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Expresscard/34 esata controller available from Addonics

have to replace file before shut down every time... solution?

hello
i also jumped in and bought the addonics ADEXC34R5-2E expresscard, thinking i read it was OSX compatible.

i found this thread almost immeadiately upon doing a google search, but the only way i can get the basic work around of replacing the kext file in the extensions folder to drive the card, is if i copy it everytime i restart my machine. otherwise when i reboot without copying the file the card is unknown.

code is really not my thing, but if someone could please provide me step by step instructions on how to fix this problem it would be much appreciated.

thanks in advance

rhys
 
no luck with bootable FreeDOS

Hmm - I tried flashing the bios in my Addonics C34-2E, but no luck. The updateflash.exe is telling me that the flash memory "is not one of the following", then gives me a list. After this, it asks me to select a type, giving me another list.

Just in case, I downloaded your .cdr and tried it. Same result.

Strangely, if you search the .cdr file for "select flash memory type", the exact warning message and menu choice comes up. But it wasn't clear to me which one I should choose.

I've tried making random choices, but then get error code 1, which according to Sil documentation means "Update BIOS failed".

As it is now, the Addonics card is visible via icon on upper right side of my MBP, with first two lines grayed out ("Silicon Image", and "Sil 3132 SATALink Controller"). If I go to System Profiler, under PCI Cards, the Type is "Other Mass Storage Controller".

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
 
When I run updflash.exe as written above...

and choose flash memory type 0, for example, I get message
"Loading BIOS..."
then
"Unable to load BIOS"
"Try again?"

I'm not able to get any further than that.

Any input very much appreciated!
 
I can only confirm this with my own card which is the ADEXC34R5-2E. I was under the impression that this C34-2E card works out of the box with siliconimage drivers, as the starter of this thread clearly states.

It looks like your card is properly detected although I cannot confirm the System Profiler information since I am on Vista.
 
Couple of things:
Firmtek, Sonnet and Wiebetech have eSATA cards (Maybe LaCie as well, haven't checked) which are Mac compatible.

No eSATA card is ever going to power a external drive. Use an adaptor, or if the enclosure allows for it, maybe a USB cable for power only.

RAID5? That would require at least 3 external drives. Since no eSATA card has more than 2 connectors, the only way this will work is with a port-multiplier card and a port multiplier 3- 4- or 5- bay enclosure. Sonnet has a line, and Firmtek has announced port multiplier products.

I am not aware that any eSATA Expresscard interface is bootable.
 
That's what I thought ...

Lucidmyth said:
I was under the impression that this C34-2E card works out of the box with siliconimage drivers, as the starter of this thread clearly states.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, though, my C34-2E didn't work directly out of the box; it seems the system recognizes it on some level, but none of the hard drives connected to it are visible.
 
Apiotek or Sonnett

n0d3 said:
This one from Apiotek definitely works . . . .
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apiotek/EC0003D/
Click to expand...

I saw that one, and wondered if it would work. I'm sure the Addonix card worked, at one time, also. I assume Addonix changed the Flash chip, or some other component of the system, and so now it doesn't work.

How long ago did you buy the Apiotek card? Does it have Port Multiplier support?

I'll decide between risking another $45 on that one, or going for the Sonnett, which seems to be a sure thing (but a little more than twice the price).


http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo_sata_express34.html
 
CanadaRAM:

The eSATA expresscard is used mainly with external drives already powered by their enclosure.

You can boot of the eSATA connected drive, as we speak I'm running Vista Business (for evaluation purpose only :) ) straight from this attached drive. It's way faster then the internal drive.
The problem is that it only works in the EFI BIOS legacy mode (CSM).
OSX can boot from BIOS (osx86) but I haven't figured that part out (yet).

For the RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and JBOD stuf, it was only a bit more expensive, but after flashing the BIOS to non-RAID plain waste of money..

dachnik:

They may have changed the onboard flash memory...
I will boot back into OSX and report System Profiler info of my card.
 
System Profiler report:

PCI Cards:
Code: 
ExpressCard:

  Type:	Other Mass Storage Controller
  Bus:	PCI
  Slot:	ExpressCard
  Vendor ID:	0x1095
  Device ID:	0x3132
  Subsystem Vendor ID:	0x1095
  Subsystem ID:	0x3132
  Revision ID:	0x0001

This is the same as what you reported?
Did you check the Parallel SCSI section of System Profiler?
Mine reports:
Code: 
SCSI Parallel Domain 0:

  Initiator Identifier:	255

SCSI Target Device @ 0:

  Manufacturer:	ST332062
  Model:	0AS
  Revision:	3.AA
  SCSI Target Identifier:	0
  SCSI Device Features:	
  SCSI Initiator/Target Features:	
  Peripheral Device Type:	0

SCSI Logical Unit @ 0:

  Capacity:	298.09 GB
  Manufacturer:	ST332062
  Model:	0AS
  Revision:	3.AA
  Removable Media:	Yes
  Detachable Drive:	No
  BSD Name:	disk1
  OS9 Drivers:	No
  SCSI Logical Unit Identifier:	0
  S.M.A.R.T. status:	Not Supported
  Volumes:
Untitled:
  Capacity:	19.53 GB
  Available:	2.99 GB
  Writable:	No
  File System:	NTFS
  BSD Name:	disk1s1
  Mount Point:	/Volumes/Untitled

If the drive is recognized it should show up here.
 
System Profiler OK, Parallel SCSI not OK

Lucidmyth said:
System Profiler report:

PCI Cards:
Code: 
ExpressCard:

  Type:	Other Mass Storage Controller
  Bus:	PCI
  Slot:	ExpressCard
  Vendor ID:	0x1095
  Device ID:	0x3132
  Subsystem Vendor ID:	0x1095
  Subsystem ID:	0x3132
  Revision ID:	0x0001

This is the same as what you reported?
Click to expand...

Yes. My System Profiler has exactly the same.

But my Parallel SCSI is as follows:


Code: 
SCSI Parallel Domain 0:

  Initiator Identifier:	255

SCSI Target Device @ 1:

  Manufacturer:	Config
  Model:	Disk
  Revision:	PLS1
  SCSI Target Identifier:	1
  SCSI Device Features:	
  SCSI Initiator/Target Features:	
  Peripheral Device Type:	0

SCSI Logical Unit @ 0:

  Capacity:	320 KB
  Manufacturer:	Config
  Model:	Disk
  Revision:	PLS1
  Removable Media:	Yes
  Detachable Drive:	No
  BSD Name:	disk1
  OS9 Drivers:	No
  SCSI Logical Unit Identifier:	0
  S.M.A.R.T. status:	Not Supported

My enclosure runs a Sil-4726. The 320 KB "drive" represents this RAID controller, not an actual disk. This, according to the Sil-4726 documentation. No sign of any of the 500 GB disks that are running inside the enclosure.

The disks are WD5000YS - I know they work with Mac installations. And according to Western Digital, no jumper settings are necessary for these SATA disks.

I'm really puzzled.
 
You should try to somehow bypass the enclosure's RAID controller. I think the expresscard is correctly recognized and that the drivers are working, because it can "see" the enclosure.

Maybe you can configure/disable RAID on the enclosure? Try hooking up the drive directly?
 
Not sure how to do that

Lucidmyth said:
Maybe you can configure/disable RAID on the enclosure? Try hooking up the drive directly?
Click to expand...

As far as I know, the Sil-4726 is not only a RAID controller, but is also a Port Multiplier. I have multiple (naked) hard drives in the enclosure, with one eSATA cable from the enclosure to the eSATA card.

Each drive connects directly to the "spine" of the enclosure. In other words, there are no internal cables between drive and enclosure; they are directly connected.

If the problem is with the RAID controller, why would System Profiler recognize the 320 KB "disk"?

Just in case, I'll boot up the enclosure, reinstall the 4726 driver, and let you know if anything changed.
 
Success!! (I think...)

Ok, let me start by saying I'm feeling really dumb right about now!

I re-installed the 4726 driver, while the enclosure was on, and rebooted. Then opened the Silicon Image RAID controller application for Mac - and sure enough, the 2 drives that I have connected in the enclosure were visible. I did not configure them in this application. It just brought up a message saying new drives were detected, and would I like to mount them. I clicked "yes", and there they were. Here's a link to the screenshot:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa255/dachnik/Snapshot2007-05-2707-10-10.jpg

But I don't understand why the System Profiler still doesn't see the drives. Everything in the System Profiler is exactly as it was before.

What am I missing? And thank you, by the way, for getting me this far!! Like I said, I'm feeling a little silly right now...
 
Problem Solved!

I just needed to reboot - all fine now.

Disks visible in Disk Utility:

DiskUtilitySnap.jpg


and also in System Profiler:

Code: 
SCSI Parallel Domain 0:

  Initiator Identifier:	255

SCSI Target Device @ 0:

  Manufacturer:	WDC WD50
  Model:	00YS-01MPB1
  Revision:	09.0
  SCSI Target Identifier:	0
  SCSI Device Features:	
  SCSI Initiator/Target Features:	
  Peripheral Device Type:	0

SCSI Logical Unit @ 0:

  Capacity:	465.76 GB
  Manufacturer:	WDC WD50
  Model:	00YS-01MPB1
  Revision:	09.0
  Removable Media:	Yes
  Detachable Drive:	No
  BSD Name:	disk2
  OS9 Drivers:	No
  SCSI Logical Unit Identifier:	0
  S.M.A.R.T. status:	Not Supported

SCSI Target Device @ 1:

  Manufacturer:	WDC WD50
  Model:	00YS-01MPB1
  Revision:	09.0
  SCSI Target Identifier:	1
  SCSI Device Features:	
  SCSI Initiator/Target Features:	
  Peripheral Device Type:	0

SCSI Logical Unit @ 0:

  Capacity:	465.76 GB
  Manufacturer:	WDC WD50
  Model:	00YS-01MPB1
  Revision:	09.0
  Removable Media:	Yes
  Detachable Drive:	No
  BSD Name:	disk1
  OS9 Drivers:	No
  SCSI Logical Unit Identifier:	0
  S.M.A.R.T. status:	Not Supported

SCSI Target Device @ 5:

  Manufacturer:	Config
  Model:	Disk
  Revision:	PLS1
  SCSI Target Identifier:	5
  SCSI Device Features:	
  SCSI Initiator/Target Features:	
  Peripheral Device Type:	0

SCSI Logical Unit @ 0:

  Capacity:	320 KB
  Manufacturer:	Config
  Model:	Disk
  Revision:	PLS1
  Removable Media:	Yes
  Detachable Drive:	No
  BSD Name:	disk3
  OS9 Drivers:	No
  SCSI Logical Unit Identifier:	0
  S.M.A.R.T. status:	Not Supported

Thank you VERY much for your help. I really appreciate it!
 
Did you try setting up a RAID Array or JBOD configuration?
I don't have much experience with this kind of hardware, but you may first have to configure your setup, then format the drives and see how it goes.
The 4726 controller is probably hiding the drives to only show the combined RAID/JBOD drives and if not configured shows only the small 320 KB "disk".

Don't feel to dumb, I had something similar trying in fain to get the driver working while it already worked...
 
well, the good news is that the disks are visible in both the Sil-4726 RAID Controller app, and also in Disk Utility within OSX. They're set up as JBOD now, but I'll test RAID using the 4726 controller (hardware RAID), then will configure the hardware for JBOD and set up a software RAID array (probably using SoftRAID).

All is working great now; thanks again for the assist!
 
Lucidmyth said:
I'm currently trying to boot Mac OS X from a SATA disk attached to the Addonics eSATA ExpressCard....

A lot of people say that it can't be done, but I think it might be possible.
I'm already able to boot Linux and Vista from eSATA/ExpressCard and it significantly boosts the performance. It would be great to be able to do this with OS X.

I think booting for now is only possible by using the legacy BIOS emulation provided with either rEFIt or Bootcamp. I have tried using the patched osx86 images like JaS etc. They are capable of booting from a BIOS by using the Darwin Bootloader, those images are only tailored at mainstream "IBM PC" compatible pc's and freeze on a MacBook Pro...

If anyone is trying the same, let me now
Click to expand...

Hello everyone.
I am glad I found this topic. Actually I was just registering for this (though I am reading in these forums from time to time).
First off, I would like to know how you, Lucidmyth, have gotten Vista and Linux to boot from the ExpressCard.
I bought my ExpressCard last year in November. The manufacturer/vendor is Delock, product #61386 (which didn't officially support Mac OS X but was way cheaper than any concurring similar product - I paid about 40€ I think).
In the beginning I was trying to get this card to work without success. I was looking all over the web for working drivers. I was looking for the Sonnettech drivers which I didn't find, then I found the SeriTek drivers, which I installed. The card got recognized but only as unknown with greyed-out options like you experienced in the beginning. I was almost giving up, thought about reselling the card, when I fell over the SiliconImage drivers. These worked.
Unfortunately I couldn't figure how to boot off the ExpressCard. (There is also the Higoto ExpressCard which came out a few months ago only. I wonder if one could get the drivers of this card and especially from the Sonnettech card - at least there are quite a few cards out there.)
Furthermore, I also edited the Info.plist of the original SiliconImage driver to show up/mount eSATA devices as "internal" drives in Mac OS X instead of SCSI devices. First, just replacing the original kext with the modified one resulted in the same experience which other users had, i.e. an error message that said that the extension wasn't installed properly and had to be reinstalled. So I created a modified installer package of the driver. If anyone is interested in this, he can contact me, since I am not sure if I am allowed to post it here. I could also make a package from the modified kext, Lucidmyth has posted for those who experience problems with it at restart.
BTW, Lucidmyth, what is the most recent BIOS version I can flash the ExpressCard to? Is it Sil3132 BASE, SATARAID5 and system BIOS 7.4.05 from Feb. 14, 2007?
Thank you for the FreeDOS flashing tutorial, I didn't even think of doing it this way (since I thought of doing it under Windows, once installed natively, which is either with BootCamp or via rEFIT/ExpressCard on my new external drive, I just bought yesterday, which is also why I am looking for a solution to boot/install Vista via the ExpressCard.
 
Hello Cyman,

These are steps I took to get Linux and Vista installed on the external drive:
First of all it's important to understand that you can only boot (for now) in EFI's Legacy BIOS emulation (CSM). The external drive will only be visible after this module is started and the BIOS driver on the eSATA card is initialized.
As long as there aren't any EFI drivers your card will not show up in either EFI's default OS selection or rEFIt's OS selection.
So for this to work I installed Linux on a second partition as described in phase 2.

1)
I installed rEFIt to be able to boot Linux from the internal drive.

2)
I installed Linux on a 2nd partition on the internal drive. (I assume you know how to partition & install Linux on the internal drive)

3(Linux)
For Linux (in my case Fedora Core 6) you can just boot from the installation Media (DVD) and the driver for the eSATA card is automatically recognized and loaded (sata_sil). After installing Linux on the external drive I used the Linux installation on the internal drive to boot Linux on the external drive...

Boot the Linux installation from the internal drive and modify /boot/grub/menu.lst to include an entry for the Linux installation of the external drive (hd1). You can mount the external drive and copy and paste the boot entry from this external drive's (/boot/)grub/menu.lst.

There are better ways to do this, for example by having the grub bootloader on a usb-stick.

3(Vista)
I was not able to install Vista by just hooking up the drive via the eSATA card and select it in Vista's Setup as the installation drive, not sure why.
What did work:
I attached the external drive to another computer, copied the BIOS SATA drivers of this computer on a usb-stick and run the Vista installation setup.
I selected the advanced setup and loaded the SATA BIOS drivers for my motherboard's SATA controller and installed Vista on the attached (external) drive.
After the installation I booted into Vista on this other PC and installed the Silicon Image drivers for the eSATA expresscard.
You can do this by going to the "Device Manager" select the topmost item "This Computer*" and select with a right mouseclick the option "Add Legacy Hardware*"

* I might be a bit off on the exact name because I don't have Vista running now.

I also installed Apple's Bootcamp driver cd (use latest version for Vista compatibility)

Now it's time to move the drive back to your mac.
Attach the drive with your eSATA card and boot up.

Select and boot the Linux installation on your internal drive.

In Grub's OS selection menu press "c" to get the command prompt.
Now you can boot Vista by typing:

rootnoverify (hd1)
chainloader +1
boot

This should chainload Vista's bootloader. I believe the first time you boot you have to select the low resolution boot option. This is achieved by pressing F8 repeatedly after grub boots up Vista.

When you're booted into Vista run the Bootcamp driver cd again.

You can of course add the new grub line's to /boot/grub/menu.lst.

Ok, this is a really quick and dirty tutorial, I hope it makes sense.
I remember that there where some minor pitfalls, before Vista booted on the external drive.
One had something todo with a broken MBR on the external drive.
I repaired this by running EasyBCD's MBR repair function while booted from the external drive on the "normal" pc.
If it doesn't work just let me know.
 
Thanks for the tutorial.
It looks quite complicated for such an "easy" purpose. Anyway, I will try it.
On another note I need to say that I formatted my new external HDD with the GPT scheme. Will this cause a problem for Vista installation? Actually there are contradictory sources. One says Vista can be installed on GPT disks and then there is a Vista message during installation which says Vista cannot be installed on GPT disks... strange!
Sorry for getting a bit OT with this.
 
bootable Vista loader

With this bootable cd image you don't have to install Linux on your internal drive.

Unzip it, burn it with Disk Utility and reboot.
Grub will show you a boot menu with Vista.
 

Attachments

  • grub.iso.zip
    77.1 KB · Views: 166
Thank you, I will try it asap.

Can I also use this on a USB stick/memory card? I'm running out of CD-R's.
Concerning the Linux method, could I also use a LiveCD like Ubuntu for this?

I also had another idea. I read that Mac OS X is also able to boot off external drives, so normally I could clone my Mac HD (including BootCamp partition?) to my external drive, fit the Grub part in to boot off it and everything should be fine. This is purely theoretically for you have elaborated all the possible problems one could run into as well as the need for an EFI compliant driver for the ExpressCard. The whole thing is a lot more complicated than I imagined.
 
It is possible to create a bootable usb-stick, but I have to investigate how to create one.

It might be possible to use the bootloader of a livecd to boot Vista.
If the livecd uses GRUB you can use the commands in the tutorial.

About GPT, setting this all up is difficult enough, don't setup more traps you can run into.

I have tried exactly that, copying the entire OS X image to the external drive.
OS X works fine when booted from the drive connected through USB, not from eSATA.

The problem is that GRUB(2) cannot be build to support BIOS pc and EFI.
So when GRUB is build with --with-platform=efi you cannot use EFI BIOS emulation and hence the external drive is not visible.
If GRUB is build without EFI it doesn't recognize the EFI bootcode to boot OS X.
 
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