FirmTek SeriTek/2ME4-E bootability

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FirmTek SeriTek/2ME4-E bootability

My question is about Firmtek's SeriTek/2ME4-E esata adapter card.
Manufacturer claims Powermac G5 bootability - http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-2me4-e/spec/
I tried to boot from external and then from internal hard drive, using this card, but the only thing I get is a question mark on start up.
Has anyone tried to boot using this card?

Powermac G5 quad, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Mar 5, 2011 9:41 PM

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Answer 1

japamac

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Mar 5, 2011 9:54 PM in response to Mariusz12

the only thing I get is a question mark on start up.

That means an OS can't be found.
The drives do have OS X installed on them, correct?

Try selecting a startup drive at boot by holding the Option key while starting.
Select the drive/volume from the Startup Manager screen and click the Right arrow.

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Answer 2

Mariusz12 Author

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Mar 6, 2011 6:07 PM in response to Mariusz12

The OS is installed on the drive. It is a boot drive from slot 1 in hard drive bay . It just won't boot using SeriTek card. When I restart and hold option key, the screen shows no drive.
I tried to use other pcie slot, but no luck.
The card does everything it should exept booting.
I just wondered if anyone has had any luck booting using this card.

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Answer 3

japamac

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Mar 6, 2011 6:27 PM in response to Mariusz12

It is a boot drive from slot 1 in hard drive bay

So, what housing is used to hold/power the drive and provide the eSATA connection?

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Answer 4

Mariusz12 Author

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Mar 6, 2011 6:38 PM in response to Mariusz12

The drive is still in upper bay and gets power from there.
I ran "esata to sata" cable from the drive, which is inside the case, to the FirmTek's esata ports outside.

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Answer 5

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Mar 6, 2011 9:52 PM in response to Mariusz12

So you're trying to use the Firmtek card as your sole boot source?
I don't think it works that way.

Is the Firmtek card properly reported in the System Profiler?
Does the profile list the driver as installed?

I notice in the user guide that

"the Apple System Preferences/Startup Disk setting is used to select a PPC boot disk".

This possibly indicates that the Startup Manager won't work, and the drive must be selected while booted to a running OS.

Message was edited by: japamac

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Answer 6

Mariusz12 Author

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Mar 6, 2011 10:38 PM in response to Mariusz12

You are the best.
It worked.
I selected the drive in system preferences as a start up disk, and booted from selected drive after restart.
The reason I wanted to do that, is that i wanted to see if there would be a difference in read and write speeds when using faster sata II.

Many thanks.

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Answer 7

Nov 2, 2012 10:49 PM in response to Mariusz12

Question for Mariusz12..

How is your system working so far? I am running a G5 Quad Mac OS X(10.5.8) same as you I believe

I too have installed the Seritek/2ME4-E SATA controller card , so far all is well.

I ran a SATA - eSATA cable from just outside the PCIe slot looped back thru to connect to the SATA HDD in drive bay "A". Once selected ( thru "Startup Disk" pref) it now always boots from the selected disk.

I replaced the ATA100 DVD drive with a newer SATA model (connected to the G5's onboard SATA controller) as SeriTek claims their card will not support optical drives.

My next test is to purchase a SSD and see if it will take advantage of the SeriTek's faster SATA speed.

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