HD problem need advice

[xtempo]

I am using 2 SATA HD drives to USB converters.
at times they seem to eject themselves.

What would be a good SATA card or should I buy external cases for the HD drives and plug them that way so they wouldn't be running off the internal power like they are.

So:
molex power splitter->SATA HDs->USB convertor->internal USB socket

 

[Cox Orange]

Did I understand you right? You have your HDDs internally connected to a molex cable and via a SATA-to-USB cable to an internal USB-port?

Drives attached to cards can disappear, when the energy saving presets are set. Disable the sleep function for the hard drive (this check box) and the computer (the bar with the slider).

On SATA-cards, I will come back to that later, I am just stopping by. Others might give you the answer already till next time.

 

[eyoungren]

I am using 2 SATA HD drives to USB converters.
at times they seem to eject themselves.

What would be a good SATA card or should I buy external cases for the HD drives and plug them that way so they wouldn't be running off the internal power like they are.

So:
molex power splitter->SATA HDs->USB convertor->internal USB socket

That could just be down to sleep issues. Do you have the "Sleep hard drives whenever possible" option checked in Energy Saver?

Also, even if you do there may be internal hardware that causes spin down. Spin down would equal ejection.

I've used this in the past. It's an Applescript that writes launchdaemons that occurs every few minutes or so. The intent is to force a quick access of the drive which prevents it from sleeping. Western Digital apparently is a big offender in this.

 

[Cox Orange]

Did a quick search on the SATA cards, if xtempo wants to get one.

You might want to comb through the FAQ as well.

Here you will find a post, where I listed several SATA cards, also read the comments by others
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1650568/
here is a guide for flashing a PC-card to Mac https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1690231/)_
here is another list I made about cards (post #40 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1713461/ )

Basically you can use every SATA-PCI card from the PC world that has a SIL4123 chip, by installing a driver (you can't boot from these cards). I also recommend getting a PCI-X card (max throughput of 65MB/s, a PCI card will give you 35MB/s in real life, not matter what xbench claims).
Here you can find the driver http://www.drivers-download.com/en/downloadlist.php?id=72
(no flashing, just download and install)

Since you don't have a late2005 model G5 that could take PCIe and you will get 65MB/s max (more likely 60MB/s) with PCI-X, another option would be to use the external FW800 ports with an external FW800 case connected. (There are manufacturers that make cases that look like the G5 or at least use the same alu design, I don't like laying drive cases more over upside standing ones.)

 

[xtempo]

I look into that. thanks.



the drives just eject themselves even while using the mac so it has nothing to do with the sleep option

I had this setup in a PMG3 B&W but it doesn't seem to work lately in G5 so maybe I should try a card.

 

[Cox Orange]

Even, if you use the Mac, drives can spinn down to sleep. E.g. when you only access data from your boot drive.

 

[xtempo]

If I use a SATA card that will be directly connected to SATA HDs instead of using a USB converter will the drives when spinned down be seen by the G5?

I just want to end the HDs self ejecting themselves and not reappering whether they are spinned down or not.

I am still looking at cards but I have come across a Sonnet card but its almost out of my price range by about 50 dollars.

I have looked through the links I don't know anything to look for in a card or how to flash it and make it work.

Reading instructions sometimes confuse me.

 

[xtempo]

Will this card work?



or should I try to flash this?


I was hesitant on posting again because I thought I would not get the Sonnet Card but in the end I did

 

[Cox Orange]

On the Sonnet card:
yes that will work. It will give you 30-35MB/s throughput (like Firewire400), for the price of the card you could have bought 2-3 Firwire800 external HDD-enclosures, which will have a max throughput of 60MB/s.
Though the Sonnet card is a save bet, it can still not be guaranteed, that you will not have any issues. I for example had iMovie beachballing on finishing a process and Toast beachballing on writing the lead out of a DVD.
I then disabled sleep and unchecked the box that says "put drives to sleep when possible", after that I had no problems anymore. But that might have had to do with the Sonnet CPU-Upgrade at the time.
The positive thing, you will be able to put your OS on it and start the computer from this drive.

On the other card:
It has a SIL3124 chip. I sugguested that to buy as a cheap solution. NO FLASHING!!!! You just download the driver and install it on your G5, just like every simple Mac OS applications, by double clicking the installer. No trouble!
This card would have given you 60-65MB/s max throughput.

The ones that people talk about and talk about flashing are the cards with SIL3112 chipset. You do need these flashed cards or an originnal Sonnet card ONLY, if you want to boot from it. That means, putting the operating system on the drive that is connected to the card and then boot the computer form that drive.
The cards that only require you to install one of these Mac drivers http://www.drivers-download.com/en/downloadlist.php?id=72 are just to put data and applications on. You can use then like every other drive (or like a USB drive), but you can't start the operating system from drives connected to these cards, that only have a driver (and not a Firmware/ROM flash). This isn't a problem, if you have a Boot-Drive in your G5s original HDD-bay connected.
The cards, that only need a driver and no flashing have the Chipsets SIL3124 or SIL3132

 

[xtempo]

thanks I try them both and pick which one to use.
I am glad I don't have to do any flashing. I am trying the SI card no. I might have to wait at least a week for the other.

I was thinking if I wanted to get a later PMG5 or an intel Mac Pro [Classic, 1st or 2nd gen] would there be any problems like the OS not seeing them or anything at all?

 

[xtempo]

installed the SI card and I don't see my hard drive. I also don't see the card in the system.

I am using the driver that does not say RAID so should I use a RAID driver?

Also how do I hook up the HD? I mean if its only 1 drive do I connect it to SATA 0 or would it matter? If I use 2 would it matter?

 

[Cox Orange]

Sorry, I answer so late!

I have a RAID card, too (if you got the green one I posted, it is, too), I do not have jumpers set for RAID and use it normally. I don't remember, if I used the RAID driver.
I will later upload the driver I have on my HDD, so you can use the same!

First look, if you have to put jumpers on the little needles that show up next to the slot cover.

Do you have at least 10.4.11 or 10.5.8 installed?

I just plugged a power connector to the drive and the SATA cable from the drive to any port, no matter what port, all will see the drive.

If you have other PCI card in, put them out.
Delete the driver just installed.
Put in the new card.
install the driver (without drives conected). The driver must be on your boot drive.
shut down Mac.
boot Mac.
shut down Mac.
Open door and connect drive. Restart, wait a few second, now does a an orange symbol (like, when you have an external drive connected) appear?

Remember you can see the drive and read and write to it, but not boot from it.

Edit: uploaded, try this driver https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/75270900/SiI3124_2.1.4.0_Sil_Pkg.zip

Also, I can confirm that a WD Velociraptor 600GB SATA-III made problems until I jumpered it to SATA-II, a Toshiba 3TB SATA-III work ok now for a long time (had problems initially, but that was when I formatted that drive with a Sonnet card). My other drives are SATA-II or I.
So better avoid SATA-III drives. What drive did you test with?

 

[xtempo]

I've done what you wrote but I did not get an icon for an external or anyother HD. so no orange.

the card should show up in system profile right?
then mine does not show.
I can see 3 and 4 as USB cards but no 2 and 1 is obviously the graphic card.

It might be that the card is bad. I might have to install a USB card in 2 to make sure it works.

forgot I am not trying to use RAID just use HDs as normal

 

[Cox Orange]

Yes, after installation of the driver the card should show up in system profiler.
With my card it even says "RAID-controller" in the "type"-collumn, although I am not using the RAID ability either.

Did you also use the driver I uploaded? Did you have all other cards out?

I am really puzzled why this doesn't work. Because actually the only requirements are the SIL3124 chip and the driver.

When you have confirmed, that the slot does work itself with an USB card and you want to give up on this, ask the seller for a refund, if he doesn't give you a refund, I will give you the money you spent, since it was my mistake, if I led you to an unsupported card (and not being careful)!

I am thinking, if other hardware could influence it. I have a CPU-Upgrade in it, I will try, if the card is still recognized with the stock CPU, tomorrow. This is the last thing I can think of.

 

[xtempo]

I tried at least one drive with it and it works.

How should I hook up a time machine drive? would it work with this card or the sonnet?

I am now testing as to whether that slot was bad since I moved it to the 4 slot and is working. Even used Candy Bar to change the icon though I couldn't find one that had the same mark so I had to use a different internal icon.

I don't quite understand if the card is showing it self as a SCSI and not SATA as the HDs are SATA.

 

[Cox Orange]

Happy it works now. Did you already try to copy some files to the new drive and copy them back?

On Time Machine.
I don't use it, others may answer.
When I am under 10.5 (I use both, 10.4 and 10.5) everytime I hook up a new drive that has not been used before, it asks me, if I want to use the new drive for TimeMachine Backup, btu I don't remember if that was with this card, too or just with Firewire-Drives etc. I plugged in.

On the icon:
I kept the orange icon, since I didn't bother and it helps me to know, which drive is what (of course names help too, but some drives have the name "no name" or "untitled", so when I use several different drives from time to time, I know, which one is hooked up to the card.
Also, it is still distinguishable from USB and FW drives, since under 10.4 it has no sign and under 10.5 it has a rhombus with a stripe in it, while USB and FW have different signs on the orange ground.

On the Slot not working:
I had my three cards in for like 3 years and then my Mac would kernel panic during boot. It was the Macally card. I removed it, but the other cards were not seen as well. Then I put out all cards and add one after another (shut down, install new card, boot, shut down, install... etc.), also I swapped them around in their positions and since then it works again. I have no clue, why after several years it decided to kernel panic and it has never happened again, also I could clearly see in the log that it was the Macally driver/firmware crashing it. Maybe it was due to I was testing something else at the time and not related to the cards.

On the card identifiing itself as "SCSI":
that is usual, they all report back differently. My non-Mac SIL3124 card just says it is "RAID controller", my Sonnet says it is "ATA", my Macally card says it is "SCSI".
I have seen this in different forums with different cards as well and if I remember correctly it has do to something with the ATAPI version on the card???

See picture of my cards:
1. the non-Mac SIL3124 card, a PCI-X card
2. the Sonnet card (Sonnet uses the Firmtek/Seritek firmware, if you wonder about the name), PCI-card
3. Macally PCI card