Problem: SATA QuickPort will not be rerconised

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Level 2

195 points

Problem: SATA QuickPort will not be rerconised

Hello !
I have a new Sharkoon, *Sata QUICKport PRO* Docking Station for HD 3,5" and 2,5".
The station may be connected via eSATA and USB.
( http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/node/1261)

*When I connect it to the SATA port* Sonnet, *Tempo Sata E2P*
( http://www.sonnettech.com/product/temposatae2p.html )
*The station will not show up in the system profiler*, neither will I see a hard drive when
loaded into the station. ( formated or not, two different type of Disck tested )

*But it will work when connected via USB*. ( SATA cable disconnected ).

Any idea why SATA will not work ?
please help !

thank you !
larry

tech spec :

MacPro 3.33/6core 2010 n-12gigRam-ATI Radeon HD 5770

MacPro 3.33/6core-12gigRam-ATI Radeon HD 5770, Mac OS X (10.4.11), EIZO CG 21"+ EIZO L985ex 21"

Posted on Jan 10, 2011 8:34 AM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Jan 10, 2011 9:13 AM in response to larryrrw

From that Sonnet page:

Technical Notes

1. Sonnet Tempo cards are compatible with most external SATA storage. However, external hard drives with USB 2.0/eSATA dual interface based on the Oxford Semiconductor OXU931DS storage controller chip may not be compatible with Mac OS X when connected via SATA. Known issues are kernel panics occurring when the drive is connected, or the drive not being recognized by the operating system.

I'd ask Sonnet if it doesn't work with their latest driver; or, assuming it uses Silicon Image, with latest driver. Also, by default you would boot into 64-bit kernel mode, and the driver may not be 32/64-bit.

Support for USB/eSATA (like LaCie and others) is iffy.

About those docking stations, and yes I picked up a couple, they do work, but I don't have your 2010 model. I have this model:

http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Sata-HDD-Docking-Station/dp/B0012Z3MKW/

They don't provide active cooling, they are not going to be the same as if you were to get a simple cheap SATA enclosure.

OWC has some dual drive cases that are cheap but no hot swap ability.
I bought some of these that work, and have USB and eSATA $29

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00342UT7A/

PS: you know this is forum for older Mac Pro? and yours should have 10.6.5 (I'm not sure 10.6.6 is ready for everyone's taste)

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Answer 2

larryrrw Author

Level 2

195 points

Jan 10, 2011 3:10 PM in response to The hatter

Hatter,

Thank you very much for your helpfull reply !
I found interesting that the Thermaltake station looks very much lie the one of Sharkoon and others.
Maybe they are all orderd from the same manifactor with different branding (?)

Meanwhile I was in contact with the Sonnet support via Skype (Cool feature, they replied imedatly !)

here a part of their answer :
+It should work. We'd probably need to get the exact JMicron chipset they're using just in case it's something different.+
+sonnet.support: I know we had some issues with a JMicron chipset in another company's dock with our E4P card and our engineer was able to figure it out and fix it.+
+sonnet.support: The E2P driver is written for us so any issues we find we have to pass along to Silicon Image for fixing.+

In conclusion to your reply and Sonnets reflection, I have decided to go for an device from OWC :
Voyager of NewerTechnology. A similar dockin station with Firewire 800/ USB 2/ and SATA.
With Firewire I will be on the safe side.

And no, I did not realise that I am in the wrong forum.

Thanks for helping out !

all the best,
Larry

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