Level 2

166 points

Thunderbolt Pegasus R4 Experience?

Has anyone else got any first hand experience of the Promise Pegasus R4 (or R6) with their iMac? I bought mine this week and managed to load it up with around 1.4Tb (it holds around 3Tb) no problem. Now, today I can't get the drive to stay connected before it ejects for more than 5 minutes. It's driving me mad and I'm very concerned as I moved all my family video onto it from another drive and it won't stay connected long enough to get it back onto another drive again.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2011 i7 3.4, 256Gb SSD and 16Gb RAM

Posted on Jul 16, 2011 8:38 AM

455 replies

Sep 9, 2011 6:57 AM in response to Infotech 24 7

We are absolutely livid!

Bought two R6's and at the moment running them both off an 27" iMac (2011) and serving a few stations working Final Cut Pro 7, Motion, Photoshop, Illustrator etc. and they both just keep ejecting all by themselves!

We thought we'd invest in solid file storage which is shared to the whole office but this is just ridiculous!

I have no idea what damage is done with all these ejecting...

They sometimes go offline 4-5 times a day if not more, some days not at all. Really frustrating!

We're a Production/Post-Production house which RELIES of file storage so this is totally unacceptable.

Just plugged the cable to left port of both R6's and both directly to the iMac (no daisy chaining), hopefully this will help though other people doesn't seem to have any more luck this way.

SO frustrating!

Infotech 24 7 Author

Level 2

166 points

Sep 9, 2011 7:03 AM in response to pjburnhill

I totally feel your pain and we've had to go back to Firewire 800 on a Hive RAID that's never let us down. We're waiting on a refund but we're a week down the line and it's not easy. We may have to right off £700 worth of drive as the worlds most expensive paperweight. Anyone thinking of buying one of these drives, DON'T.

Sep 9, 2011 7:07 AM in response to pjburnhill

We know what it is!! On tuesday the 13th we have an appointment with the developer of the Pegasus R6 in our office. The came in our office to see what the problem may be. So we will keep you up to date on this forum what the developers will discover in the system. Because we have the same problem here pjburnhill.

Sep 9, 2011 9:11 AM in response to levindenboer1975

Thanks guys, can't believe this kind of performance from such an high-end product like this. Levindenboer - please let us know what the developer says, hopefully they come up with a solution for this!

Sep 12, 2011 3:47 AM in response to levindenboer1975

My new R6 (Raid 1E with a spare drive) repeatedly unmounts spontaneously from my iMac (running Lion) and the only way to reconnect it is to turn it off at the plug then on again. The power-on/off switch of the R6 doesn't respond (I've tried holding it down for a full minute and it doesn't switch off). Is this all part of the same problem or do you think I have a faulty unit?

Sep 12, 2011 3:52 AM in response to davidfrompinner

We don't think it is a faulty unit. The problem is well known now. Tomorrow we have an appointment with the developer of Promise Technology. They came to our office and going to check what this problem may be.

Till than i can't help you with the unmouting problem. You can trie to disconnect any iPod, iPad or iPhone cable to see if the disk still unmount it selfs. See some messages back by infotech 24 7.

Infotech 24 7 Author

Level 2

166 points

Sep 12, 2011 4:27 AM in response to davidfrompinner

I don't think the unit is faulty as such unless they all are but certainly your problem is consistent with my experience. I believe the issue will ultimately need an iMac firmware update because mine works fine if it is connected to my MacBook Pro but ultimately I bought it for the iMac so I am waiting on a refund but it may take weeks I'm told for me to get my refund.

Sep 12, 2011 2:15 PM in response to Infotech 24 7

Just spontaneously unmounted again - had no iPhone etc connected - and this time it caused the iMac to crash! Immediately after the usual warning re drive being unplugged, a dark veil slowly descended from the top of the screen like a curtain dropping and then I got the message: "You need to restart your computer: hold down the power buton...."

Who have you contacted for a refund - cos I think I'll go down that path cos it is unusable as it is and I've put in a ticket to Promise but had no respose as yet?

Infotech 24 7 Author

Level 2

166 points

Sep 13, 2011 1:56 AM in response to davidfrompinner

I just emailed Promise directly rather than use the ticket system as it's hopeless. If you just email the support and sales email addresses and vent your frustration you'll get a pretty quick response. I'll warn you now though, I'm still waiting for my refund weeks later. They have agreed to refund it but the process is LONG.

The moral of this thread is, have an iMac? DON'T buy a Pegasus Thunderbolt just yet. Seems to be fine with other machines though.

Sep 13, 2011 4:40 AM in response to Infotech 24 7

I think I will return it to Apple rather than Promise since Apple were the "retailer" (I bought it from the Apple website, they invoiced me and took my money prior to delivery) and under the sale of goods act it is the retailer to whom you return goods that you have rejected because they are not of "satisfactory quality". The rejection, however has to be done quite quickly (within a few weeks according to the Which? website.

Infotech 24 7 Author

Level 2

166 points

Sep 13, 2011 4:53 AM in response to davidfrompinner

That's fine if you order as a consumer but unfortunately we bought through the business and Jigsaw (who we bought from) refused to offer any refund so we have to go directly through Promise. If you buy as a business in the UK you have ZERO rights for return or refund, even if faulty, you have to go through the manufacturer.

Infotech 24 7 Author

Level 2

166 points

Sep 13, 2011 5:05 AM in response to davidfrompinner

Yes, I'd have bought from Apple myself but they didn't have stock. Wish I'd been more patient now. Jigsaw we're out and out unhelpful and this after we'd spent thousands with them over the years. I guess you find out how good people are when things go wrong. You never get a discount with Apple but you never get any trouble either.

Sep 13, 2011 6:29 AM in response to davidfrompinner

Hello PEGASUS users!!!

We have just met Victor from Promise Technology, the senior Manager. He went over our iMac to figure out the unmounting problem. He took a lot of data out with some terminal commands and email them to himself.

He is flying back home tonight en is going directly to the office tomorrow to find out what this issue may be.

So we have good faith that the problem will be found. Victor sees with his own eyes now what we meant.

Also for users who can't delete the Master Images true Aperture from the Pegasus R6/R4 will be looked in to.

So stay tuned for more info! We have now an direct link with Promise Technology Inc.

Greetings Levin, from the Netherlands.

Infotech 24 7 Author

Level 2

166 points

Sep 21, 2011 4:54 AM in response to Infotech 24 7

I'm being told by Promise that the firmware update last week was indeed to fix Aperture ejects but I don't know if it fixes other ejects. Can anyone confirm the Aperture problem is fixed? I've tried various stuff but mine stays connected. Then again I had a few weeks of no problems before and got disappointed later.

Sep 29, 2011 1:23 PM in response to Infotech 24 7

just found this tread, our r4 with 2 TB disks is connected to MacMiniServer running Lion 10.7.1 Server

it seems te be dropping disks...... and losing data (recently copied from OLD NAS, which still had the data pff...)

when raid-set is re-created disks are fine again?

anyone new info yet ? what is the status on iMac's with thunderbolt update ?

any news form levin (had visit from Promise and... ?)

will check back..

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Thunderbolt Pegasus R4 Experience?