Mac Pro + RAID Card = No Bootcamp?

The other 4 SATA ports are available via the iPass connector at the front of the board. You will need a custom iPass-to-eSATA cable to get the ports to the outside of the box.

WEll, you are in luck. You have one already 🙂
It's currently attached to your RAID controller.

I don't think it's available to buy on it's own, as the cable it pretty
well integrated with the rest of the system. Maybe someone can custom make a cable to attach to a single internal bay.

I'm just about ready to try this. I ordered an extra drive harness that I'm going to attempt to hack apart in order to use the Logic Board iPass connector as well as the RAID card iPass connector. I would like to use two ports internally for SATA burners and then send the other two ports out the back as eSata. I found an eSata enclosure that supports two disks so that should let me use my Bootcamp and backup drives externally. And since it would be running off the iPass connector and not the ODD_SATA ports, it should all still be bootable. Now it's just a matter of finding the correct SATA adapters/extensions to make it work. I'll keep you guys updated but it probably won't be for another week or so. We're having new flooring put in so I have to tear my office down.

Now, there are supposed to be 6 SATA ports on the motherboard, right? But I cannot locate any of the other ports, I only see the 2 ODD-SATA ports. Does anybody know if it is possible to hook my 5th drive up to one of the other SATA ports and so still get Bootcamp working?

See the 5th entry in<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1231130&tstart=30>

Tachion, any chance of translating that page for real speak?! 🙂

I just ordered this cable and got it installed but haven't had time to test it yet. It's only 12 inches long so it won't reach all the way to the back of the machine. I'll have to buy some sata extension cables to get it all the way to the back.

http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?SKU=13M3656

I also just purchased a four drive eSata enclosure that I intend on using with the four ports available from the iPass connector. These Sata-eSata PCI brackets should make it all possible.

http://www.satacables.com/html/sata-pci-brackets.html

Once I get all the HDD's figured out I'm planning on running two SATA burners off of the ODD ports on the logic board. I've already got rEFIt installed and will just have to install the GRUB bootloader to get those ports working in Windows XP.

I've finally got my external eSata enclosure hooked up to the iPass connector on the logic board. It's working fine except for one big problem. I'm trying to get Windows installed onto my drive but whenever I boot off of the install disk all I get is a black screen. The monitor is getting a signal but it's just pure black. I've even tried booting off a Ubuntu 7.10 disk and had the same problem. I really need to be able to install Windows and Linux so this is a fairly major problem. But atleast the good news is that the four ports via the iPass connector on the logic board still work even when using the Apple RAID Card.

Tachion, this is just the kind of information I've been looking for! I will probably be asking for step by step help when my MP arrives and is set up if you don't mind. I do have one question now, my MP is coming with three SAS drives, do you think your way of hooking everything up would run a SATA drive in the 4th slot for Bootcamp/Windows?

Thanks again!

I hooked up two drives to my MacPro 2.8 octo, before installing the RAID card. I set one up as a boot camp drive. Then I pulled that drive installed my other 3 500 gb seagate drive and installed the RAID card. Finally I took the boot camp drive and used a sata to pata adapter and a drive caddy from transintl.com. Happiness! The boot camp drive does NOT show up in start up disks in system utilities, but if I boot with the option key, there it is.

Sorry, to make it clear the boot camp drive is now sitting in the second optical drive bay.

I bought that cable from Newark and it works, but it's too short plus it ships from the UK, so it's $15 shipping and took almost 2 weeks to get to me.

The cable you need to get access to the main 4 SATA ports on the motherboard after you install the Mac Pro RAID card is, in fact, quite standard, it's just that no one explained that and it took a lot of sleuthing to figure it out.

What you want to buy is a 0.5M (that is, half a meter long) SFF-8087 to 4x SATA internal cable. In typical FUD fashion, this is called several different things. The SFF-8087 connector is also called and "iPass", "Mini Multi-Lane", "Mini SAS 4i", and "Mini SATA 4i" connector. They're all the same thing. The SATA connector is whatever you want, but if you're going to use the SATACable's PCI bracket, you'll want SATA (or "SATA style" as they're called in the SAS spec) cable receptacle connectors, a.k.a. internal (a.k.a "L connector) SATA female connectors. You want straight as opposed to right-angle.

Oh, and to make it even more confusing, you can get these cables with or without "sidebands". You do not need or want sidebands, but if the cable that's easiest to buy has them, they won't hurt much. You can just not connect the sideband connector.

One other thing. Reminiscent of the RS232 days, these cables, even with this specific connector combination, come in two flavors. You want the one that connects the SFF-8087 to the Controller a.k.a. Host and the SATA connectors to the Backplane a.k.a. Target.

It's so obvious I can't believe I overlooked it. 🙂

Like I said, this is a standard cable you can buy from many vendors. But just to make it easy on you, here's one example of what you can buy. The Adaptec "ACK-I-mSASx4-4SATAx1 0.5m R", Adaptec Part Number 2247000-R, available from Mwave here:

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.hmx?SCriteria=4240790



I also found one made by Micro Connectors on the shelf at Fry's.

One other note, if you're going to install the Mac Pro RAID card yourself, have this cable available to install at the same time. It's a major operation to get access to the connector on the motherboard that this cable connects to, but it's the same connector that you are unplugging to plug the built-in cable to the RAID card. Doing both at the same time will save you a lot of pain.