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Slow SATA performance on Mac Pro in XP/Bootcamp

OK guys. I have an un-opened MacPro right here and I need to decide whether it goes back, or is pressed into service...

The plan was to use it 98% in XP (we are a dual Mac & PC based digital graphics studio - needs must etc.) so performance in XP is very important.

If I'm understanding correctly (and I'm no techy) we've no real option other than to instal XP on the internal disk. However, if I added a USB2 external I could keep my windows applications and work files on that.

In this case, would the HD performance hit just be on booting? Would a good external HD (say a Lacie 250gig connected via USB2) be just as fast as an internal SATA drive? If not what sort of performance hit could we expect?

Mike A.
 
It sounds like you're going to be working in graphics-intensive apps like Photoshop, which has a scratch disk typically on the internal drive. If you put the scratch on the SATA internal, performance in PS will be absolutely horrific. If you put your scratch on the USB2 drive, performance is going to be slower but probably still workable.

Send an email to bootcamp@apple.com about this and tell them your situation and that without an answer you may have to return your Mac Pro.
 
Install a ide drive above the superdrive and everything works fine, use it as a temp fix until sata gets sorted out! :)
 
sirnh said:
I think the XP-On-Mac contest actually pushed Apple's hand to release Boot Camp earlier than planned. Apple really didn't want people hacking the EFI, and they knew how popular the XP On Mac project was. So they released Boot Camp to retain control over EFI and the platform, in general. If the XP On Mac EFI hack never came into existance, I don't think we would have seen Boot Camp until now, with the WWDC developer preview, if not even later. It could have been one of the major features that Apple decided to keep private until later in the year.
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That may be so. But anyways, I just want to apologise for the tone I used in my previous posts. I'm currently working for an authorised reseller in Malaysia because we don't have our own "Apple Retail" store, and have just been increasingly frustrated when people who buy macs come and complain that certain things in XP doesn't yet work and then blame Apple. While I understand that installing XP on your MacPro's are important for some people, please don't blame Apple because BootCamp as it is now is still beta.
 
ok so ive put it internal using the 2nd bay IDE cable to my hdd
i'm getting about 15 mb/s so definetly much faster than the sata speed.. but wondering if theres a registry thing or something to make it go faster..
 
aiongiant said:
ok so ive put it internal using the 2nd bay IDE cable to my hdd
i'm getting about 15 mb/s so definetly much faster than the sata speed.. but wondering if theres a registry thing or something to make it go faster..
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Did you put it on as a slave to the optical drive?

Try putting the HD on as master. It'll go faster. Find my other posts explaining all of that and what happens when you put the optical drive on as a slave.
 
I was wondering, using a external drive could I install applications to that and keep windows on the SATA drive. Would it give me faster load times in loading apps.

I have a spare firewire/usb external drive.
 
egeis said:
I was wondering, using a external drive could I install applications to that and keep windows on the SATA drive. Would it give me faster load times in loading apps.

I have a spare firewire/usb external drive.
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yes and no...

you would also want to relocate your windows swap file over to that drive, which is easy...

But, when windows loads its own files (which it does now and then..) you will slow down as it grabs them from the SATA drive.
 
The Inevitable said:
As an alternative, you could use an external FireWire 800 drive as your Windows drive, as Windows boots just fine from external drives. It should be just as fast as an internal HD, since FireWire 800's theoretical bandwidth is greater than any single hard drive can deliver. I couldn't say how fast it is in practice, however, because I don't own a FW800 drive.

For $75 + shipping, you can get a FW800 enclosure. Macally's drive enclosures have always been very good in my experience.

People in this thread have posted their experiences with installing Windows onto external FireWire and USB drives. Notably, posts #11 and #15 explain how to install to an external HD. Despite others saying that it shouldn't be possible to boot from an external HD, it is perfectly possible (post #22 gives a possible explanation on why it does work).
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Ive used these enclosers to Clone the Macs at my school they are very good. I bought a "mac mini" one from another site that works great, but there is no cooling. The power source is no the outside though so it never gets to warm. This case will also act as a Master boot drive using firewire on apple side unlike my Mac mini style case.
 
CyberPrey said:
yes and no...

you would also want to relocate your windows swap file over to that drive, which is easy...

But, when windows loads its own files (which it does now and then..) you will slow down as it grabs them from the SATA drive.
Click to expand...

Is there a tutorial or something i could read about installing windows on a Firewire device.
 
CyberPrey said:
And yes, I am incredibly impatient for the SATA fix.. I'm a total gamer.. and I gave up a SWEET gaming rig to get my Mac Pro.. and I have not had my guild wars fix in a long time..... GAHHHH!!!!!!
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Guild Wars works perfectly fine. I transferred the entire 2.8gig folder from my old pc to the mac pro (that took forever obviously). The game runs with every setting on high, aa 4x, 1680x1050 (highest i have). The only problem is loading takes maybe 5-10 seconds when you have to download an update to an area.

I guess if you dont have the folder still, you can install overnight.


[2.0ghz mac pro, 7300gt]
 
A fix is on the way

Don't ask me how, don't ask me when, but a fix is on the way.

This might happen on the next release of bootcamp, but then again maybe not until later. There are people looking into this even ask we speak. I wish I could say more, but I'm not into the whole losing of the job type thing.

I hope this is the answer alot of people (myself included) have been waiting to hear.
 
fgnh3qo4678w said:
Don't ask me how, don't ask me when, but a fix is on the way.

This might happen on the next release of bootcamp, but then again maybe not until later. There are people looking into this even ask we speak. I wish I could say more, but I'm not into the whole losing of the job type thing.

I hope this is the answer alot of people (myself included) have been waiting to hear.
Click to expand...

Isn't this like saying "Apple will release a new iPod, we dont know when, or what it will do, but it is coming"
 
Mr. Mister said:
http://web.mac.com/terrabit/iWeb/macpro/xp.html

That seems to bring it up to DMA 4 and faster than IDE with no futzing around inside the Mac Pro's case even.
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VERY VERY NICE! Not the quickest fix, but the fix makes very good sense, and should provide us with what we need.

Not to encourage pirating (everyone can provide their own purchased serial and activation) but once one person makes this disk, the ISO could just be distributed.
 
Yes it works! UDMA mode 4 and Sandra benchmarked at 58MB/s. Time to throw the PC out the window!
 
Interesting. Great find. Hopefully at this point it actually WILL be just a driver issue and apple can fix it. I'm not sure why it would change things with the drivers being installed during the install vs. after the fact. Good luck to all you Mac Pro owners!
 
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