MP 1,1-5,1 2010 MacPro, High Sierra and External SSD booting problem

[deckard666]

Before lockdown my cMP was running an 512GB SSD internal boot drive where the superdrive used to be which I vaguely recall installing myself a few years back and I also installed an Inatech 4 Ports PCI to USB 3 card. It had been running very well for years on High Sierra.

About 2 months ago one of my internal 4tb drives intermittently would "disappear" and "reappear" and then about a week later my SSD drive "disappeared" as well and that never came back so I went back to using an internal drive to boot from after I spoke to my Mac expert mate who said as soon lockdown finished he would take a look at my machine and sort for me.

This week after really struggling with the slowness of everything I bought a 1TB Cruial SSD MX500 thinking I could boot temporarily off the USB3 port and use it as a boot drive and speed everything up but I just cant get my Mac to see the drive to use it as a boot one.

I cloned my current internal boot drive using CCC after I had used Disk Utility to make it APFS and have tried several methods to get High Sierra to boot from it but to no avail as it always boots from my internal drive. When I hold down option after boot it doesnt even show the SSD drive but its always sat on my desktop as an available drive. (See attached pic). Even when I choose the SSD boot drive the About my mac first info still shows my internal drive as the start up disk....

Am I missing something obvious ? When I check the About this Mac - it all seems ok although I dont know what the MS Dos bit is...

USB 3.0 Bus:

Host Controller Driver: AppleUSBXHCIFL1100
PCI Device ID: 0x1100
PCI Revision ID: 0x0010
PCI Vendor ID: 0x1b73

Ugreen Storage Device:
Product ID: 0x55aa
Vendor ID: 0x174c (ASMedia Technology Inc.)
Version: 1.00
Serial Number: 021911230144
Speed: Up to 5 Gb/sec
Manufacturer: Ugreen
Location ID: 0x00700000 / 1
Current Available (mA): 900
Current Required (mA): 0
Extra Operating Current (mA): 0
Media:

500SSD1:
Capacity: 1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
Removable Media: No
BSD Name: disk3
Logical Unit: 0
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
USB Interface: 0
Volumes:

EFI:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
File System: MS-DOS FAT32
BSD Name: disk3s1
Content: EFI
Volume UUID: 0E239BC6-F960-3107-89CF-1C97F78BB46B

disk3s2:
Capacity: 1 TB (999,995,129,856 bytes)
BSD Name: disk3s2
Content: Apple_APFS

Anyone help or will I need to wait to I can get my Mac to my mate after lockdown ? In which case at least its still working

 

[MarkC426]

I think you would be better running it off the internal sata port.
What are you running which seems slow?
Do you have trim enabled.
Extra ram would also improve your speed.

 

[tsialex]

USB booting is only supported with the native USB2.0 ports. Any other USB port besides the Mac Pro own USB2.0 ports are not supported for booting and are ignored by the Mac Pro firmware.

This can't be changed.

 

[deckard666]

Im just trying to get it to run externally as all internal drive bays are full with 4TB Sata drives - I am just wondering why this isn't working when everywhere else says it should.....I am not using USB2 ports.....

Here a few years ago....

2017 iMac 27" external SSD as boot drive?

So, a friend has asked me for advice with his 27" iMac. He bought it with a fusion drive, but is looking to go full SSD due to the relatively slow performance. I have explained that the iMac cannot have the drive replaced without some serious surgery on the system and he isn't keen to go that...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[tsialex]

Im just trying to get it to run externally as all drive bays full with 4TB Sata drives - I am just wondering why this isn't working when everywhere else says it should.....I am not using USB2 ports.....

Why it should even work? Mac Pro firmware totally ignores any USB port besides the south bridge USB2.0 ports. Only after macOS is loaded, third party USB controllers drivers are loaded and the ports work.

Mac Pro EFI firmware only has drivers and boot support for the native USB2.0 ports.

 

[deckard666]

All answers appreciated so I will just need to grin and bear it to my mate can get his paws one Mac after lockdown.

 

[tommy chen]

and why are you opening up two threads?

 

[Snow Tiger]

For a cMP , you can boot macOS externally only from the following ports : factory USB 2.0 , factory FireWire 400 or 800 , select third party PCIe eSATA . I'm not certain about factory gigabit ethernet , but you could connect to a network with that .

 

[Macsonic]

Im just trying to get it to run externally as all internal drive bays are full with 4TB Sata drives - I am just wondering why this isn't working when everywhere else says it should.....I am not using USB2 ports.....

Only the CalDigit USB 3.0 and eSATA 6GU3-Pro PCEi card allows booting from an external SSD or HD but via the eSATA port only of the Caldigit. And would still need an external enclosure with an eSATA port to make this work. I’m using the Caldigit card and booting works from an external SSD/HD enclosure. USB 3.0 booting is not possible with any brand of PCIe card in the cMac Pro. I know you mentioned your HD internal ports are all filled up with 4TB HDs. You can still make use of the Optical drive sata ports and install a SSD/HD as internal and can also boot from there.

 

[Snow Tiger]

eSATA cards that have an Asmedia 1062 ( ASM1062 ) controller chip will allow booting with macOS in a cMP .

An example of this is the NewerTech MAXPower eSATA 6G Pro PCIe Controller Card .

The Ableconn PEX-SA130 2-Port eSATA III should boot macOS as well , but strangely they don't make the claim .

 

[deckard666]

Thank you for being so helpful but I am hoping as I am a key worker that my tech mate will have a look at my mac next week And everything can go back to working

 

[h9826790]

Im just trying to get it to run externally as all internal drive bays are full with 4TB Sata drives

Including the optical bay?

Just connect the SSD into the optical bay SATA port, then you are good to go.

 

[Macsonic]

eSATA cards that have an Asmedia 1062 ( ASM1062 ) controller chip will allow booting with macOS in a cMP .

An example of this is the NewerTech MAXPower eSATA 6G Pro PCIe Controller Card .

View attachment 913274

The Ableconn PEX-SA130 2-Port eSATA III should boot macOS as well , but strangely they don't make the claim .

I also have a NewerTech MAXPower 2 Port eSATA 6G PCIe Card but this may be an older model. This card I have cannot boot an external HD. The new eSata card in the NewerTech website indicates booting is supported.

NewerTech® : Storage : MAXPower eSATA 6G Pro PCIe Controller Card

NewerTech MAXPower eSATA 6G Pro PCIe Controller Card - easiest solution for adding 2 SATA 6Gb/s ports with DRIVERLESS Plug and Play install.

www.newertech.com

Probably an Older Model Card

 

[Snow Tiger]

I also have a NewerTech MAXPower 2 Port eSATA 6G PCIe Card but this may be an older model. This card I have cannot boot an external HD. The new eSata card in the NewerTech website indicates booting is supported.

NewerTech® : Storage : MAXPower eSATA 6G Pro PCIe Controller Card

NewerTech MAXPower eSATA 6G Pro PCIe Controller Card - easiest solution for adding 2 SATA 6Gb/s ports with DRIVERLESS Plug and Play install.

www.newertech.com

Probably an Older Model Card
View attachment 913782

Now that you mention this , I have had some individual , identical eSATA models of cards either work or not work in a cMP .

This is true for both brand name and generic eSATA cards .

I had thought the cards somehow got damaged and simply tossed them into the recycle box . Now I am having second thoughts . Next time this happens , I'll install it in a real PC and test it .

There might be something more subtle going on ... maybe a slight , unpublished version change in the controller chip .

It cannot be the driver , as its built into macOS .

 

[deckard666]

Bump -

Hooray my cMP is off my "macman" Tuesday as its been playing up and he has been in lockdown since Feb - For some reason its failing to see my internal SSD now and occasionally one of my 4 internal 4GB SATA drives and once a week it drops the display feed. Along the way I got a 1TB Samsung SSD to upgrade my current one so that is going in and I am tempted to change the graphics card to -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-560-AERO-I ... B0728B1MLD

As then I can upgrade to latest Mac OS plus get a USB mic (yeti one ? ) so I can use Siri on my Mac as the only place I ever type is here - everything else in my life I use Siri dictate.......

I think I will drop it over on Tuesday and have a discussion after he has examined it on the best course of action as I have no idea how much a new motherboard is if its that...

Plenty of options here but are there any that you Pro lot would recommend ...

http://blog.greggant.com/posts/2018/05/ ... guide.html

 

[kohlson]

The GPU you linked to goes to an RX560, and sold through 3rd party at what (at least right now) was listed for over $300. If that's true get a Sapphire Pulse RX580 for under $200.

but are there any that you Pro lot would recommend ...

The stickies at the top of this very forum has plenty of discussions about all manner of upgrade. My recommendation is to start there.