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

Mac Pro RAID Card Installation

8-Core MacPro w/ 4x500GB

Oh man... I am so glad I found this thread, Lepoard was driving me nuts!

In any case, I am about 65% of the way through my Initialization that I started around 5:30PM (EST), it is now 8:50PM so it's been about 3h 20m so far... extrapolating out it should be done in about 2 more hours making for a total of 5-6 hours of initialization. I don't know if that's in-line with the post about 13 hours for the 4x750 system.

Of course, my battery is not charged... I am just going to wait the 2 more hours and see what happens.

MacPro 8-Core 3Ghz, 5GB RAM, 4x500GB, X1900XT.
 
Ok, so it all worked out I think. As of this morning my battery is charged so it took (worst case) less than 16 hours for it to charge for me. As for the initialization, I think it ended up being closer to 5 hours than 6 hours. I wasn't awake when it finished. Installing Leopard now.
 
Transeau said:
Your best bet is to install an eSATA cable from NewerTech.
http://www.newertech.com/products/esata_cable.php

You can then use an external SATA drive for bootcamp.
Click to expand...

Can anyone confirm that this works to install an external drive for boot camp while using a RAID card for OSX?

I thought I read elsewhere that the Windows can't see drives connected to those ODD ports, but OS X can. I'm thinking of getting one of the new Penryn 8-cores with a BTO RAID card and the SAS drives, but only if I can maintain the boot camp option. Still haven't heard a reliable report of ANYONE able to use boot camp with the RAID card plugged in to the iPass cable.
 
Question? I ordered a RAID card in my CTO Mac Pro along with drives. I know...I know...I could get drives cheaper online...blah..blah...blah...But I want to make sure since I'm investing so much into my source of income so to speak that everything is covered via warranty, etc. I had the cash and had been waiting over a year for this sucker. An extra $600 was worth it to me. So, with that said, won't the RAID card come installed or will I have to go through everything this guy has? Anyone know? Thanks.
 
MrPDaddyHimself said:
Question? I ordered a RAID card in my CTO Mac Pro along with drives. I know...I know...I could get drives cheaper online...blah..blah...blah...But I want to make sure since I'm investing so much into my source of income so to speak that everything is covered via warranty, etc. I had the cash and had been waiting over a year for this sucker. An extra $600 was worth it to me. So, with that said, won't the RAID card come installed or will I have to go through everything this guy has? Anyone know? Thanks.
Click to expand...

You'll probably have to go through much of it - there doesn't appear any options upon ordering for specifying which RAID setup is installed on the drives, so I'd guess, for example, that you'd have to go through all the RAID 5 setup if you wanted RAID 5. Check the manual:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/RAID_Utility_User_Guide.pdf
 
I too would like to know if Windows via Bootcamp/Parallels/Fusion can be run off of a RAID-5 partition on Apple's hardware RAID card.

I also have an X-Serve RAID connected via fibre channel. Can anyone tell me if Windows via Bootcamp can access an X-Serve RAID array? It's setup as RAID-50.
 
Noise of SAS?

Hey guys with the raid card!
Please tell me,
is noise an issue with SAS? I mean aren´t the SAS HDs not very noisy?
I installed a 2,5" SAS HD in a PC Desktop and it sounded like a small motorbycicle do me.
I am thinking of using a Mac Pro with the RAID card for a audio/video cut environment but the machine has to be silent.
I already know the volume level of the Mac Pros and they are very quiet. So i do not want do destroy the machine´s quietness with fast but loud SAS Drives, can anyone help me out with this?

Thanks!
 
re: windows on external drive

graphex said:
Can anyone confirm that this works to install an external drive for boot camp while using a RAID card for OSX?

I thought I read elsewhere that the Windows can't see drives connected to those ODD ports, but OS X can. I'm thinking of getting one of the new Penryn 8-cores with a BTO RAID card and the SAS drives, but only if I can maintain the boot camp option. Still haven't heard a reliable report of ANYONE able to use boot camp with the RAID card plugged in to the iPass cable.
Click to expand...

you cant with windows but you can with a sata controller. I'm booting 2 windows OS right now with a FirmTek 2 slot sata controller. I didn't know it was possible. I found just by trying it. Windows is very hardware oriented to work with as many different types of computers so it will freak out if you try to boot from a firewire. I too want to boot windows via a raid card, but have no idea if you can.
 
Battery recondintion/recharge experiences?

Any users (especially @Transeu) have any experience with the recondition/recharge cycle? Which is accurate, recondtion/recharge every 30 days or 3 months?

I'm considering the RAID card in a new BTO Mac Pro, specifically for RAID5. This machine won't be a server, but a high-powered workstation, so losing 8 days of work every 30 days seems pretty ridiculous to me.

It sounds like the initial charge cycle takes anywhere from 10 hours all the way up to 7 days. I'm just curious if anyone has experience with the recharges and how it affects performance.

P.S. Has there been a firmware fix for the deep sleep problem with this card?

Thanks
 
Battery recondintion/recharge experiences?

I haven't seen this on my machine. I leave it on over night quite often but have not experienced or noticed any performance issues related to battery conditioning since last October. :)
 
@mission75:

you cant with windows but you can with a sata controller. I'm booting 2 windows OS right now with a FirmTek 2 slot sata controller. I didn't know it was possible. I found just by trying it. Windows is very hardware oriented to work with as many different types of computers so it will freak out if you try to boot from a firewire. I too want to boot windows via a raid card, but have no idea if you can.
Click to expand...

mission,

Does that mean that you have a RAID card and a sata controller and that furthermore, you can boot a bootcamp drive from the second controller? What model of sata card do you have?

Thanks,

mac
 

Attachments

  • SeriTek-2SE2-E(updated-logos)-small.jpg
    SeriTek-2SE2-E(updated-logos)-small.jpg
    4.6 KB · Views: 1,349
RE: BC on card

mac666er said:
Thanks mikekim, can you run bootcamp on a hard disk connected to your card?

I am interested because mission suggested that you could have one of these cards to have a bootcamp volume.

This would be very sweet...

mac
Click to expand...

Yes thats what I'm doing now. Also what I do is install the games on the opposite drive of the windows OS that way it caches to both drives in the esata storage box and that data transfer is faster especially when a games loads. By the way I am mission, I just have so many computers that I logged in with 2 different IDs for convenience
 
I have a Mac Pro on the way with RAID and SAS drives so I would like to run Bootcamp the way you have mentioned.
I had heard the Sonnet Tempo SATA E4P is not a card you can boot from, does anyone know if this is true? Trying to decide if I should install the Tempo I have sitting here or sell it and get the Firmtek.
 
Sweet.

I guess I should go back to the original topic of the thread.

I have a mac pro with a RAID card and 4 SATA drives and was looking for a bootcamp solution. I have all my bays used up (the 4 internal ones and the two 5 1/4 front ones) and really was looking for an external alternative to do it.

Sadly after installing the card and going through the ipass cable hassle I find out to my dismay that bootcamp doesn't work on an external drive :-(

So your solution seems like a nice alternative, I think I will give it a shot this month.

mac
 
I decided to write Firmtek to see if there would be any issue booting with their card. Here is the reply:
Dear Scott,
Thank you for contacting FirmTek. The SeriTek/2SE2-E can be used for additional storage
with Mac OS X or BootCamp. However, the SeriTek/2SE2-E is not bootable with either OS on
the Mac Pro.

http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata2es2e.html

The Mac Pro has four internal hard drive bays that can be used for boot drives with Mac OS X
or BootCamp. If you want to use BootCamp be sure NOT to order Apples RAID card option as
this feature removes the ability to use BootCamp with the Mac Pro.
Click to expand...
 
scottydawg said:
I decided to write Firmtek to see if there would be any issue booting with their card. Here is the reply:
Click to expand...

Hmmm but I thought mission could BOOT from an external windows disk, that is, that he installed a windows partition in an eSATA (external) drive using the card, and that he could select it to boot from it while holding the option key at startup.

Is this not the case?

mac
 
Windows On E Sata

mac666er said:
Hmmm but I thought mission could BOOT from an external windows disk, that is, that he installed a windows partition in an eSATA (external) drive using the card, and that he could select it to boot from it while holding the option key at startup.

Is this not the case?

mac
Click to expand...
Not with the option key, select the disk in system preferences under start up disk, it wont show up with option key (aka) firmware screen, I'm telling the truth. I'll prove it if you want me too. I found out by accident, Sorry I know this thread is about the raid card but we got carried away hear. BOOTCAMP, WINDOWS WILL BOOT WITH FIRMTEK eSATA, You can get the 4 port and will boot mac OS X too, but I havent got that one I have the 2 port
 
Hey Mike,
Your making me feel better already :D .
So if you have a few minutes in the next week or so could you explain step by step for a total Mac Dummy (I am a PC guy that is making the move) how to set this up and do this thing? Very appreciated in advance.
 
Response to scott dog

scottydawg said:
Hey Mike,
Your making me feel better already :D .
So if you have a few minutes in the next week or so could you explain step by step for a total Mac Dummy (I am a PC guy that is making the move) how to set this up and do this thing? Very appreciated in advance.
Click to expand...

Ok I can give you pics of the whole thing. And maybe I'll show you windows running COD4 with a 8800gtx to, yes thats right GTX baby
 
Ok heres the pics

scottydawg said:
Hey Mike,
Your making me feel better already :D .
So if you have a few minutes in the next week or so could you explain step by step for a total Mac Dummy (I am a PC guy that is making the move) how to set this up and do this thing? Very appreciated in advance.
Click to expand...

Ok Later I'll post Vista Booted to it, I have to change cards because the new mac pro wont boot windows with the old mac pro ATi card in for some reason. Weird I know.
 

Attachments

  • d.jpg
    d.jpg
    296 KB · Views: 140
  • b.jpg
    b.jpg
    279.8 KB · Views: 133
  • c.jpg
    c.jpg
    321.8 KB · Views: 122
This is really cool (and fun to see). Thanks for showing what ya got cookin'. I'm sure I'll have questions about how to get boot camp on the eSATA disk and how to make it all work at boot up but since I don't get the new MP for two weeks there's time for an education :)
 
Education: Vista via eSATA

scottydawg said:
This is really cool (and fun to see). Thanks for showing what ya got cookin'. I'm sure I'll have questions about how to get boot camp on the eSATA disk and how to make it all work at boot up but since I don't get the new MP for two weeks there's time for an education :)
Click to expand...

Nothing to learn really, but I suggest installing vista with the hard drive in the mac first, then just throw it in the FirmTek and select windows as the start up disk in system preferences, don't hold the option key on boot it wont show up, just let it boot. Vista will say it found new hardware and install the driver all by itself. It will reboot and your done!
 
mikekim75 said:
Nothing to learn really, but I suggest installing vista with the hard drive in the mac first, then just throw it in the FirmTek and select windows as the start up disk in system preferences, don't hold the option key on boot it wont show up, just let it boot. Vista will say it found new hardware and install the driver all by itself. It will reboot and your done!
Click to expand...
Ahhh here's where I will have a problem, since I have a RAID card and SAS drives, I won't be able to put the drive in the Mac first. I might be able to find another Mac to do it on. I'm going to see what my options are when I try next week and let you know (I'm sure you'll be holding your breath LOL). Seriously, thanks for the explanation!
 
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