Thunderbolt Pegasus R4 Experience?

Know I can - but I'm more interested in solving the problem. I have so far tonigth discovered that it "has" to be an iMac/OSX-problem. Seems like the TB-controller freezes or in some way bugs up. I also see that there are frequent request from spotlight to correct errors in the db for R6-files - ejects often come in relation to this, and in addition scanning of R6 for TimeMachine storage. Have now excluded R6 from spotlight, chosen another TM-disk as backup location and afterwards disabled TM. In addition killed yet another backup program, Jotta, which I assume most of yous don't use, and therefore can't be the source of problems - but it might add to it, as it frequently scanns the R6.

So far, no ejects. But this is just 15-20 minutes of running - but all time high for today...

I'll post back.

24h. No ejects. Jotta is running again, with no influence on stability of the R6. Is it really Spotlight or time machine which is the culprit? Any other experiences?

Just to chime in...

We have a Pegasus R4 (4x1TB) connected to a Mac Mini (5,2) with all the latest updates to Mac OS X 10.7.1 including the Thunderbolt Firmware Update from 2011-09-19 (Port Micro Firmware Version 2.0.7).

While copying large amounts of data from an AFP-server via Ethernet to the R4 the RAID-volume suddenly ejects. Sometimes this happens almost at once, at other times i takes a couple of days before the eject occurs. When the ejects have started to appear, the RAID-volume will sometimes eject while the computer does nothing i.e. only showing the desktop.

During normal operation the Thunderbolt port "Status" is "Connected" and the "Link Status" is "2", however after the eject the port "Status" is still "Connected" but the "Link Status" is changed to "4294967295".

This behavior has been reported to Promise EU. We are still awaiting info from the Promise US Lab as to if this fault is fixable via a firmware update or if we should simply return the unit as "incompatible".

/U

Wow, this is all pretty interesting.

For those who are having trouble are your unit's in Raid 0, 1, 5 or 10? I am currently in Raid 10 due to being a photographer and needing as many backups as possible, I also have a WD USB HD used with Time Machine for another backup.

My setup consist of 3 2011 iMac's all connected via ethernet cable(Airport Extreme) and all 3 iMac's access and edit images from a R4 (4TB) unit using either Photoshop, Lightroom or FCPX, although with FCPX i import the files to a WD Firewire Drive and work from there, only because the iMac I use FCPX is not the iMac that the R4 unit is plugged into. The R4 is connected to 1 iMac that is considered the main iMac and gets the most usage. The main point being all 3 iMacs can edit files on the R4 unit without any issues and my entire workflow besides the FCPX files are all on the R4 unit.

As for speeds....Raid 10 is about 220/200 on the write/read blackmagic speed test. Actually copying of files from internal 1TB HD to R4 in Raid 10 is only about 130mbps(6GB movie file) Transfer speeds across the network connected to the ethernet cable(iMac to R4 unit) is about 100mbps. With the unit being 3/4 full(1.5TB) the blackmagic speed test drops down to about 160/160 for read and write however I'm getting about 80-100mbps across the network when copying files. I wish I could find a way to get faster speeds across my network but I haven't found any way to do it yet

I'm thinking of saying screw it and putting the R4 unit in Raid 0 and just having 1 backup via TM on a USB HD...I hate to do it but I didn't spend $1000 for a 100mpbs although it's faster than the 60mbps I was getting on the firewire HD's.

I also use a 2011 13.3" Macbook Pro with the R4 but this is also connected by the network(wired) While I'm on a 2011 i7 3.4ghz iMac the R4 unit is plugged into a 2011 i7 3.1ghz unit and the other one is a 2011 i5 2.7ghz so all iMacs are different and all are updated with the latest Lion OS which is interesting because I see some are blaming the iMac/OS...just all the more interesting.

I did email pegasus asking them if I could get a spare HD to have on hand and they said they don't sell them yet and if I get one from amazon, then my warranty is void.....stupid. I am a photographer and if I had to wait around 3 days for a new replacement HD to arrive cause one went out, I'd be ****** so I am thinking of just dumping the 4 - 1TB's and replacing them with 4 - 2TB HD from amazon for a total of $320...which then doesn't make sense on their pricing for the R4 8TB at $1500... when I can buy a R4 - 4TB and get 4 - 2TB replacement drives for a total of $1320 and have 4 - 1TB HD spare. The R4 - 8TB is a rip off.

I had a similar issue copying large amounts of data. After several attempts, I was able to narrow down to a iTunes video download. Error message was something like cannot copy file " " (one blank space) and ejects R6. I didn't find anyfile (including hidden), deleted the folder and was able to copy the data.

Chakravarthy, I had that with Time Machine backing up images to my Firewire drive...I had to narrow down the file which was a itunes movie download and exclude it for time machine to work.

I transfered 1.5TB's of data from my firewire HD to the R4 in Raid 10 and it took about 7 hours although I think it took longer. The download bar said 7 hrs to start out with however I had no problems copying 1.5TB's of data and it all checked out afterwards.

Crap. 1,5 days of leaving the machine to work by it self - no problems. Then som working, and BAM - ejects.

With Spotlight and TM disabled. Firmware upgrade, please!

I plan to buy a new iMac 27" (instead of a Thunderbolt Display + Mac Mini = nearly the same price than the iMac). Did anybody already tried this configuration: MacBook Pro early 2011 -> iMac in Target Display Mode -> Pegasus R4? If so, was he able to use the Pegasus R4 in this cofiguration with the MacBook Pro? Sometimes I want to use the iMac only as a display for my MacBook Pro. Normaly this shouldn't be a problem, because of the new iMac's two thunderbolt ports (for daisy chaining?). But using the Pegasus R4 with my MacBook Pro, I learned that thunderbolt port not always seems to be equal to thunderbolt port.

@ Infotech 24 7: Thanks a lot. This would be a great help. I'm looking forward to the results.

Hello everybody.

Today we had an directlink with Promise Technology Inc in Milpitas with the program TeamViewer. The login to our system to see if the can find any shell logs with the unmounting problem.

We have now two Pegasus R6 types running on our iMac and one R6 unmount itself again today. So that's why Promise directly logon in our system to see what the issue is.

I realy don't now what the do, because it's all in the terminal with shell comands. So let's hope that the find something and the hope also that this problem is there problem, because the will fixed it than. Until now it just searching for the problem in the systems.

So the service we get is perfect and we hope also that this problem will be fixed soon.

Greetings from the Netherlands, Levin den Boer.

Photopress Agency LDB Production

http://www.fotodatabank.nl

Thanks a lot for your engagement Infotech 24 7. That's really great and more than I could expect. There is an Apple support document (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3775) that made me beleave to use the iMac 2011 as Display nearly the same way as a Tunderbolt Display. This would have been the perfect sollution for me.

Thank you for keeping us up to date with your progress with Promise. I was on the verge of buying one of these but the posts here have obviously made me hold off. I desperately need this kind of unit though possibly not as much as you all desperately need a solution. I hope that the problem is fixed soon for all of you. I look forward to your next update. Thanks again for posting.

Wish I'd found this thread before I bought my new System, Macbook pro, thunderbolt 27" display and R4 Drive, it has ejected 7 times this morning.

Tried bypassing monitor, same problem, different cable, same problem, just swapped to second r4 thunderbolt port, seems ok at moment but not confident.

Spoke to promise support who gave impression it was unusual problem!!!, hard to believe when you see the thread above. Don't think they'll sell many more of these if problem is not sorted urgently.