Snow Leopard Incompatibility issues SATA drivers

[Phil G]

Hi a Heads up if you are using PCI-e SATA cards with 10.6

It looks like Snow Leopard has  thrown away the kext (kernel extension driver) for the TCES0-2e PCI-e card for my RTX400-SV on my Mac Pro 8C Xenon  (well its actually put it in an incompatible software folder )
just had word with tech services apparently  it was a known issue so not too happy.

I am checking if the Sonnet Tempo SATA ExpressCard|34 which I use on my Mac Book Pro will suffer the same fate so not upgrading it yet

However I can use share at the moment which is giving me 76MB/sec down the ethernet connection to a SATA unit sitting on my G5Quad

Phil

[rsmphoto]

Check out this discussion in Apple's discussions area under Support. It may be of use. There's a discussion of Si3132 based eSATA cards and a possible fix.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2131682&tstart=0

R

[Phil G]

I'm afraid there are still issues with the Silicon Image chipset

It's either waiting until October at the earliest or purchasing a card with a different chip set which tend to be about 5x the price

this may help

http://www.sonnettech.com/support/snowleopard/index.html

Phil

[rsmphoto]

According a 9/4 reply on the thread below the FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E seems to be an affordable alternative... (about $100)

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2114442&tstart=0

[Phil G]

Cheers Richard just noticed that

However its the same chipset so its a copy of the driver thats needed

http://www.firmtek.com/download/  ?   


Am awaiting results

[rsmphoto]

Right Phil!

I'm using a PCIe TeraCard I got from Wiebetech (TCESO-2e) as well. An email query to Wiebetech proved to be ambiguous since they seemed unaware and hadn't tested w/SL(!), so no word. I'm wondering if someone elses driver like FirmTek's would suffice, but I'm reluctant to experiment.

I'm going to try Wiebetech tech support again this week...

[NickT]

I'm in the same boat as you guys with a "Raidon" PCI SATA card using the SI chipset.
Some more info on the subject (but no solutions) here:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/aug09/081209.html

Nick-T

[Phil G]

Hi Nick

We are still on the case and I have just replied to a email from Wiebetec who say they are running Snow leopard on their machine with no problem  so you can guess what my response was !

This is the situation with Sonnet cards which appears to be the same with other manufacturers

http://www.sonnettech.com/support/snowleopard/index.html

So it's either wait or buy a much more expensive card. But I want to make sure whatever I get will run in the 64bit future.

Fortunately my being slow in disposing of my G5 Quad I run the SATA externals on that and use the Gbit Ethernet to connect to it.

Will keep you posted

Phil

[NickT]

Fortunately my being slow in disposing of my G5 Quad I run the SATA externals on that and use the Gbit Ethernet to connect to it.

Will keep you posted

Phil

HGi Phil
Thanks for that
I too have a G5 Quad, not sure if the SATA card I bought for the Macpro is backward compatible (I can never work out which machines like PCIx PCIe Or PCI Banana) I'll give it a go as you suggest.
Cheers
Nick-T

[rsmphoto]

Yup. Wiebetech's tech reply to me was to uninstall and reinstall the driver that's available on their site and see what happens. Kind of like rolling the dice..

[Phil G]

Hi Phil
Thanks for that
I too have a G5 Quad, not sure if the SATA card I bought for the Macpro is backward compatible (I can never work out which machines like PCIx PCIe Or PCI Banana) I'll give it a go as you suggest.
Cheers
Nick-T

G5 Quad and Mac Pro are PCI-e it was recommended to  me to install in slot 4  mine works ok

And using Gbit Ethernet share (direct connection no router in loop) gives me 70MB+  I also connect MacPro to ethernet via second Gbit Ethernet port and use share internet option so I can download from WWW to G5Quad

Regards

Phil

[Phil G]

Yup. Wiebetech's tech reply to me was to uninstall and reinstall the driver that's available on their site and see what happens. Kind of like rolling the dice..

Hi Richard 

Suggest you use SuperDuper and clone drive before install so you can undo  -   I followed their recommendations and it did not work!

Phil

Mac Pro 2x 2.8GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon OS X 10.6.1

[rsmphoto]

Phil,

Thanks for the update. I'm in a holding pattern for awhile looking for more definitive, positive news from the Apple Discussion site.

Richard

[Phil G]

Hi just received an update re SATA drivers

http://www.sonnettech.com/support/kb/kb.php?cat=345&expand=_a3&action=b146#b146

If you want to use the /34 card in your MBP in 64bit mode you will need to upgrade to the sonnet pro version

Unfortunately away from studio so not able to test as did not take SATA backup with me due to problems with driver so using FW800

but will use Superduper to back up MBP before installing just incase



Phil

[Phil G]

Hi as you may be aware the latest update is out for Snow Leopard 10.6.2

there is also a 10.5.8 update for Leopard and Power Pc users (non intel)


Regarding third party eSATA external drives

drivers for 32 bit cards are available as downloads from

Silicon image
http://www.siliconimage.com/support/searchresults.aspx?pid=32&cat=3&os=3

and Sonnet
Tempo SATA E2P and Tempo SATA ExpressCard/34 Driver (OS X 10.5+) 1.1.11U   
Download Now

Oct-12-2009
Operating System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.5+
File Name: tsata_e2p_e342p_mac_v1.1.11u.dmg
File Size: 130.3 KB
Description: This software enables the use of all versions of the Tempo SATA E2P and Tempo SATA ExpressCard/34 host controllers running Mac OS X. This version fixes an issue in Macintoshes with greater than 2GB of memory. This version also adds Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) support.
Note: This version supports Snow Leopard's default 32-bit kernel boot in a Mac Pro or MacBook Pro. This version does not support the optional 64-bit kernel boot

http://www.sonnettech.com/support/kb/kb.php?cat=345&expand=_a3&action=b146#b146

Today I updated my Mac Pro to 10.6.2 then downloaded and installed driver from Sonnet and the 4 SATA hard drives in the Wiebetech unit are showing on desktop and working under Snow Leopard

It still works on the G5 Quad under 10.5.8

If you want to run in 64 bit mode than you need the much more expensive driver cards not sure its worth it for general use I can live with an actual 200MB/s

Phil

PS my avitar has changed as I am now shore based for the winter and according to my wife  I have a love afair with this light house! its just that I photograph it more than her!!!