Q: Why are my Blu-Ray read/writer & External eSATA Enclosure only accessed by USB?
I bought a Pioneer BDR-207D Blu-Ray optical drive and a Vantec eSATA/USB 2.0 external enclosure to use with my PowerMac G5 that has a PCI SATA card installed. For some reason I can't fathom, the optical drive only shows up for binness via USB. So I tested the cable and card out instead with my eSATA WD MyBook drive and another eSATA drive already in use and they both show up and work just fine.
This makes no sense to me. What necessary info am I missing?
Thanks to any and all....
Mac OS X (10.5.8), Dual2 PowerMac G5, 4 GB RAM
Posted on Mar 12, 2013 3:15 PM
HighPoint Rocket products were so highly recommended for PCI SATA solutions for older PowerPC's like my G5
Not odd in as much that the majority of discussions are with regard to hard drives. Hard drives and optical drives are different animals.
Is the Seritek card you referenced earlier a true SATA?
All the PCI cards use a SATA controller that utilizes SCSI or SCSI adapted drivers in G4 and G5 Macs.
Ther Seritek controller is the only one that supports boot to connected drives. The controller/firmware also has UDMA support.
As I suggested, send Highpoint support an email.
Do the same with Seritek (regarding Blu Ray drive support).
the thought of fake anything on my system slowing me and my work down really burns me up.
That's just something that you will need to accept. PCI SATA uses SCSI, period.
The G5 only has two SATA channels, no more.
Posted on Mar 16, 2013 5:35 PM