.

[Sossity]

Originally Posted by OllyW

I think the only other Thunderbolt eSATA option is from Sonnet and that has the same port multiplier limitation as the Lacie hub.

I looked at sonnets website & it showed how it could connect to a multi enclosure.

I think this is ridiculous, here is this lauded thunderbolt port, & no peripherals, in my instance, I end up going backward to usb 2.0.

so much for thunderbolt & esata.

so essentially these hubs only work with single bay enclosures, how stupid.

[g4cube]

Originally Posted by Sossity

I looked at sonnets website & it showed how it could connect to a multi enclosure.

I think this is ridiculous, here is this lauded thunderbolt port, & no peripherals, in my instance, I end up going backward to usb 2.0.

so much for thunderbolt & esata.

so essentially these hubs only work with single bay enclosures, how stupid.

The LaCie eSATA hub does work correctly with external multi-bay chassis that have internal RAID controller; presenting all the drives as one logical drive.

Here is a nice article with indication of what does work besides what LaCie states: http://www.barefeats.com/hard153.html

I've used mine with a LaCie 4big Quadra which has an internal RAID controller.

[Sossity]

Originally Posted by g4cube

The LaCie eSATA hub does work correctly with external multi-bay chassis that have internal RAID controller; presenting all the drives as one logical drive.

Here is a nice article with indication of what does work besides what LaCie states: http://www.barefeats.com/hard153.html

I've used mine with a LaCie 4big Quadra which has an internal RAID controller.

would it work with an enclosure running as jobd, just a bunch of drives mode?

[g4cube]

Originally Posted by Sossity

would it work with an enclosure running as jobd, just a bunch of drives mode?

A JBOD would have to have the correct controller to see all drives. This can only be done with a port multiplier.

If you look at something like LaCie's 5big, there are separate SATA busses within to present all 5 drives to the Mac's AHCI driver - three different SATA controllers on the PCIe/Thunderbolt bus.

Alternative is something like the 4big, which has one hardware RAID controller to present the drives in JBOD mode via a translation process in the controller; not via a port multiplier.

Check with Sonnet to see if their Thunderbolt to ExpressCard adapter will support their eSATA ExpressCard with port-multiplier chassis. Perhaps, but a more expensive solution, or look to ATTO for their Thunderbolt to SAS/SATA controllers.

You may ask why this is so difficult.

The eSATA Hub does not require any special driver. It uses the AHCI driver provided within the Mac OS X. Most likely port-multipliers would require a special eSATA driver. Even back in the days of ExpressCards and PCIe and PCI SATA cards, there usually was a requirement to have a driver that supported port-mutipliers.

[Sossity]

Originally Posted by g4cube

A JBOD would have to have the correct controller to see all drives. This can only be done with a port multiplier.

If you look at something like LaCie's 5big, there are separate SATA busses within to present all 5 drives to the Mac's AHCI driver - three different SATA controllers on the PCIe/Thunderbolt bus.

Alternative is something like the 4big, which has one hardware RAID controller to present the drives in JBOD mode via a translation process in the controller; not via a port multiplier.

Check with Sonnet to see if their Thunderbolt to ExpressCard adapter will support their eSATA ExpressCard with port-multiplier chassis. Perhaps, but a more expensive solution, or look to ATTO for their Thunderbolt to SAS/SATA controllers.

You may ask why this is so difficult.

The eSATA Hub does not require any special driver. It uses the AHCI driver provided within the Mac OS X. Most likely port-multipliers would require a special eSATA driver. Even back in the days of ExpressCards and PCIe and PCI SATA cards, there usually was a requirement to have a driver that supported port-mutipliers.

I asked sonnet about their adapters, & they linked me to these 2 items; saying they would work with my icydock 4 bay enclosure.

http://store1.sonnettech.com/product...roducts_id=392

and

http://store1.sonnettech.com/product...roducts_id=176

do these have a chance of working with this connected to my mac & this; http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=33

via esata?

[g4cube]

Originally Posted by Sossity

I asked sonnet about their adapters, & they linked me to these 2 items; saying they would work with my icydock 4 bay enclosure.

http://store1.sonnettech.com/product...roducts_id=392

and

http://store1.sonnettech.com/product...roducts_id=176

do these have a chance of working with this connected to my mac & this; http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=33

via esata?

Spec says:

"FIS-based port multiplier-aware, and works with enclosures with hardware RAID controllers—supports up to 5 disk drives"

for the controller, but doesn't specifically state what port-multiplier casings are compatible. You'll just have to shell out the $$$ and give it a try. You are on the bleeding edge unless you can find someone who has tried this already. Lot's of dollars on the line...

Why not just purchase the devices that are sure to work? You should be able to find a chassis that is eSATA with a built in HW RAID controller and use the eSATA Hub you have. The Sonnet solution: Thunderbolt Adapter + ExpressCard is roughly the same cost, and you already have the Thunderbolt cable. It's a wash, but you would lose the Daisy-chain capability of the LaCie.