Why are my Blu-Ray read/writer & External eSATA Enclosure only accessed by USB?

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Level 1

9 points

Why are my Blu-Ray read/writer & External eSATA Enclosure only accessed by USB?

I bought a Pioneer BDR-207D Blu-Ray optical drive and a Vantec eSATA/USB 2.0 external enclosure to use with my PowerMac G5 that has a PCI SATA card installed. For some reason I can't fathom, the optical drive only shows up for binness via USB. So I tested the cable and card out instead with my eSATA WD MyBook drive and another eSATA drive already in use and they both show up and work just fine.

This makes no sense to me. What necessary info am I missing?

Thanks to any and all....

Mac OS X (10.5.8), Dual2 PowerMac G5, 4 GB RAM

Posted on Mar 12, 2013 3:05 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

239,375 points

Mar 12, 2013 3:37 PM in response to appleganger

Hi, just asking...

On the G5, was the USB cable disconnected when you tried eSATA?

What SATA speed is the card in the G5?

What shows in System Profiler>Hardware>Serial-ATA when BD drie is connected via eSATA?

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Answer 2

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Mar 12, 2013 5:01 PM in response to appleganger

What brand/make of PCI card?

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Answer 3

appleganger Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 13, 2013 5:32 AM in response to BDAqua

Hi, BDAqua and japamac -- thanks for your interest

Yes, when I conneced via eSATA, the USB cable was disconnected -- in fact, when I first tested the connection, I was connected only by the SATA cable. To see if it would be read using USB, I tried just adding the USB cable to the connection which resulted in the same non-read status; after disconnecting the SATA cable and rebooting with only the USB connection, my optical drive showed up and has since been running like a regular part of my gang.

My SATA card is a HighPoint RocketRAID 152X, PCI 32bit@33/66 Mhz, with 2 external ports at 1.5Gb/s, and I had to phone the company to get an updated MAC driver when I installed it a few years ago.

The drive didn't show up at all in the System Profiler when I first hooked it up; as is, it shows up under "Disc Burning" with Generic Drive Support under USB interconnect. The external hard drive connected to my eSATA card shows up under "Parallel SCSI". Only my internal drives show up under "Serial-ATA".

In spite of the strange readings, when all is running, I'm able to do my work quite effectively. It still kinda unnerves me some whenever I think about it....

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Answer 4

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Mar 13, 2013 6:14 AM in response to appleganger

SATA PCI adapters using a SCSI "virtual environment" is common.

It makes me think that the optical drive is then using a UDMA protocol (due to the SCSI drivers), which many SATA adapters aren't capable of or compatible with.

An adapter like this Seritek shows support for UDMA:

http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-1ve2plus2/spec/

If the PCI adapter isn't UDMA compatible, it would explain why the optical drive isn't seen via eSATA.

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Answer 5

appleganger Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 13, 2013 7:27 AM in response to japamac

Thanks, japamac. I don't fully understand about the various protocols, but upon reading the lit on my eSATA card, I saw nothing about UDMA support. And on Pioneer's support page on their BDR-207D, I saw no ref's to UDMA protocol in the spec's either, though they might not reference that info, anyway -- I just don't know enough in that arena. Do you think if I had an eSATA/firewire enclosure, that might provide more powerful read/write capabilities? I'm not a big fan of USB-powered data transfer, especially for hard drive storage and retrieval.

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Answer 6

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Mar 13, 2013 3:33 PM in response to appleganger

The Pioneer is true SATA, but the PCI adapter isn't. Relying on SCSI drivers, the PCI controller adapts SATA rev 1 to the SCSI support of the system.

Optical drives, historically, relied on UDMA to get optimal performance. With SATA, they have the bandwidth needed.

But, the PCI adapter isn't true SATA and optical drives fall between the cracks, sometimes, in support when used with various adapters.

OS X SCSI support for anything was greatly reduced in late 10.4 versions and almost nonexistant in 10.5. Only basic drivers that the PCI adapter makers call on remain....

Drop 'em an email and see what Highpoint says.

Do you think if I had an eSATA/firewire enclosure, that might provide more powerful read/write capabilities?

FW has more efficient bandwidth than USB 2.0.

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Answer 7

appleganger Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 16, 2013 9:18 AM in response to japamac

The Pioneer is true SATA, but the PCI adapter isn't. Relying on SCSI drivers, the PCI controller adapts SATA rev 1 to the SCSI support of the system.

That seems kind of odd to me because in past discussions, HighPoint Rocket products were so highly recommended for PCI SATA solutions for older PowerPC's like my G5. Is the Seritek card you referenced earlier a true SATA? If so, that would give me something to save up for - - the thought of fake anything on my system slowing me and my work down really burns me up.

Thanks again.

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Answer 8

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Mar 16, 2013 5:35 PM in response to appleganger

HighPoint Rocket products were so highly recommended for PCI SATA solutions for older PowerPC's like my G5

Not odd in as much that the majority of discussions are with regard to hard drives. Hard drives and optical drives are different animals.

Is the Seritek card you referenced earlier a true SATA?

All the PCI cards use a SATA controller that utilizes SCSI or SCSI adapted drivers in G4 and G5 Macs.

Ther Seritek controller is the only one that supports boot to connected drives. The controller/firmware also has UDMA support.

As I suggested, send Highpoint support an email.

Do the same with Seritek (regarding Blu Ray drive support).

the thought of fake anything on my system slowing me and my work down really burns me up.

That's just something that you will need to accept. PCI SATA uses SCSI, period.

The G5 only has two SATA channels, no more.

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Answer 9

appleganger Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 16, 2013 8:40 PM in response to japamac

Thanks, man. Now all the pieces are falling together and making sense. You've been a great help -- even if I'm not so happy with what i've just learned...

but hey, it works, it's been working, and it's all been terrifically dependable!

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Answer 10

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Mar 16, 2013 9:41 PM in response to appleganger

it works, it's been working, and it's all been terrifically dependable!

THAT is what is important! 🙂

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