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I have an 8 core late '08 macPro and have configured 1 mirror+1 spare so hoping to use the last drive in Bay 4 as a Boot Camp Win7x64 disk. So far all attempts have failed. After formatting the said drive as MS-DOS using SL Disk utility, Win7 still does not recognize it and can't find drivers. I even tried the same scenario with a new drive attached to an ODD port (making sure the raid drives were all pulled out of course). No luck.
You won't. :eek: It won't work if you've a software RAID installed (disks on the logicboard, and the RAID is setup via Disk Utility). :(

It seems that when you create an array, it makes a change in the firmware (i.e. RAID mode rather than the default = Legacy to all the HDD SATA ports - that is, they're tied together) that prevents Windows from installing.

Does installing Win7x64 native on another raid-less MacPro first work?
How about a boot-camped Win7x64 drive built on another radi-less MacPro?
Either of these methods will work. :) Just not if there's a RAID set created under Disk Utility.

Looking for options here before I consider a new Raid card (Caldigit?) or all the tricky efi,grub,ubuntu hacks I am reading about.
You could keep the OS X array on the logic board, and use a PCIe SATA card to place the Windows drive on (inexpensive example). It's actually a 2 port card, but you can configure it to a 2 + 0, 1+1, or 0 + 2 configuration (SATA and eSATA respectively). It also has Mac drivers available on Silicon Image's site (here; you just won't be able to boot OS X from it; Windows OTOH, will boot). :)

If you do want to run a RAID card, I'd skip Apple's or CalDigit's offerings. They're both junk.

Hope it helps. :)
 
MAC PRO RAID 2009 and Windows 7

Hi all,
I've just bought a fantastic MAC PRO. I find it very special, I wanted a workstation and nearly bought a HP z8000. This is my first MAC, other than my iPhone (;-). I've lots of history in Windows including major server support and application development.

So that's me. I've got 4 x 1tb WD black sata drives and can see there is a well documented issue here regarding boot camp and windows with Leopard on apple's Raid card.

I can quite understand why it does not work.. this is a feature for professional photo, vid and design guys to get best performance and using a MAC they would stay within a MAC OS.

So are there any 3rd party cards that can boot windows and leopard from a Raid? - available to the uk market? - my main question -

Cheers all
 
So are there any 3rd party cards that can boot windows and leopard from a Raid? - available to the uk market? - my main question -
Unfortunately, NO. Windows requires BIOS, while OS X requires EFI, and no card can contain both simultaneously. You could constantly load the necessary firmware code each time you need to boot into the other OS, but that's a PITA, and eventually would damage the ROM, as the write cycles are limited to 10k writes.

So you've a couple of solutions.
1. Use separate RAID cards (one per OS).
2. Run OS X's array on the logic board (software RAID in Disk Utility, but the array levels are limited to 0/1/10). For any other level, it would require a separate card.

I dont' recall anyone getting a software RAID using the SATA ports on the logic board to function under Windows.

A separate SATA card could work (separate drivers, but you'd need to stick with 0/1/10 levels, as it's not suitable for parity based arrays, despite whether or not it has it in the drivers, as there's no solution for the write hole issue.

If you don't actually need RAID for Windows (or OS X for that matter), just use a separate disk (if Disk Utility is used to create the RAID, then you'd need a separate SATA card to run the Windows disk).

It's an unfortunate side-effect of what's going on in the system's firmware and the inability to access it that causes the issues between OS X and Windows it seems (it appears that Disk Utility is changing the firmware when you set up a RAID, and since OS X and Windows work differently, are incompatible).

Sorry if this is confusing, but it's the best I can do with the information given.
 
Unfortunately, NO. Windows requires BIOS, while OS X requires EFI, and no card can contain both simultaneously. You could constantly load the necessary firmware code each time you need to boot into the other OS, but that's a PITA, and eventually would damage the ROM, as the write cycles are limited to 10k writes.
...

Thanks and cheers nanofrog for taking the time to explain all that. I will read up on EFI (being a windows user).

I will way up some options and decide how to go. Still I'm pleased to have bought the MAC over the HP workstation, have access to MAC software is a bonus. I've also just setup some virtual machines using VMware on the Windows side and so far I'm not missing RAID. Thanks CB
 
Thanks and cheers nanofrog for taking the time to explain all that. I will read up on EFI (being a windows user).

I will way up some options and decide how to go. Still I'm pleased to have bought the MAC over the HP workstation, have access to MAC software is a bonus. I've also just setup some virtual machines using VMware on the Windows side and so far I'm not missing RAID. Thanks CB

Heck make that weigh not way - its been a long day
 
Thanks and cheers nanofrog for taking the time to explain all that. I will read up on EFI (being a windows user).

I will way up some options and decide how to go. Still I'm pleased to have bought the MAC over the HP workstation, have access to MAC software is a bonus. I've also just setup some virtual machines using VMware on the Windows side and so far I'm not missing RAID. Thanks CB
It could help clear some things up.

But keep in mind Apple's implementation is a proprietarized variation of the v. 1.10 spec, and you don't have access to it (originally invented by Intel for the Itanium processor, and those systems do allow full access to it). Apple used EFI to tie OS X to their systems, and why a PC has to be hacked to run OS X (EFI emulation is one method of doing so).

But that asside, it's the result that you can't mix BIOS in an EFI environment when running OS X. BIOS emulation (included in the MP's firmware) does allow the system to run Windows or Linux (converts the EFI to BIOS so Windows can access the hardware properly rather than crash).
 
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