Thunderbolt Pegasus R4 Experience?

Back-up routines using a Pegasus have become a must for me.

I have been using my R6 together with my iMac 27 2011 as a startup disk, but after several sudden disconnections I was forced to find a different arrangement, and use the R6 just as data storage.

I must add that the sudden disconnections still occur every now and then - a quite annoying experience - and that the upgrade to Mavericks does not appear to have any influence: the R6 disappears from the desktop by itself just as before.

A bitter and meager consolation: most of the times the R6 disks reappear by themselves just as they disappeared!

After my issues the other day I'm back up and running with the R4 as my startup with no issues.

I really think that this had nothing to do with the R4.. I was thinking about doing a seperate post oin this to see if anyone has seen TB port issues after upgraded to Maverick!

After installing Mavericks on my one year old iMac (loaded) Time Machine failed (Pegasus Promise Thunderbolt 3TB). I tried unmounting it, didn't work. Rebooted: Time Machine failed again [Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “Time Machine”. Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.] was the only message. Had to reboot to get Pegusus accessible again. Tried re-intalling Maverick (old Microsoft thing... reintall the OS). Didin't do anything for Time Machine, same failure. Booted into safe mode: nothing, same probelm. Repaired permissions: no joy there either. So, now have no Time Machine backups at all. And Time Machine won't work with the Pegasus. [same error message after 30 min or so every time]. ordinary file saves work fine though.

I put an old USB drive on and Time Machine is working fine with that... so Pegasus R4 and Mavericks don't play well?

Ideas please?

Warning: the Promise Pegasus R4 is NOT compatible with OSX Maverick. Promise has no idea why. Time machine will fail, and in some cases maverick will not even recognise it as a HD. Some report WD Hd problems as well.

Bosto, Did you speak to Promise? if so what did they say apart from what you previoulsy said 🙂.. "Promise has no idea why"

I'm still stunned that Apple allows Promise to get away with this. After all it seems to be a product that Apple endorses!.. Have they heard of 'Interoperability Testing" ???? Did anyone at either Apple or Promise create at least a high level test plan and execute it?... Sorry Apple and Promise I have to say that this is very unprofessional and unacceptable. Site admin, YES I did just give Apple a hazing and YES please escalate the comment!

Hi Steve,

Here's what Promise said about the problem: (complete and exact quote yesterday) "I do not know what the problem is".

Update: Finally...

At least for the Promise Pegasus R4... but I noticed on other threads that WD drives are also acting up too so this might work with them too.

I turned off Time Machine, and deleted that pesky .plist file, again. I unplugged the R4, power and thunderbolt, then played whack the gopher with the drives swapping them around randomly. I reintalled Mavericks from a fresh download, yet again, then set Time Machine to backup on a fast USB 3TB drive (which it did in 6 hours or so). Then I turned off Time Machine, deleleted that .plist file again, rebooted the iMac, plugged in the R4, reformatted it again with Disk Utility, then hooked it to Time Machine, said a few slightly heretic prayers to whatever demons came with Maverick, and 2 minutes later Time Machine started to backup and report 1 hour to complete... the hour isn't up yet, but I'm crossing everything I have 2 of...

Another update (Oct 31st):

OK, the first-pass Time Machine backup worked, but it FAILED again on the first incremental. No useful error message: just 'Time Machine cannot use Pegasus..." no file error warning, nothing useful. The Pegasus won't eject, OS says it is still in use.

SORRY APPLE: there is definitely something screwy between Maverick, Time Machine, and the Promise Pegasus R4.

I have had trouble with my Pegasus R4 for the last four months...basically self-ejecting for the reasons stated in these posts. Reconnecting is haphazard if not worse.

I have been in contact with Promise for the last two months and the response and service is unacceptible. Eventually they agreed to swap the unit (still under warranty) for a new one however that has been two weeks since I returned it to their agent here in Malaysia. Now when I ask on their service website the shipping status of the new unit I get no response...none just like the R4.

Apple from whom I purchased the unit tells me this is not an Apple product therefore they cannot help me.

I am still waiting to hear from Promise but now am not hopeful there will be a solution and now not even hopeful I will get a new unit or even my old unit back.

My advice? Seek other solutions....Promise is not one of them

"My advice? Seek other solutions....Promise is not one of them"

Reluctantly, I have to agree: a lot of fuss, Apple endorsement, good

looks and high price may be misleading sometimes, and this is just

the case.

The self-ejecting problem is here to stay and Messrs. Promise seem

not to care about it.

Does anyone know of a competing solution that has proven reliable? My R6 is working flawlessly, but I haven't upgraded to Mavericks after seeing the problems reported here. Eventually, I'm going to want to do so.

Folks,

Before pointing the finger of blame at Promise, WD have emailed all registered customers warning of data loss/corruption with external hard drives after upgrading to Mavericks; while there may be issues with the Promise drives there may also be issues with Mavericks.

Promise finally advised me that a replacement will be sent...next week.

If this one works and with Mavericks (the 'eject' problem started well before the update) I will so advise in this post. Hopefully all will work notwithstanding the WD issue.

My understanding is that the WD issues have to do with the WD-supplied drivers, not the disks themselves. While that may be part of the problem in the Pegasus case as well, problems with these units predate Mavericks and have been widely experienced, as the length of this thread shows.

I did notice, however, that I'm not running the latest firmware and am wondering if those who have experienced Mavericks problems have ensured that they are using the most recent Pegasus firmware?

The WD drives problem is separate and peculiar to this brand, I think.

My Pegasus RS is equipped with Hitachi drives from its origin, was updated to the new firmware before Mavericks came out and the self ejecting problem was there before the firmware update and before Mavericks, and is stil present after the firmware update and after Mavericks.

The problem began being reported by user since mid 2012 and is not related nor cured by the firmware update.

Seems to me from what I have experienced and what others are reporting the issue is not directly related to drivers, firmware, or OS version, as all combinations are present in the failure.

The issue is deeper and points to either the iMac (is the problem reported with other Macs??) or just isolated to and within the electronics of the R4?

Agreed. We have a small network of iMacs, all with Promise Pegsus R4's. And, three of us bought identical units for home (it is much easier to use mirror-like systems). The iMacs are loaded, and have 3 27" Thunderbolt monitors as well, and in addition have 3 TB USB drives too. Everything worked flawlessly for over a year on all systems then we did a universal (except for my home iMac) update to Maverick. The R4's on everything Maverick went south in a casacde and we've tried everything suggested by numerous threads here, and NO help at all from promise or Apple (except for these community threads).

So: 1) it is NOT the iMac. 2) the R4's worked fine BEFORE Maverick for a year or more - no issues at all.

Others may have had R$ issues, but we have not, so this multiple-system (all independently run, just on a hospital LAN) all show the same issue, and so do the home units (except the one NOT updated to maverick.

It is possible, jumping through many hoops, deleting the time machine .plist file, hard starting everything, yanking an replacing cables, unplugging and replugging, re-installing Maverick etc, to get the R4 to do one initial Time Machine backup... but it will fail on the first incremental.

My bet is an incompatible driver or handler embedded in Maverick that Apple is silently puzzling over.