Slow SATA performance on Mac Pro in XP/Bootcamp

[MacProGuy]

Thanks for the info. I have read many of your posts on the various forums and I know you tried hard to resolve the issue. Too bad Apple is quiet on this as they might have saved some sales.

I will hold off ordering my Mac Pro until they get this fixed as well. Since mine will be loaded with 4gb ram and the quadro card for CAD work, I want to be sure it is right as well. I need a machine soon to bring into a large corporation (almost all Dell) for consulting work. Bringing an Apple in would be fun.

Makes you wonder how many units Apple is missing out on due to this issue!

Apple's infuriatingly silent treatment was one of the reasons I took my MacPro back.

If they'd just have acknowledge the problem, and that they planned a fix... ANYTIME, I'd have kept it.

I could NOT afford to take that chance.

The last time I was burned by Apple was a PowerPC 7300...

OMG... had a software glitch that didn't allow it to connect to the internet... for almost 6 months before it got fixed.

Left them for 3 years when that happened.

yeesh...

 

[RichP]

On one hand, its not really an Apple priority, because are asking for a fix to a beta program that runs an OS they dont support. Not like OSX is having issues.

That being said, a major selling point of these machines to businesses and indviduals is their windows ability. Its a relatively inexpensive workstation, that can offer some good features (such as OSX without being boxxed into only OSX progs) It kept me from buying one, between Rosetta not running well (as expected) AND poor windows performance, the only thing this machine is going to do better is run Firefox and iTunes, which dont exactly need more speed...


Has anyone tried a SATA card controller in a macpro? Could shed some light on the situtation, or be an in-term solution.

 

[ctishue]

Has anyone tried a SATA card controller in a macpro? Could shed some light on the situtation, or be an in-term solution.

This is exactly what I am thinking of doing. I am considering getting a PCI-E SATA2 card that works in both Windows and OS X natively. I'll then put an external drive on the card for Windows use. If anyone else has the extra parts laying around to try this before I buy the card, that would be great.

Also if anyone could reccomend a good PCI-E card with external e.sata ports, I would be most appreciative.

 

[sirnh]

This is exactly what I am thinking of doing. I am considering getting a PCI-E SATA2 card that works in both Windows and OS X natively. I'll then put an external drive on the card for Windows use. If anyone else has the extra parts laying around to try this before I buy the card, that would be great.

Also if anyone could reccomend a good PCI-E card with external e.sata ports, I would be most appreciative.

You may find that your PCI-E sata card won't be recognized by the EFI/CSM for the purposes of booting, but they should work fine once the OS is loaded... if you can figure out how to manage the cabling issues.

 

[chrismmx]

You may find that your PCI-E sata card won't be recognized by the EFI/CSM for the purposes of booting, but they should work fine once the OS is loaded... if you can figure out how to manage the cabling issues.

that would be great! can someone who have the MAC PRO try it, pease!

 

[Mr. Mister]

Somebody should call Apple Support just to see if they have even just a canned response for this that might shed some light on it.

 

[ctishue]

Cabling wouldn't be an issue as I'd make the drive external and use the e.sata connector. I'm sure windows would pick it up fine with the right drivers after booting, but I don't know that it would be possible to boot from it in the first place...sigh....there has to be some workaround for now. I want to toss my PC out the window!!! Please Apple!!! =D

 

[The Inevitable]

As an alternative, you could use an external FireWire 800 drive as your Windows drive, as Windows boots just fine from external drives. It should be just as fast as an internal HD, since FireWire 800's theoretical bandwidth is greater than any single hard drive can deliver. I couldn't say how fast it is in practice, however, because I don't own a FW800 drive.

For $75 + shipping, you can get a FW800 enclosure. Macally's drive enclosures have always been very good in my experience.

People in this thread have posted their experiences with installing Windows onto external FireWire and USB drives. Notably, posts #11 and #15 explain how to install to an external HD. Despite others saying that it shouldn't be possible to boot from an external HD, it is perfectly possible (post #22 gives a possible explanation on why it does work).

 

[ctishue]

Hmmm thanks. I'll look into that. If Firewire 800 is fast enough to run Windows and PC games without noticing too much I might just go for that.

 

[Mr. Mister]

I just fired off an email to bootcamp@apple.com about the problem; I recommend you all do the same.

 

[scratchmaster]

i just did the same... i hope they get the point and fix this very soon...

 

[hadleydb]

I just fired off an email to bootcamp@apple.com about the problem; I recommend you all do the same.

I just emailed them as well.

 

[scratchmaster]

after installing xp on the mac pro and updating with the newest drives provided by mac.. i am getting a yellow question mark in my device manager
"BASE SYSTEM DEVICE" any one knows what that may be ??

 

[jdwl]

The Silicon Image 3132 is PCI-E and osx and windows compatible (both ppc and intel).

 

[ctishue]

Reading back over the thread one more time I saw that someone has already tried the Siig PCI-E SATA card and was unable to boot from it. Oh well for that idea. Guess I'll research FW 800 a little more, but that sounds like it has some glitches of its own.

 

[scratchmaster]

slow sata performance on mac pro

just got off the phone with apple support...
they said they do not provide support for the xp side of the mac pro ..
however the guy said to try parallell and that since its an intel chip thats inside the mac pro .. it will run better ... has anyone tried that as yet ???

 

[Mr. Mister]

What we really need is to somehow get through to somebody at Apple who's not a tech support dweeb about this issue and ask them what the hell is going on.

 

[amin]

How big of a problem is this issue? I am waiting for my Mac Pro to ship (estimate is that it will ship by this coming Monday), and I will need to use Windows on it once or twice a day for a short period. If Parallels is made to work on the Mac Pro, my needs will be well addressed. Until then, I'd like to use Boot Camp. I just need to run some very simple work-related software that shouldn't tax the hard drive much. Runs fine on my Powerbook with Virtual PC. Will the Boot Camp issue in this thread be a real problem for me?

 

[Mr. Mister]

How big of a problem is this issue? I am waiting for my Mac Pro to ship (estimate is that it will ship by this coming Monday), and I will need to use Windows on it once or twice a day for a short period. If Parallels is made to work on the Mac Pro, my needs will be well addressed. Until then, I'd like to use Boot Camp. I just need to run some very simple work-related software that shouldn't tax the hard drive much. Runs fine on my Powerbook with Virtual PC. Will the Boot Camp issue in this thread be a real problem for me?

It'll just take hella long (minutes instead of seconds) to launch programs.

 

[scratchmaster]

But Has Anyone Tried Parallell On The Mac Pro As Yet ?????

 

[Mr. Mister]

Let's All Try To Type In Large Capital Letters

 

[cjkihlbom]

But Has Anyone Tried Parallell On The Mac Pro As Yet ?????

Yes, it doesn't work yet. Lots of posts about this in other threads. Try the search function...

 

[amin]

It'll just take hella long (minutes instead of seconds) to launch programs.

Wow, that sounds terrible!

 

[Laslo Panaflex]

Yes, it doesn't work yet. Lots of posts about this in other threads. Try the search function...

Actaully parallels does work, I had it running on my mac pro. There is a thread on how to get it to work on a Mac Pro on the parallels forums. It involves typing a command in the terminal that forces OS X to run in 32bit mode instead of 64bit mode.

 

[amin]

That workaround makes me nervous. At any rate, a Parallels spokesperson recently said they would release a Mac Pro-compatible version within 1-2 weeks.