do eSATA HDD docks require reboot to mount?

[rawdawg]

I have a new 17" uMBP and an external 2TB RAID 0 with all my video/photo files that is rapidly filling up. I have a few PATA drives that I used to back up the data but want a better solution.

I bought a Tempo Sonnet dual eSATA ExpressCard (the $200 one that's supposed to be the best). With my OWC Mercury Elite RAID 0 I only need to switch it on and it will mount. Originally I was thinking about getting a Drobo but reviews have me worried. An afforable and practical solution would be getting a dock and filling up drives when necessary. I hate USB2 (way too slow) and FW starts getting expensive.

The OWC NewerTech Voyager docks claim with eSATA is requires a reboot in order to mount. Is this the case in all cases? With my Tempo card should all I need to do is power it on?

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/NewerTech/Voyager/Hard_Drive_Dock

 

[Darth.Titan]

According to what I've read, the SATA controller (In your case the Sonnet ExpressCard Adapter) must support hot-swapping for the given OS. I found the following info on Sonnet's website:

Can I hot-swap a disk drive that is attached to any Sonnet Tempo Serial ATA card? Sep-02-09
Yes, but it depends on the computer's operating system (Mac OS or Windows). Sonnet Tempo SATA PCI, PCI-X, and PCIe cards support drive hot swapping only when used in Mac computers running Mac OS. SATA drive hot swapping is not supported in a desktop or server PC running Windows XP, Server 2003, or Vista. A SATA drive appears to Windows as a fixed hard drive and there is no mechanism in Windows to prepare the drive for removal except in notebook computers.

Tempo SATA and SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 cards support drive hot swapping in both Mac and Windows notebook computers.

So the prognosis looks good. Anyone else have any first hand info?

 

[rawdawg]

thanks for finding that for me Darth. No other replies but it might be worth my trying. Wish the quad compatible (with FW400 & 800) was cheaper. But at half the cost and twice the speed the eSATA is the way to go.