OWC PCI SATA & Seagate 320 SATA not happy

[silvarios]

In the last 6 weeks I purchased a OWC 2+2 internal/external SATA PCI card, Seagate 320 GB SATA II perpendicular hard drive, and an IDE ATA-133 to SATA bridge. I wanted an extra backup drive or two and I already had a 30 GB PATA drive sitting around, but another big modern drive couldn't hurt.

My Linux box was parted out and recycled around the same time frame, leaving me with my Power Mac 7600 as the only expandable case on hand, the two Beige G3 towers are in storage.

Here's the quandary. The OWC card sees the 30 GB PATA drive when booted into Mac OS 9.1 (the 30GB drive is the boot drive), but the Seagate 320 GB SATA is labeled unrecognized under Drive Setup. Booted into OS 10.3.9 via XPostFacto and a SCSI drive connected to the internal bus, the OWC card and connected drives are not seen by the OS at all.

AS tested I left the 1.5Gbps jumper on the Seagate. I tested both internal ports on the PCI card with the same results. I swapped cables with the same results.

Does anyone know of any incompatibilities between SATA II and/or perpendicular hard drives and my OWC SATA card (or any older SATA card)? Does anyone know why OS X does not recognize the card? Should I try removing the jumper? I suppose I should send an email to OWC tech support as well, but I wanted to give it a go in the forums. Thanks.

Links:
OWC SATA PCI
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20W...SATAPCI2P/

Seagate 320GB SATA product page
http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/disc...59,00.html

IDE ATA-133 to SATA bridge
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10407&cs_id=1040701&p_id=2193&seq=1&format=2&style=


Nathan

P.s. The link to my blog posting describing this experience in further detail can be found at here (craptastic diagram of my SATA setup included for free):
http://www.appleswitcher.com/blog/2006/1...-about-it/

[elmo3]

You're sticking all this into a PowerMac 7600 and you wonder why nothing works???

[silvarios]

[quote elmo3]You're sticking all this into a PowerMac 7600 and you wonder why nothing works???
Let me try again. The bridged PATA 30 GB drive and any drive connected to the internal SCSI bus work fine in Mac OS 9.1. Under OS X, the SATA card itself and any attached drives are missing in action. I would think the more difficult connection would be the bridged PATA drive, since it has to go from drive to PATA-SATA bridge to SATA card.

What I'm want to know if the SATA card and Seagate SATA drive are incompatible. Everything else works fine.


Nathan

[modelamac]

"What I'm want to know if the SATA card and Seagate SATA drive are incompatible."

Should be no compatibility problem, but your experience is the contrary. I would look to XPostfacto for the problem/solution, as it is the go-between for the Mac and X. There may be something missing in it that would allow SATA drive recognition.

OWC probably has the answer. Just hope it is positive, or in your favor.

[silvarios]

Thanks modelamac. Let me clarify that the Seagate drive is also "unsupported" in Mac OS 9.1, but at least it shows up as a hard drive when you check the Apple System Profiler or the Drive Setup application. I just can't format the thing. I have no problem using the drive in Mac OS 9.1 because the 7600's audio/video ports don't work under OS X anyway. With the ports working, the 10 year old Power Mac makes for a decent MP3 jukebox.

I have some computers in storage which may yield success, but storage is 1500 miles away from my current location.


Nathan

[OWC Larry]

What computer are you putting our OWC SATA card into?

That card is tested and supported in the PowerMac G3 B&W and later. It's not designed for the PowerMac G3 Beige or prior. Has to do with the PCI slot version required which was only implemented with the B&W G3 PowerMac model.

I am surprised that it works at all under OS 9 in either of the two machines listed.

Specifically - it requires a PCI v2.2 compliant bus whereas the Beige G3 and 7600 are PCI v2.1.

And compatibility from the item description:

"Any Power Macintosh G3(Blue & White), G4, or G5 system with an available PCI slot. This card is NOT compatible with PCI-Express G5 Power Macintosh Systems."

[silvarios]

[quote OWC Larry]What computer are you putting our OWC SATA card into?

That card is tested and supported in the PowerMac G3 B&W and later. It's not designed for the PowerMac G3 Beige or prior. Has to do with the PCI slot version required which was only implemented with the B&W G3 PowerMac model.

I am surprised that it works at all under OS 9 in either of the two machines listed.

Specifically - it requires a PCI v2.2 compliant bus whereas the Beige G3 and 7600 are PCI v2.1.

And compatibility from the item description:

"Any Power Macintosh G3(Blue & White), G4, or G5 system with an available PCI slot. This card is NOT compatible with PCI-Express G5 Power Macintosh Systems."
I get the whole tested compatibility part. I'm well aware that I am using the card outside the verified specs, but I had a SIIG PATA card with similar requirements and it worked fine with the same systems. The card itself works fine with every drive tested except oddly enough the SATA Seagate drive. I'm thinking the problem may be between those two devices.

Also, my title was to allude to the PCI SATA card and the Seagate drive being not happy together. I'm actually nonplussed by the whole issue, but not angry. Everything seems like it should function, but strangely doesn't. I would like it to work, but more importantly I want to know if my new Seagate drive is malfunctioning or simply not compatible. Has OWC done any testing with the new perpendicular SATA drives and the 2+2 SATA card? Has OWC done testing with this card and 3Gb/sec SATA drives? Wasn't there issues with some version of the Power Mac G5 not working with certain SATA drives? Could this problem be similar?

I'm actually wondering if it will make any difference if I install the card and drive into another newer Mac or Windows machine. If not, then maybe an SATA external case with the Seagate drive will help compensate for the possible incompatibility. I'm not ruling out errors with the drive either.

Thanks.


Nathan

[silvarios]

If a moderator wants to edit the title of this thread to end with:
"not happy together"
or possibly
"not compatible?", maybe that would help clarify. Thanks.


Nathan

[silvarios]

I think I discovered the culprit. Drive Setup does not want to format my PATA drive either. It lists it as "unsupported". Yet if I click the mounter volumes (the drive is partitioned into two volumes), I can erase the drive. Either as an HFS or HFS+ drive. Apparently Mac OS 9 Drive Setup doesn't like the controller. Weird. I'll have to investigate this further.

I bet if I could format the SATA drive on another computer I could stick it into the 7600 or other unsupported Mac and it would work just fine.


Nathan

[C(-)ris]

Why don't you spend $20 on a B&W G3...you just dropped a couple hundred on a controller and a HD. Another $20 isn't going to hurt anything and it will bring you into the new...scratch that...it will bring you into a newer world than the one you are in.