MP 7,1 SSD and spinning drives for Fusion Flex J3i?

[LeonPro]

I went the other route and got the cousin J2i. I only needed one spinning drive which is what was supplied - 8TB Toshiba surveillance - and will serve purely as my Time Machine backup.

I was planning to install an SDD for the second slot (with a 2.5 adapter of course) but then thought I really don't need an SATA speed for my work. For actual use, I need Nvme speed. So even the second slot will go to waste for me.

Thoughts on how else I can utilize this vacant slot welcome.

 

[machenryr]

Unrelated question on my thread. Is it necessary to have the Time Machine drive being dedicated only to TM? I’m not a greatly experienced TMer. I do have an older drive I used only for TM. So I have a 14 TB 3.5 on the way. I’m wondering if that’s just overkill unless I can use it for archiving other things. Or just archive EVERYTHING in TM and be done. Normally what I have done in the past is use super duper back up individual drives nightly. I have one for one clones of all of my drives. But I’m hoping to do less of that.

 

[LeonPro]

Unrelated question on my thread. Is it necessary to have the Time Machine drive being dedicated only to TM? I’m not a greatly experienced TMer. I do have an older drive I used only for TM. So I have a 14 TB 3.5 on the way. I’m wondering if that’s just overkill unless I can use it for archiving other things. Or just archive EVERYTHING in TM and be done. Normally what I have done in the past is use super duper back up individual drives nightly. I have one for one clones of all of my drives. But I’m hoping to do less of that.

Personally it’s just for reliability issues. The less wear on the drive the longer it will serve it’s purpose.

You can use the drive for other archives as you wish as long as you have space and are aware of the eventual wear so you can replace it before it fails.

 

[machenryr]

May I ask a question I should know, especially after doing a bit of research? I installed the J3i. It took a minute. They didn’t include the screws for the SSD. So I had to do a little running around in mask. Got it all installed. 14 TB 3.5” and tsk SSD 2TB. I am assuming I should initialize the SSD APFS? and if I want to use Time Machine, Mac OS Extended (journaled)? Is TM still not APFS friendly?

More importantly, and stupidly, is MAC OS Extended problematic at all for 2019 MP Catalina. I ask because I’ve had issues with the MP from the beginning and looking for reasons. I just copied a file from another SSD PCIe MAC OS Extended to the new SSD APFS and it was SUPER fast.

 

[demitri]

May I ask a question I should know, especially after doing a bit of research? I installed the J3i. It took a minute. They didn’t include the screws for the SSD. So I had to do a little running around in mask. Got it all installed. 14 TB 3.5” and tsk SSD 2TB. I am assuming I should initialize the SSD APFS? and if I want to use Time Machine, Mac OS Extended (journaled)? Is TM still not APFS friendly?

More importantly, and stupidly, is MAC OS Extended problematic at all for 2019 MP Catalina. I ask because I’ve had issues with the MP from the beginning and looking for reasons. I just copied a file from another SSD PCIe MAC OS Extended to the new SSD APFS and it was SUPER fast.

I'm sorry that they forgot to include the screws for the SSDs! Mine were included in a tiny ziplock bag inside another bag. There were enough for three SSD drives.

I am still formatting everything (outside the boot drive) as Mac OS Extended, mostly because Disk Warrior still can't repair or optimize AFPS drives. I've had no issues with that format on Catalina, although I DID wait until 10.15.2 before I installed it on my main Mac.

 

[machenryr]

I'm sorry that they forgot to include the screws for the SSDs! Mine were included in a tiny ziplock bag inside another bag. There were enough for three SSD drives.

I am still formatting everything (outside the boot drive) as Mac OS Extended, mostly because Disk Warrior still can't repair or optimize AFPS drives. I've had no issues with that format on Catalina, although I DID wait until 10.15.2 before I installed it on my main Mac.

Thanks. I’m a challenged individual when it comes to these things. The instructions weren’t crystal clear to me. The little pictures that came with it were dim and faded and useless. I went to the website and it was easier to see. Yet and still I put the drives in backwards so the power cables would fit. Pointing the wrong way. But it was faster this time. Once I got the screws from a computer repair place and the drives assembled properly it was great. Now my favorite part is deciding on names for my drives!

But I had read in a pre 2019 MP article that Catalina and SSDs preferred APFS and TM would run on it. I’m wondering whether SSD runs faster or more efficiently.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^I also got the screws. Little black fiber screws. I formatted my three SSDs, AFPS. I use TechTool Pro.

Lou

 

[AidenShaw]

I have gotten those messages going offline, not properly ejected - since before I got the 2019 Mac Pro. They’re in external OWC enclosures though. I ignore unless i need the drive(s). These are spinning drives. It must be an OS thing.

Unstable USB drives have been reported for a year or more. Why would you expect them to work now, with a new device?

 

[machenryr]

Unstable USB drives have been reported for a year or more. Why would you expect them to work now, with a new device?

I didn’t know anything about unstable USB drives.

 

[machenryr]

OK. This morning I saw what demitri reported. I had seen this with my external drives, but this is the first time I have seen it on a APFS SSD in the J3i. Notification that I closed the drive incorrectly. But its up and running. On my other drives in the OWC enclosures is MOST of the time they went offline.

 

[frankiee]

The problem is that the drive that's connected to the USB port randomly gets connected a couple of times a day, and I don't why it's doing that. I keep getting the "drive was ejected improperly" or something along those lines error message. Obviously, I need something more reliable than that, so I'm hoping it's a bad cable? Maybe the Mac Pro needs a firmware update? Not sure. There was ONE instance of all three drives disconnecting, but that was after waking it from sleep - again - not good. But if it's a matter of just not having it sleep, I can live with that for the time being.

Just wanted to chime in, since I seem to have the exact same problem with my fusion flex. I have connected 2 8TB SATA HDDs to the SATA ports and 1 older 1TB Samsung 840 EVO I pulled from my hackintosh (where it has been running flawlessly). On a side note, I also had a bad experience with a WD Gold, that consistently disappeared on a restart, but reappeared on a cold boot. So I switched to two WD REDs (the slower 5400RPM version) and all is good now (and relatively silent as well). Just FYI.

So now, while the SATA drives seem to work flawlessly, I also got those disconnects with the SSD hanging on the internal USB port. Those issues remain when switching to another drive, and the very same drive behaves well in an external case. I first thought it was some energy saver problem, but it is apparently not, since I also get those disconnects in the middle of a copy operation (leading to data loss!). My greatest fear was that my USB port is broken, but as you seem to report the same, not so sure anymore. And, I get this problems also when the drive is unmounted - and also with Bootcamp! - so it clearly seems to be a hardware issue of some sorts.

And since the disconnects also seem totally random (sometimes 10x within 5 minutes, sometimes it runs OK for 2-3 hours before the problem strikes again) I now supect something wrong with the cable. I now rfeplaced the original cable with another SATA to USB3 adapter, and am now running since about 4 hours without any disconnect. Fingers crossed this will continue this way!

Apart from a flaky cable, this also could be a compability problem with the bridge controller in the cable itself. The cable that came with my Fusion Flex has a ASMedia one while the new adapter I tried apparently has a JMicron one.

Just FYI! And maybe we should report this to Sonnet as well since it seems not to be an isolated case.

 

[LeonPro]

Just for perspective, I’m running J2i from Promise. I’m not utilizing the internal USB slot. By the way I have a bunch of external USB drives connected as well.

I’ve had zero disconnect issues with either the Mac Pro or the Mac OS itself on my MBP 16 and MBP 15 with internal or external drives. I do video editing on external drives for hours.

I suspect it’s a cable quality issue and you need to let Sonnet know.

 

[frankiee]

Yeah, IF (if!) my replacement adapter will not disconnect for lets say another day we can be quite sure its the cable. Either Sonnet got a whole bad batch (since there seem to be quite a few others having the same problem) or there is a general compability with the controller they use (which apparently also has a relatively old firmware version). I am also not sure if their adapter supports UASP, while the new one I ordered allegedly does (it is this one: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B079QQJB9L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1)

Will post my final results as soon as I am confident this is stable. (Actually I am relieved others have this problem, since I now do not believe anymore that the USB port on the MP itself is bad, but cannot totally rule out yet.)

 

[choreo]

Yeah, IF (if!) my replacement adapter will not disconnect for lets say another day we can be quite sure its the cable. Either Sonnet got a whole bad batch (since there seem to be quite a few others having the same problem) or there is a general compability with the controller they use (which apparently also has a relatively old firmware version). I am also not sure if their adapter supports UASP, while the new one I ordered allegedly does (it is this one: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B079QQJB9L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1)

Will post my final results as soon as I am confident this is stable. (Actually I am relieved others have this problem, since I now do not believe anymore that the USB port on the MP itself is bad, but cannot totally rule out yet.)

Sure sounds like the J3i USB cable (hopefully not the USB connection internally). I will be installing a Samsung 1TB SSD in my J3i via USB cable when everything comes in next Thursday.

 

[flowrider]

I've had my J3i over a week now - and still

I have not experienced any "not properly ejected" issues.

Lou

 

[frankiee]

So yeah, now running with the replacement adapter for over a day now and still not a single disconnect, Fingers still crossed ... But I think we can now assume it is not the internal USB port of the 7,1 but rather a faulty adapter that came with the J3i. And after this problem apparently not affects everyone, I would say it is not a general incompability, but likely a bad batch of adapters (or maybe also a batch with incompatible controllers / firmware).

 

[choreo]

Just installed my J3i about an hour ago with (all new - freshly formatted) 14TB HD, an 8TB HD and this 1TB SSD :

Samsung 1TB 860 EVO SATA III 2.5" Internal SSD

Buy Samsung 1TB 860 EVO SATA III 2.5" Internal SSD featuring 1TB Storage Capacity, SATA III 6 Gb/s Interface, 2.5" Form Factor, Up to 550 MB/s Sequential Read Speed, Up to 520 MB/s Sequential Write Speed, AES 256-Bit Hardware-Based Encryption, V-NAND Technology. Review Samsung 860 EVO

www.bhphotovideo.com

I formatted the SSD as APFS and then had CCC Clone my internal 1TB Startup drive to it. I made a 20 minute run to the grocery store and when I came back the display had gone to sleep. When I woke it up, I had (4) Notifications lined up along the right side of the screen that the drive had ejected improperly, then it quickly showed up on the desktop with the files in-tact. Spinning hard drives - no problem.

So where do I apply for my membership card?

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Hmm - With so many folks having that issue with the USB SSD, wonder why I'm not❓

You realize that any USB drive wont boot - right?

Lou

 

[choreo]

^^^^Hmm - With so many folks having that issue with the USB SSD, wonder why I'm not❓

You realize that any USB drive wont boot - right?

Lou

CCC had a dialog that said as much. It said to reboot with Command+R and turn something off in some Security panel?

What clone can you boot from?

 

[choreo]

Here is what I am getting - just woke up the screen again...

 

[OkiRun]

Here is what I am getting - just woke up the screen again...

View attachment 931770

Had the same thing happen with an external Seagate 4T hdd plugged into one of the top two ports. Left it plugged in over night, computer screensaver kicked in, and then the next morning - 10 of those messages listed in a column on the right side of the screen. The hdd was no longer listed in Finder. Disconnecting and reconnecting into the port put all back to normal. No data lost. {It was an old hdd}

 

[choreo]

A couple other causes to eliminate:

• Does not disconnect only when display goes to sleep - had it happen several times tonight while copying files. I usually get (2) alert dialogs at a time.
• Turned Energy Setting "Put Hard Disks to Sleep When Possible" OFF - drive still kept disconnecting.

I also sent a link to this thread to Sonnet Tech Support.

 

[frankiee]

choreo, I bet it is the same thing that happened to me. Replace the adapter and it should go away (Running for days now without any further problems). I also contacted Sonnet, and it is also likely that some SATA cables are defect as well, at least for me my HDDs never gave me this problem.

 

[machenryr]

I had this happen before the sonnet. I had had this happen with the OWC external enclosures.

 

[flowrider]

Well, after having the J3i for 12 days, I got the message this morning, after breakfast, when the screen saver quit and the desktop reappeared. The USB drive immediately remounted.

What clone can you boot from?

Anything else not on a USB port. So, any drive on a PCIe card or SATA port.

Lou