eSATA Cards that work?

[scottydawg]

I have my first Mac on order, a Mac Pro and yes I'm switching from the dark side.
I have read in several forums that people are not having good luck with eSATA cards running on Leopard. Everything that I will be moving over (from a Windoze computer) is on an eSATA drive so I have an obvious concern if the data will be movable. Could anyone that has input on cards are working and what is not working please let me know.

Thanks!

 

[faumble]

am also interested in this... it would have to be a pci 2.0 card?

 

[errol]

Addonics makes a great eSata PCI-E card for the Mac pro. I have one (It's for sale for cheap, along with some other eSATA goodies) -- PM me if you're interested.

 

[kittiyut]

Why not give this : http://www.newertech.com/products/esata_cable.php a try ?

 

[DanChosich]

Why not give this : http://www.newertech.com/products/esata_cable.php a try ?

I had seen that newertech thing, but I read it's a lot of work to install. (I could be wrong, I'm just saying what I found on another site, because that deal seems really great--but that was the catch). I prefer not to dismantle my expensive computer so I went with a PCIe board. I have used LaCie drives before so I found this and bought it.

LaCie 2 Port eSata

I also can't say whether it works or not because my MP doesn't come till Feb 18th, but I imagine it would. It's PCI express, it comes with Mac drivers, the booklet shows it being installed in a Mac. I'm will be using it with a WD MyBook Studio 1 TB - not a LaCie drive, but that shouldn't matter. It seemed like the most reputable and cost effective one I could find. LaCie makes a $50 one, but that one isn't PCIe.

 

[echoout]

I've been using the Sonnet E4P since it came out 2 years ago. Crazy-fast.

 

[scottydawg]

I've been using the Sonnet E4P since it came out 2 years ago. Crazy-fast.

Which drive (or drives) are you using with it? Just to confirm, you are running Leopard?

I also can't say whether it works or not because my MP doesn't come till Feb 18th, but I imagine it would.

I would think any that say they work with a Mac would too but I have been reading a number of post that say they get errors or the drive can't be seen and it has usually been coming down to the drivers for the card not being Leopard compatible. Also some of the issue seems to be if the drive is just eSATA or if it has multiple options like USB and/or Firewire. It would seem that drives with the later are having more of the issues (however they will work if used as a USB or Firewire just not SATA).

 

[echoout]

Which drive (or drives) are you using with it? Just to confirm, you are running Leopard?.

I have a Sonnet Fusion 4 enclosure and a bunch of trays so I swap in and out all kinds of drives: WD, Seagate, Maxtor (it's never mattered) and a smaller CoolDrives eSATA 2-bay enclosure for going on the road.

I use both enclosures with my E4P on my desktop and my Tempo Express34 on my laptop, both under Leopard. Waaaay more stable than FW400/800 and crazy-fast, and hot-swappable to boot.

 

[scottydawg]

I have a Sonnet Fusion 4 enclosure and a bunch of trays so I swap in and out all kinds of drives: WD, Seagate, Maxtor (it's never mattered) and a smaller CoolDrives eSATA 2-bay enclosure for going on the road.

I use both enclosures with my E4P on my desktop and my Tempo Express34 on my laptop, both under Leopard. Waaaay more stable than FW400/800 and crazy-fast, and hot-swappable to boot.

I'm going to drop Sonnet an email to confirm everything works great with the EP4 and will let everyone know.

Also still thinking the extended wire option to external option from NewerTech may be good a good option.

 

[echoout]

Why would it NOT work? I guess I'm missing something here.

I'm going to drop Sonnet an email to confirm everything works great with the EP4 and will let everyone know.

Also still thinking the extended wire option to external option from NewerTech may be good a good option.

 

[scottydawg]

Why would it NOT work? I guess I'm missing something here.

There are a number of folks who had errors come up when they were attempting to run an eSATA drive in the last couple of months. I can point to some post that will show the errors and issues if you would like.
In other news here is what Sonnet had to say:
I think you are confusing one of our other products for the E4P. We do have an E2P card that uses a different chipset that is having some issues with Leopard and certain brands of hard drives. We're working with the chipset manufacturer on this problem.

It's totally different from the E4P which is working great with Leopard as long as you have the latest Mac Pro driver and that's what we're shipping with the card. It's also posted to our website.

 

[echoout]

Exactly. Works great, unlike the E2P.

There are a number of folks who had errors come up when they were attempting to run an eSATA drive in the last couple of months. I can point to some post that will show the errors and issues if you would like.
In other news here is what Sonnet had to say:
I think you are confusing one of our other products for the E4P. We do have an E2P card that uses a different chipset that is having some issues with Leopard and certain brands of hard drives. We're working with the chipset manufacturer on this problem.

It's totally different from the E4P which is working great with Leopard as long as you have the latest Mac Pro driver and that's what we're shipping with the card. It's also posted to our website.

 

[Blogger]

I'm using a FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E with 2 OWC quad interface hard drive cases. The eSATA is not bootable on the Mac Pro, so they're handy on those odd occasions so that you can switch to Firewire.
Works well and allows the computer to sleep, which some other cards have a problem with.

 

[echoout]

Ooh, sleep, that's a good point. Forgot about that. The E4P also allows for this. And it also allows for port multiplication. I run 6 drives off mine usually.

I'm using a FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E with 2 OWC quad interface hard drive cases. The eSATA is not bootable on the Mac Pro, so they're handy on those odd occasions so that you can switch to Firewire.
Works well and allows the computer to sleep, which some other cards have a problem with.