My MAC Pro 2010 RAID does not work with Samsung EVO 1Tbyte SSDs

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My MAC Pro 2010 RAID does not work with Samsung EVO 1Tbyte SSDs

Hi,

I imagine people have already solved this problem. I am trying to replace my 1TB HDD with 1TB Samsung EVO SSDs. I have a RAID card in RAID 5 mode. I have tried several times & have eventually got the RAID utility to format & prepare the 4 x 1TB SSDs in to RAID 5 mode however the drives simply keep on being dropped by the RAID card. Random problems like the SSD has failed however when I test the drives on another machine in non-RAID mode then it is fine. Does anyone know if the RAID card will support SSDs? My initial guess is that the SSDs are simply too fast for the RAID card. Went to Apple store today & they simply had no idea

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4), 2010 Model

Posted on Sep 29, 2015 9:12 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 29, 2015 9:19 AM in response to MMatijas

The Apple RAID card is really old technology. It insists on the old partition scheme and cannot support GUID or drives over 2.2TB.

The solution is to remove the Apple RAID card permanently.

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Answer 2

MMatijas Author

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Sep 29, 2015 9:24 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Fine about the 2.2TB but I have 4 x 1TB so the problem hasn't been addressed. The utility eventually created the RAID however it simply isn't stable. It will randomly say the drive is no longer viable. If I remove the RAID card, I would still need to create a RAID in software. Otherwise I am simply looking for a simple method where 1 drive can be all the system for fast boot & the other 3 are grouped together to be the storage. I have 2 TBytes of data & don't want to mess about with which drive I have put the data on.

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Answer 3

Sep 29, 2015 10:24 AM in response to MMatijas

You don't need the Apple RAID card to do exactly what you described.

Disk Utility RAID pane can create a "Concatenated Disk set" that is a bunch of drives added together to appear as one big Drive.

It is a really good idea NOT to RAID your Boot Drive.

User Tip: Creating a lean, fast Boot Drive

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Answer 4

MMatijas Author

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Sep 30, 2015 1:12 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

OK. I will try this instead. Can this be done without the RAID card? I believe that the RAID card is the real problem and can't handle the speed of SATA III Samsung Evo Black SSDs. Also if I simply remove the RAID card, is there any connectors etc. needed to re-establish connectivity for the SSDs?

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Answer 5

Sep 30, 2015 8:16 AM in response to MMatijas

There are two models of RAID cards. The one you have (intended for Mac Pro 2009 through 2012) does not have the extra cable.

The older model for 2006 through 2008 uses a cable called the iPass cable. When removing the card, the cable must be correctly re-connected to its slot on the motherboard, or nothing works. (This iPass cable allows you to electrically "Insert" this model RAID card into the motherboard logic.)

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Answer 6

MMatijas Author

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8 points

Sep 30, 2015 8:28 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Great. Just to make sure, I can remove the card & still concactenate the drives - correct?

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Answer 7

Sep 30, 2015 8:46 AM in response to MMatijas

The RAID pane in Disk Utility can create and maintain Mirrored and Striped RAID sets, as well as compound (striped Mirrors and Mirrored Stripes), and concatenated RAIDs.

The main Reason for the Mac RAID card at all was to support RAID 5, which requires checksum calculation on the stripes of data both coming and going. ( then nth stripe is a checksum of the other two or more stripes). Computing those checksums in software is too slow, so the RAID card can do it with its own processor on-the-fly.

On Write, the RAID card acknowledges that data Write as successful and allows the system to proceed when the card gets the data, then computes the checksums and write them to blocks on the drives as soon as it can. A power fail during this time loses the data being checksummed, (destroying data integrity) so you have that battery on board, and all the horrors that go with having it.

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Answer 8

MMatijas Author

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Sep 30, 2015 8:56 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi Grant,

I understand the RAID card function. My question was that if I no longer need RAID but simply want to concatenate the 4 SSDs into a single image. Do I still need the RAID card? Can I do without it, i.e. OS X takes care of it?

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Answer 9

Oct 7, 2015 11:55 PM in response to MMatijas

This is Disk Utility from a Mac without a RAID card:

RAID Type also includes Mirrored and Striped.

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Answer 10

MMatijas Author

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Sep 30, 2015 9:24 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hey Grant - brain the size of a planet (you know the book I mean...). Thanks. Will work on this & let you know (if you like). Won't be immediate future as I have to wait until the person's computer is free. Best Regards

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Answer 11

MMatijas Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 7, 2015 11:55 PM in response to MMatijas

Hi Grant,

Removed the RAID card. Installed 4 x Samsung 1Tbyte SSDs, used the Disk utility to concatenate & recreated from Time Machine. System now rockets along as fast as the bus will go - 267/Bytes/sec for read or write. Amazing improvement. My problem was the RAID card - it simply didn't like SSDs. It has now official gone to the RAID card in the sky pile. Thanks again.

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