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MBP boot from eSATA??

I

illicium

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 31, 2007
132
0
I googled for this and only found old threads from at least a year ago and older.

With Leopard can we boot from an eSATA external hard drive?

I would like to do so, but most everything I have read says that it doesn't work on OSX.

Has anyone been able to do this?
 
Check out this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/354849/

It is, as you say, a year old, but I believe the only way your going to find out for yourself, it to try. If the Install DVD sees the esata drive, it seems to mean you can boot from it. I have not tried this though. I specifically bought an external esata enclosure for my Time Machine so when the MBP's come with esata, I will be ready for them.
 
I was hoping it had been addressed in the past year, but good info seems hard to come by for this particular request.


operator207 said:
I specifically bought an external esata enclosure for my Time Machine so when the MBP's come with esata, I will be ready for them.
Click to expand...

If you can spare $40 here is a cheap express card eSATA solution for the MBP, so you can set your time machine up on it for your MBP now.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apiotek/EC0003D/

This is actually what I was looking at, and wanting to use it to boot from an eSATA drive. Seems to work great for non-booting purposes anyways.
 
illicium said:
I was hoping it had been addressed in the past year, but good info seems hard to come by for this particular request.




If you can spare $40 here is a cheap express card eSATA solution for the MBP, so you can set your time machine up on it for your MBP now.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apiotek/EC0003D/

This is actually what I was looking at, and wanting to use it to boot from an eSATA drive. Seems to work great for non-booting purposes anyways.
Click to expand...

Good to know. My enclosure also has FW800 and USB2.0. The FW800 is fast enough for me right now. Though I will keep it in mind if I need it later on. I will definitely switch to eSATA once they put one in the MBP standard.
 
I have done it, it requires Leopard and a jMicron eSata Express card..

I am currently using 2 Western digital Caviars BLACKS (1tb) striped


VC - 2 Port eSATA II Express Card Adapter from http://www.yourmacstore.com
Description:
Express Card 34 contains two (2) eSATA 300 ports and offers a data transfer rate of up to 3GBps! Mac Users: This item is for Macbook Pro onlyJMicron chipsetSuports OS X 10.5 or later. 10.4 is not supported.No driver software is required. Fully Plug & Play.Support FIS Based Switching with Port MultiplierSupports RAID 0 and RAID 1
1500-6200-2200

and any ol eSata drive or eSata Raid case

Im Using right now.. and it works Fantastic.. speeds at about 170MB/s (xBench)
 
tyrnight said:
I have done it, it requires Leopard and a jMicron eSata Express card..

I am currently using 2 Western digital Caviars BLACKS (1tb) striped


VC - 2 Port eSATA II Express Card Adapter from http://www.yourmacstore.com
Description:
Express Card 34 contains two (2) eSATA 300 ports and offers a data transfer rate of up to 3GBps! Mac Users: This item is for Macbook Pro onlyJMicron chipsetSuports OS X 10.5 or later. 10.4 is not supported.No driver software is required. Fully Plug & Play.Support FIS Based Switching with Port MultiplierSupports RAID 0 and RAID 1
1500-6200-2200

and any ol eSata drive or eSata Raid case

Im Using right now.. and it works Fantastic.. speeds at about 170MB/s (xBench)
Click to expand...

Sorry if it was supposed to be understood, but I'd like for you to spell it out before I go this route. Just to make sure, you ARE able to boot OSX from it? You just plugged it in and the install disk recognized it and installed to it and everything??
 
Yes it is bootable. I am using it as my primary os drive. I use the bootup screen to choose which drive I want to boot from(hold down the option key at boot). Yes it does work and well worth it. The only issue I have is the expresscard can slip out easily. So be carefull. This is due to the esata cables being so rigid.
 
Yes the jmicron drivers are native in leopard and require no congfiguration and you can install leopard on any drive attached and boot to it. But will only work with leopard
 
I have taken the plunge and bought the Jmicrom ESATA express card. I tried it to boot externally from an external HD loaded with leopard using superduper by firewire 400, but it will not work. What am I missing? Can anyone detail and share to us newbies how it can be done?
 
MikeGT said:
I have taken the plunge and bought the Jmicrom ESATA express card. I tried it to boot externally from an external HD loaded with leopard using superduper by firewire 400, but it will not work. What am I missing? Can anyone detail and share to us newbies how it can be done?
Click to expand...

Why did you buy the ESATA card, then try to boot from FW400? Am I missing something? What did you buy the ESATA card for?
 
I think MikeGT means he had previously installed a (bootable?) clone onto the hard drive while it was in a Firewire case, and now that it is attached by eSATA it doesn't boot.

Mike, if you boot from the OSX install DVD, does it see the eSATA drive as a 'legal' target for installing OSX? If so, try doing an Archive and Install onto it.

Did the drive boot the Mac when it was attached by Firewire?
 
Sorry for the confusion. That's right CanadaRAM, I made the external HD bootable using firewire 400. I used this cloned bootable ext.HD to test the esata card from Jmicron (firewire disconnected). MBP didn't see it during boot....I thought.

It took me awhile to realize that I made a mistake. I have used a non-cloned external HD to test the jmicron card. I found my cloned external HD and booted it with the esata card and gladly saw it during the boot process.

Tyrnight was right! It works out of the box! I think this CARD SOLVED THE LONGTIME PROBLEM that those like me have!:)
 
Just to CONFIRM..

i have an eSATA express card i bought off ebay, it however, will NOT be seen when i go though the install from OSX 10.5 DVD. it only sees my FIREWIRE800 Drives and my Internal Macbookpro HD

if i get this other card, will it show up at the drive select for install?


the eSATA expresscard i have now works great, and benchmarks well, but it only works once the OS has booted up and im in the mac envionment.

let me know!~
thanks!

also. for people doing this, do you notice a good speed increase?

- james
 
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