Thunderbolt Pegasus R4 Experience?

I am yet to purchase, and based on the experiences here, I am unlikely to do so. I am sorry to here of your problems and hope that either Apple or Promise will take note, provide some feedback that they are actually doing something, and resolve this issue for you. I find it most disturbing that Apple are still offering this unit as a configuration option when purchasing a new Mac online given the issues that so many of you have.

Maybe some more public pressure is required. I wrote to MacRumors submissions (http://www.macrumors.com) via the 'Share It' link to see if they would run the story - but nothing happened. Perhaps if more people wrote in highlighting the same issue - just an idea.

My experiences with Promise so far - on 15/11/2011 I sent the following email to sales@promise.com:

[I am a Mac owner and I want to purchase a 12TB Pegasus R6 but I am troubled by the following report: "The Pegasus R4 and R6 RAID units from Promise which are connected to the Mac via Thunderbolt are reported to be intermittently disconnecting, a number of users have said that the drives randomly disconnect, both Promise and Apple are said to be looking at the issue. A couple of users have said the the problems appear to be caused by phone interference, this can be replicated by holding the phone close to the Thunderbolt cable, as calls are received the drives disconnect. One user reported to have cured the problem by wrapping the cable with tin foil."

and as documented by all the users in the following thread:

A little annecdotal info:

The other day we had issues with one of our Firewire drives and a solution that was mentioned was ensuring that "Put Harddrives to Sleep" under energy saver was UNCHECKED. While it didn't solve the problem with that firewire I kept it unchecked anyways.

Last night I set up a transfer to the Pegasus - a 2tb transfer. About the same size as some of the others I had attempted in the past when the drive failed. Low and behold - left it running overnight and came in this morning... transfer complete!

In fact, so far I haven't run into any issues *touch wood*

Now, obviously this is purely annecdotal. It worked once, and I've yet to confirm that it solves the problem entirely but I'd be interested if other people having the un-mount issue have this option checked or unchecked. With plenty of brand new machines others, like myself, may have forgotten this option even existed and never thought to disable it.

That said, Promise Tech Support has not been answering any of my inquiries which doesn't exactly give me a lot of hope for them as a company on a whole. But if this simple un-checking of a box solved my problem then I guess it's a blessing in disguise.

Just for your info:

Had major problem with my Promise R6 freezing up after approx 25% transfer from my new Imac.

Whatever i was trying to transfer it just froze up, had to hard-restart the mac and disconnect the power cord to the R6. Tried a bunch of different things until i finally read this thread and tried turning the thunderbolt cable the other way around and using the left thunderbolt port on the R6. Since then i have had no problem whatsoever...

Best

Daniel

I'll take that back, It worked for a little while. Now I'm back to constant freezes...

I just read all twelve pages of this thread and was very sad to see it run all the way to January 22 with no fix and horrible communication from Apple OR Promise.

I tried to keep a tally on the locations that all the posters were reporting from, but is this definatly a EU issue? I'm in New York, awaiting a new iMac (i7) and have very little time to decide on a Raid system fro my photography business. I'll be maintaining my photo's on this, as well as a lot of critical documents.

Because I'm new to Raid, I really wanted to make use of my TB port but now I'm getting nervous. Regardless of the unmounting issue, I'm not real excited about tying up $2K with a company that doesn't do better with support.

I'm sure Firewire 800 will be fine to manage a photography catalog via Raid; but I wanted to go another step toward future-proofing my setup by getting in on TB.

These are tough decisions.

Very sorry to all the poor guys who have been dealing with all this frustration, and also very appreciative for taking the time to share so much information.

All the Best,

Chawn

Can I ask the question: Is ANYONE seeing this issue in the US?

I agree that all the disconnect feedback does seem to be from the EU.

If you are seeing issues in the EU have you tried forcing your mobile phone to UMTS2100/900 only with no GSM 900/1800? At least check to see if your phone is on camped GSM or UMTS. We mayube able to make some correlation and hard data.

Personally I've been running my R4 and even using it as my startup drive and have never seen a single instance of a disconnect?

Can I ask if everyone is using the left hand port on the Pegasus? I heard of folks aving issues with the right hand port.

Steve.

I have the i7 iMac with Pegasus R6 fully loaded with 12 TB of storage and I'm in the US. Knock on wood, but I've had zero problems and it's been running continuously for almost 2 months.

I'm in Canada and had the issue. I've returned it and got a Lacie 4Big instead.

I'm in the US.

I have a 2 month old (Nov 29, 2011) Pegasus R4 Connected to a loaded MacBook PRO 15" purchased in May 2011.

Short answer the Pegasus completely failed 2 weeks ago and is collecting dust with my entire LR3 cat on it. (Thankfully I backed up to a LaCie 1T)

For your reading pleasure what follows is the tale of my Promise Support trouble, followed by a transcript of my online trouble ticket thread.

I've been in Info Tech before the Internet, Mac and PC. A dinosaur "Green Screen" guy that morphed into an owner of a Cisco Partner firm that service F 500 companies.

Sold and retired.

Sorry to digress.

Promise = The worst support I have ever experienced.

With the MacBook I bought a 27" display with the pigtail mini display connector. About 3 weeks later Apple shipped a 27" display with a real Thunderbolt port. (The Apple Store guy neglected to tell me a new monitor was so close) Oh well, I'm a big boy. I got the Old Maid.

Back to Pegasus….

After 2 weeks (early Dec 2011) the Pegasus mysteriously disconnect itself. "hum, but no big deal" 5 weeks later it happened again. "hum, big deal"

I opened a Promise ticket. A tech called the next day and went through checking all the low level stupid stuff. He never once considered that there could be a problem with the Pegasus. He had me install "Teamviewer.com" remote control software. My MacBook Pro did not like that software. My trackpad / cursor went daffy. He kept calling my Mac a PC and said my MacBook must have problems. Anyway, I played along. Created a test account, boot with and without the monitor. Without the LaCie firewire. Then the Promise utility abended. Get this… he asked to connect the drive to another Mac with a Thunderbolt port, like I have a dozen of them. Implying that if I couldn't do this it's my problem not being able to isolate the failure.

On restart my MacBook would not "bong". I app zapped Teamviewer" and performed a P_R boot. "bong"

The drive will not connect. Period. The tech wanted Mac logs sent so he could escalate. I obliged and sent screen shots as well. …..I waited. Every so often I updated the online ticket asking for status. The tech would reply occasionally and suggest I follow an Apple tech note on connecting a 27" display inline on the Thunderbolt port. I said "It doesn't work Without the monitor." I also said that there is only One way to connect a Pegasus to a MacBook and Display that have only One Thunderbolt port/cable each.

After the P_R boot the Promise Utility no longer abends. Sadly the R4 will not connect. I am not happy about the data that is trapped on it.

So today I called in…again.….. hold for 45 minutes of a sales pitch…. asked to enter an online ticket for faster service….. waited and a guy picked up…….. saying someone would call me back. !!!… I said I'm out until 2PM PST…… He said 3PM PST… I said fine…. 3:45 PST no call. I called in again…… on hold sales pitch again…after 20 minutes a guy answers I give him my info expecting him to start working on the issue…. he says they'll call me in 10 minutes….. It's been well over an hour….. Went to the Apple Board… found this thread… and hammered this post.

I have not called Apple support because my MacBook PRO is just fine. Thanks you….

BEWARE of Promise.

For fun I tacked on the online support transcript.......

Request:- 20th January 2012 at 15:22

Promise Pegasus RAID System goes offline.

Pulling the power plug is the only solution.

Since it's implementation in the first week of december the RAID Array has disconnected.

Today was the second time.

I get an abnormal drive disconnect.

Promise Utility is blank... no windows or menu

Unplug / Plug of the Thunderbolt Cable does nothing. Other than cause my external Apple Monitor to go out and require a reboot of my Mac.

The Pegasus Power Button does nothing. I can hold it in forever / release and nothing happens.

The only choose is to unplug the unit.

When it comes back the utility reports an abnormal shutdown timestamped with when the plug was pulled.

This happened in the middle of the night. My backup program, SuperDuper, reported an error.

The RAID is presently working.

Response By:- Pradeep Chidambaranath 20th January 2012 at 22:38

Hi Luke,

Thank you for choosing our solutions for your storage needs.

Im sorry about the inconvenience caused to you.

Please try to uninstall and reinstall the Promise Utility and see how it works. Please go to the below link to download the utility.

http://www.promise.com/support/download_file.aspx?rsn=1020&m=205&region=en-US

Please hold the power button for 25-30 sec to turn off or turn on the unit and see how it works. If you still have problems with the power button, please let us know.

Thanks and Regards

Pradeep C

Promise Technical Support.

Request:- 24th January 2012 at 17:17

Pradeep worked with me and was unsuccessful at solving my problem.

At this point I cannot see the Pegasus from my Mac.

During the call on a reboot the drive was accessible for about one minute before disconnecting itself.

The result was the Red Stop Sign with an exclamation point.... "Drive not disconnected properly message

This along with TeamViewer were problematic. All my other software works perfectly.

I believe some of the strangeness with TeamViewer were my Bluetooth TrackPad and Keyboard.

I use my MacBook pro as a desktop for Photo Editing and web publishing. A lot of Adobe Software.

I have the Apple Thunderbolt Display and a Wacom Tablet for editing.

Everything woke fine. Then as stated above I got the Drive Disconnect error. Rebooted, everything was fine for about a month. Same thing happened. I started this case. The drive came back. Thenn yesterday it's gone for good.

The utility has been installed several times. It quits .... See screen shots.

Pradeep wanted me to connect to another Thunderbolt Machine. I only have one. My MacBookPro is quite new and expensive.

I cannot express how important it is to get this drive working.

Thanks Luke

Request:- 24th January 2012 at 17:50

Added some additional screen shots

Response By:- Pradeep Chidambaranath 24th January 2012 at 19:27

Customer called in saying that he was not able to access his Pegasus unit, the utility didnt respond. Advised the customer to uninstall and reinstall the utility still the same, try to create a new profile and installed the utility still the same, try to get the logs through terminal window. When typed Promiseutil it says error or bad command.

Customer had apple display connected to the unit, advised the customer to remove the display and connected the unit directly to the unit still the unit is not detected.

Did a sequential reboot, the unit detected was detected, and when he try to access the unit it gives error message "the drive is unplugged"

Advised the customer to try with a different MAC PC, customer said he dont have other MAC PC with thunderbolt port.

Advised the customer to add the MAC system information for further investigation.

Response By:- Pradeep Chidambaranath 24th January 2012 at 19:29

Hi Luke,

Thank you for uploading the screenshots, unfortunately I was not able to open the files from my end. Could you please attach the screenshots and also attach the MAC System Information for further investigation.

Thanks and Regards

Pradeep C

Promise Technical Support.

Request:- 24th January 2012 at 19:52

They were all Adobe .pdf files.

Response By:- Pradeep Chidambaranath 24th January 2012 at 19:58

Hi Luke,

Thank you for the update.

Thanks and Regards

Pradeep C

Promise Technical Support.

Request:- 24th January 2012 at 20:11

Try these attachments I shortened the names and sent the System Report in both text and PDF form.

I have nothing connected to the MacBook Pro except my FireWire backup drive . No external monitor. The Pegasus is powered off.

I need the data on the firewire drive because it's a backup of the Pegasus.... thankfully!

Response By:- Pradeep Chidambaranath 24th January 2012 at 20:19

Hi Luke,

I can access all the attachments. I have emailed my lead about this issue and waiting for an update from him. I will be in touch with you immediately I get an update.

Thank you for your patience.

Thanks and Regards

Pradeep C

Promise Technical Support.

Request:- 24th January 2012 at 20:30

Many thanks....

Response By:- Pradeep Chidambaranath 24th January 2012 at 20:35

Thank you for your patience Luke!

Regards

Pradeep C

Request:- 27th January 2012 at 13:50

Hello,

The loss of the Pegasus RAID system and access to the data stored on it is critical to my operation.

I need an update as soon as possible.

Luke

Response By:- Pradeep Chidambaranath 28th January 2012 at 20:54

Hi Luke,

Please try powering off and unlatch the drives from Pegasus, then start the Pegasus, then start the mac. Once all up again, see if the Pegasus utility can see the Pegasus now. If it can, we may be able to get logs and see if one of the disks were faulty.

Thanks and Regards

Pradeep C

Promise Technical Support.

Request:- 29th January 2012 at 21:10

The Promise Utility does NOT Quit anymore, but the drive cannot be accessed.

PLUS my Apple Thunderbolt monitor is going off and on......

This has never happened before.

I purchased the monitor when I got the MacBook PRO. It is mandatory that it work. That everything work. Don't go there telling me to disconnect the monitor. It's an Apple Product..... They invented Thunderbolt with Intel.

I need answers.

Send a new chassis.

Request:- 29th January 2012 at 21:21

OK... I just Shut Down and restarted with no monitor. Only the Promise Pegasus and the MacBook Pro.

The utility is running but there is no Pegasus drive.

I think my monitor turning off and on is a CLUE !

Your box is broken.

I want to talk to someone else ASAP

I want it fixed.

We are talking about my data, my business and an expensive piece of equipment.

Now I purchased an extended warranty from B&H. I don't know if it's yours or not.

Notwithstanding this drive is less than 90 days old. It's broken and my data is on it.

I have not flamed you on the Apple forum....... Yet.

Request:- 29th January 2012 at 21:21

OK... I just Shut Down and restarted with no monitor. Only the Promise Pegasus and the MacBook Pro.

The utility is running but there is no Pegasus drive.

I think my monitor turning off and on is a CLUE !

Your box is broken.

I want to talk to someone else ASAP

I want it fixed.

We are talking about my data, my business and an expensive piece of equipment.

Now I purchased an extended warranty from B&H. I don't know if it's yours or not.

Notwithstanding this drive is less than 90 days old. It's broken and my data is on it.

I have not flamed you on the Apple forum....... Yet.

Request:- 29th January 2012 at 21:29

One more thing.

If your drive were to magically revive itself, do you think I would trust it?

**** would you trust it?

You know the answer.

The drive has been disconnected itself with increasing frequency since it was implemented, and now it won't come back at all. What do you want me to do?

It's been 10 days.

Response By:- Pradeep Chidambaranath 29th January 2012 at 23:22

Hi Luke,

Please go to the below link to check the preferred order of connecting the Pegasus unit and see how it works.

http://kb.promise.com/KnowledgebaseArticle10315.aspx

If you still have any issues, Please connect the Pegasus Unit alone to the MAC PC without the apple display to see how it works.

Thanks and Regards

Pradeep C

Promise Technical Support.

Request:- 29th January 2012 at 23:33

Guess what ??

The RAID Does NOT Work WITHOUT the MONITOR.

I told you this.... Without the monitor.

Just the MacBook PRO and Just the Pegasus.

IT DOESN'T WORK !!!!!!

So you send me an article about connecting the Pegasus with the monitor. ????

Request:- 29th January 2012 at 23:33

Guess what ??

The RAID Does NOT Work WITHOUT the MONITOR.

I told you this.... Without the monitor.

Just the MacBook PRO and Just the Pegasus.

IT DOESN'T WORK !!!!!!

So you send me an article about connecting the Pegasus with the monitor. ????

Request:- 29th January 2012 at 23:58

Also.

To address the correct way to cable in a display and the RAID using Thunderbolt.

The MacBook PRO has only 1 Thunderbolt Port.

The Apple 27" Display has Thunderbolt connectivity via a single cable on a pigtail that also has a USP cable and the Power Cable. So only one Thunderbolt connection.

That's one Thunderbolt on the Mac and one Thunderbolt on the display.

That means..... there is only one way (One Way) to cable in the Pegasus.

Mac to Pegasus and Display to Pegasus.

Unless the 2 Pegasus ports are different. But there're not labeled (other than a "bolt" icon) so they can't be different.

Guess What ?

He called back.... said there wasn't much he could do if I couldn't plug the R4 into another machine.

I added this URL to my ticket. He's now looking into the possibility of getting me a replacement.

I think I only want it long enough to retrieve my data.

Talking to the same guy.... can't get past him to talk to a higher level. Period.

I had such High Expectations. I wanted this to work.

I loved the unit when it worked.

But it's holding my data.... that's serious.

I don't believe this unit is ready for Prime Time Big Boy business.

Tony,

Great idea, is it still working?

It kills me that Promise tech support plays dumb to all this. It's one thing to knowingly sell an inferior product hoping it will work, but to have their support run you in circles. They are slaughtering their reputation. They need to buck up and do the right thing.

I suppose I deserve this by being an early TB adopter.

I'm going to try the foil. If that works I'll get some copper mesh EMI tape.

Thanks to everyone for posting.

Luke

I just bought & received my R4 to be used with my 27" iMac & MacBook Air as a reliable long-term solution for storing my iPhoto / Apeture / iTunes media.

I've had regular external drives just die on me in the past & figured that this RAID solution is more 'solid' for storing photos, digital videos (high-def), and other memories of my life as well as all my media without fearing that one day I'll wake up & it won't turn on.

I'm getting worried reading all this negative feedback as I've spent $1,500 on this solution and hope it's the best one for my needs. I completed the initial setup (7 hours as per instructions) and am now copying my iTunes + iPhoto libraries.

levindenboer1975 wrote:

Hello Infotech,

After we send an email to the Promise Technology here in Eindhoven the Netherlands the called us back. And after a while the told us to connect the R6 with the thunderbolt cable to the left port.

So we dit! And unbelievable but the system works perfect now?

So if that's the trick wy worries any futher. It runs perfect on our iMac now. It's online now for several day's and no problems at all now.

Is this true??!! This seems very amateur if so. I was hoping to use both ports; one for my iMac 27" and the other for my MacBook Air.

Hello FireFish,

I also saw the photo of the Pegasus rear end. In my case (MacBook Pro) there is only one port on my Mac and one one my display, thus only one way to cable it up. If so, you'd think they'd label the ports.

What I'm getting from this fantastic thread (I should have found it sooner) is poor build quality of the Apple Thunderbolt cable and success wrapping the cable in tin foil. Apparantly, it's been verified that cell phone interference disconnects the drive.

I too use it for LR3 and CS5. I want it to work and I want it stable. When it worked it was great.

So.... tomorrow I'm breaking out the tin foil. If that works I buy a $40 roll of EMI shielding tape.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

good night.

Hi Luke

Yep, its been about 7 weeks since I wrapped the thunderbolt cable in tinfoil, and the setup has worked flawlessly ever since - not one dismount or crash. I do have the cable plugged into the left hand port aswell - though not purposefully to avoid issues, it just happens to be the one I'm using !

I'd strongly recommend to anyone who is having issues to try foiling the cable, just to see if it solves your issues too.

Tony