Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

eSATAp ?

MH01 said:
just google esatap expresscard and you get heaps of returns.... so yeah they exist.
http://skinflint.co.uk/a523523.html
You might want to add which mac you want to use this with.
Click to expand...
I've been wasting too many hours trying to find eSata(p) expressCard that:

1. Not cause kernel panics in MacBookPro5,2
2. Not cause corrupted data in block level copy with MacBookPro5,2
3. Support SMART
4. Support booting from external hdd with MacBookPro5,2
5. Support hot swap

LaCie's support told that their cards support booting but not SMART.
Sonnet told that their none of their cards support booting and only Pro supports SMART.
Macsales told that Sonnet's overpriced Pro model supports booting with some models of MBP.
StarTech does not support OsX.
Raidon/Stardom never answered.
SIIG doesn't support booting and SMART support is still unknown to me.

So far the only card with reasonable price that support SMART (which should be feature NO.1 with ATA devices!) is OWS Slim. Sadly it doesn't work with MacbookPro5 models (like mine).
EDIT: CalDigit's card does also support SMART, but it's over $100...

Maybe EC is going the way of Xserve in Apple and that's why they show zero interest to faster hdd connection than fw800, but I find this situation unbearable.
 
Last edited:
Have you tried a JMB360 based card? I have a JMB360 based PCI-e card installed in my Mac Pro. It does the following:

1. Bootable.
2. Drives can be hot plugged, hot swapped.
3. Doesn't cause kernal panics.
4. Doesn't need drivers (uses built-in Apple drivers).
5. Supports SMART.
 
Last edited:
pastrychef said:
Have you tried a JMB360 based card? I have a JMB360 based PCI-e card installed in my Mac Pro. It does the following:
1. Bootable.
2. Drives can be hot plugged, hot swapped.
3. Doesn't cause kernal panics.
4. Doesn't need drivers (uses built-in Apple drivers).
5. Supports SMART.
Click to expand...
There seems to be serious problems with JMB360:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/express34_card_reports.html

Note that OWC lists JMB360 as "not compatible" with MacBookPro5.x:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/EXP34SATA2F1/

(Otherwise I would be already using OWC Slim. It is very cheap, OWC's support is great and the card does everything that I would need: it is "internal", I only need 1 connector, supports SMART and booting. But no luck for me...:()
 
toke lahti said:
There seems to be serious problems with JMB360:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/express34_card_reports.html

Note that OWC lists JMB360 as "not compatible" with MacBookPro5.x:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/EXP34SATA2F1/

(Otherwise I would be already using OWC Slim. It is very cheap, OWC's support is great and the card does everything that I would need: it is "internal", I only need 1 connector, supports SMART and booting. But no luck for me...:()
Click to expand...

Yes, I've read the comments about the JMB360 based cards on xlr8yourmac.com. However, I question the accuracy of their assessment regarding the JMB360. If it does indeed have problems as serious as they claim, OWC should be seeing a near 100% return rate and would've stopped selling the card already.

From my own personal experience with a JMB360 based PCI-e card in my Mac Pro, it has worked great. I've used it to clone two drives and a number of small copy operations. I've suffered from no data corruption.

I didn't realize OWC's card was incompatible with the MPB 5,x.
 
pastrychef said:
Yes, I've read the comments about the JMB360 based cards on xlr8yourmac.com. However, I question the accuracy of their assessment regarding the JMB360. If it does indeed have problems as serious as they claim, OWC should be seeing a near 100% return rate and would've stopped selling the card already.
Click to expand...
This might just be the sign how few people use JMB360 with MBP5,x & 10.6.
And OWC states now very clearly that card does not work with 5,x.

Anyway Addonics claimed that their eSata card supports both booting and SMART with 10.6. They have no plans for eSATAp though, they said that "The power is very limited from ExpressCard slot."
I ordered their card and will report here how it works.
 
FYI,
Addonics ADEXC34-2E uses the same Sil drivers as the others and therefore hdd's through it are identified as "SCSI device" and have no SMART support or boot ability. Addonics' support had completely false claims.
Great!
 
So far the Addonics card has worked without any corruptions.
Not just the way I would have liked.

Still, if anybody can suggest any card for MBP5,2+10.6.5 that costs less than $100 and uses drivers that enables hdd's to be seen by OS as ATA-devices and therefore support SMART, I'd like to hear...
 
Siig?

Anybody have experience with SIIG's cards?
They are a bit more expensive but still less than $100.
SC-SAEE22-S1 seems to use SiI drivers, hence SCSI and no SMART.
SC-SAEE12-S1 looks like having different drivers.
ATA? SMART?
 
Last month SIIG's support told me that both of their cards support SMART.
This can't be true on OsX, since at least the other of their card uses SIl's drivers where disks show up as "SCSI device".

What MBP+eSata users, who want to know their hdd's health, need would be a list of eSata(p) cards, which don't use these SIl's SCSI-drivers.
Anybody know this kind of list?
 
Last edited:
eSATAp ExpressCards That Support SATA III

My beef is that I do not yet see any eSATAp ExpressCards that support the 6Gbps standard!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back