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Looking for PCI-express eSATA card for Mac Pro that supports 64 bit OS kernel

J

jag-mac-2010

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 1, 2010
12
0
I'm new to Mac and loving it so far. I've been using Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit for graphic and web design the past several years until I just couldn't take it any longer.

Trouble is I had all my client files on an external Seagate hard drive with only an eSATA connection on the device (which I connected to my PC with the included eSATA PCI card.

But apparently my new Mac Pro will only accept PCI-express cards, and I'm having a hard time finding a PCI-express eSATA card that supports a 64 bit OS (I'm using Snow Leopard).

Can anybody point me to such a card??

Thanks!
 
OK, I contacted OWC and got a rep named Angela who was very helpful. In fact she told me I was lucky to have gotten her because just on the 19th of February she had to do some really detailed research on this issue because none of the PCI esata cards they sell are listed for 64 bit. But they found an outside researcher who tested one that they make on 64 bit and it worked well, so she recommended me to that one.

Here's the link to that product: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/MXPCIE6GS2/

And here's the link to the review by the outside guy: http://macperformanceguide.com/Reviews-MAXPower_eSATA_6G.html

She also pointed me to a device that basically has cables that you just pluggin to the mother board into two extra sata connections that are supposed to be there somewhere. This one is only a $19 solution as opposed to the $55 I'd pay for the card above.

This is what I'm talking about: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/MPQXES2/

Anyhow, thanks for the advice. I'm debating the two options now. If you have any input I'm happy to hear it.

Thanks!!
 
UPDATE: Picked the card rather than the cables, and it worked nicely.

Only issue is that I plugged it in and booted up, and it was able to read my files right away (good). But since I'm new to Mac I was copying my font files from the Seagate eSata (1300+ fonts) and put them into the wrong folder by mistake (the system folder). When I went to delete them from the system folder, the OS froze up on me. I let it sit overnight and in the am it was still as I left it (tried cmd+opt+esc and didn't do a thing, just the beach ball). So I did a hard shut down. I tried restarting but all I got was a white screen with a blinking folder and question mark icon. Called Applecare, they helped me repair the OS (which is fine now) but the eSata drive won't recognize by the OS. When I plug it in it says the device cannot be read, and it needs to be initialized.

I even tried attaching it back on a PC, but the PC won't read it either. It says I need to format the drive before it can be used.

I'm between a rock and a hard spot because all my client files are on this disc and I can't loose them! (I also probably can't afford professional data recovery services close to 1K).
 
I would bet that you did not eject the drive before you shut it down .
OSX is very picky in this and will cause the ext HDD to become corrupt and unreadable , with the system message that you need to format it before use

dont ask how I know this, but I was unable to recover the lost photos ( I was unwilling to pay for the data recovery )
 
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