Highpoint 7102

[Bggale]

Just updated to driver 1.1.26 with 11.2.3. Seems to be working fine.
Btw - I was once told (by HP Support) to remove my SSD7103 before uninstalling the driver and installing a new version. I checked the revised instruction manual, and it said nothing about doing any of that, so this time I just installed the new driver.

 

[Bggale]

1.1.26 seems to be working fine with 11.3.

 

[Bggale]

v1.1.26 seems to work fine with Mac OS 11.4.

 

[Bggale]

v1.1.26 seems to work fine with Mac OS 11.5.

 

[Bggale]

So driver v1.1.26 seemed to be working fine with Mac OS 11.5.1, but today, I updated Parallels Desktop, and it installed something that required me to 'Allow Access' in Security and Privacy. I did so, and restarted. Upon reaching the desktop, my Mac said it did not recognize the 4 980 Pros in my RAID, and asked me what to do. I clicked 'Ignore' 4 times and restarted. Same problem - no RAID access. I checked, and the HighPoint driver was apparently not loading, so I re-installed it, and my RAID immediately appeared on my desktop. Shut down and started up again, and no RAID. Restarted, and still no RAID.
Apparently, the new version of driver for Parallels Desktop is interfering with the HighPoint driver. I cannot report the issue to HighPoint because I was banned from Support. Can someone else with a HighPoint RAID and Parallels Desktop see if they have the same issue and if so report it to HighPoint?

 

[Bggale]

After this first happened, I restored my boot drive from a clone (made before upgrading Parallels) and all was good, except that I didn't have the latest version of Parallels. Today, v17 of Parallels came out, so I cloned my boot drive and started up from the clone. I then installed Parallels v17. Restarted, and my HighPoint RAID appeared to be fine. Ran Parallels, and it asked me to allow access, which I did. Quit Parallels, and re-started my Mac. My RAID volume appears to still be fine.
Either Parallels had some glitch with permissions before, or - more likely - I accidentally touched some access for HighPoint when I was in there. Either way - I have now run the latest version v17 of Parallels several times, and re-booted my Mac several times, and my HighPoint RAID appears to be fine.
Looks like my Windoze 7 Ultimate VM is broken, but at least my RAID still works.

 

[Bggale]

v1.1.26 seems to work fine with Mac OS 11.5.2. Still no sign of a revised HighPoint driver for upcoming MacOS 12. I keep checking.

 

[arche3]

Thanks for the info. But... how do you get banned from getting support for something you bought?

But I will definitely stay away from the high point cards. I'm about to put in a sonnet nvme pcie card in my 7.1.

 

[Bggale]

When I bought my 7103, I noticed that my RAID 0 sometimes did not appear on my desktop. Usually, a re-start would make it appear. I filled out a service request with HighPoint, and after a few questions, they issued me an RMA. After a few weeks, they told me they were unable to duplicate my issue, and they would be returning the 7103 to me. I told them to keep it, since if it was not 100% reliable it was of no use to me. They finally 'offered' to send me a new 7103, in exchange for no further support, ever, for any reason. I agreed, and my online issue was closed, permanently.
Sadly - I only bought the 7103 because it was (at that time) the only bootable RAID card for the Mac, even under the first version of Big Sur. I even have the original instructions and trouble shooting steps to make it bootable under Big Sur. When Big Sur was updated, bootability went away, but HP Support told me (via e-mail) they would be re-implementing it. They have since reversed themselves - they now say their cards will never be bootable on Macs again. Too bad I believed them and spent a fair sum on their card and four 1TB 980 Pros.

 

[arche3]

Wow. That sucks. You were swindled.

 

[Bggale]

Yeah - I guess I was.
Btw - my memory of what version of MacOS was bootable on the 7103 was incorrect - it was originally bootable under Catalina. That ability went away before Big Sur came out, though I still have an e-mail from HP Support claiming that bootability under Big Sur would eventually be possible. Oh well...

 

[Bggale]

Anyone know if HighPoint is planning to support Monterey with new drivers for their RAID cards? I can't find any indication on their website, and Monterey is due out in September or October.

 

[Bggale]

I tried installing the latest version of Parallels this morning (v17.0.1) and it somehow disabled my HighPoint RAID. I tried re-installing the HP driver, and the drive appeared on my desktop, but after a restart, it was gone again. I then went to Security & Privacy to make sure the HP driver was 'blessed', which it was not, but after blessing it and a restart, no RAID drive.
Next, I tried re-installing the last version of Parallels 16, and after re-installing/re-blessing the HP driver, a restart yielded, once again, no RAID. If you are using Parallels with a HighPoint RAID, you should probably wait for the next version of Parallels, because v17.0.1 appears to kill HighPoint's driver. I was hoping v17.0.1 would restore my ability to run my Windoze 7 VM, but I need my RAID more, so I restored my last bootable Mac OS backup.

 

[Bggale]

v1.1.26 seems to work fine with Mac OS 11.6. Still no sign of a revised HighPoint driver for upcoming MacOS 12. I keep checking. Anyone out there running Parallels with their HP RAID? I still can't install v17.0.1 (Parallels) without losing access to my SSD7103 RAID.

 

[Bggale]

Hmmm. Not sure if this was the fix, but I did a fresh install of Big Sur 11.6 on my backup drive, and then let the installer copy the files, settings, etc from my primary drive. After that I was able to install Parallels 17.0.1 without losing access to my SSD7103. After a couple of restarts and cold starts to be sure everything was working, I cloned my new backup drive to my primary. All seems to be working now.
Still wondering if HP driver v1.1.26 will work with Mac OS 12. Anyone tried it with the beta?

 

[Bggale]

My SSD7103 with driver v1.1.26 appears to be working fine with Mac OS 12.0.1 Monterey. Yay!

 

[Polymorphic]

My SSD7103 with driver v1.1.26 appears to be working fine with Mac OS 12.0.1 Monterey. Yay!

Still working well in December?

 

[Bggale]

That is correct - my SSD7103 is still working with HighPoint's latest driver under Mac OS 12.0.1. Furthermore, I have just contacted HighPoint Support to advise them that they really need to update the info in their downloads area to reflect that. They currently list their manual and driver as good for MacOS 11.x.

 

[Polymorphic]

That is correct - my SSD7103 is still working with HighPoint's latest driver under Mac OS 12.0.1. Furthermore, I have just contacted HighPoint Support to advise them that they really need to update the info in their downloads area to reflect that. They currently list their manual and driver as good for MacOS 11.x.

Thanks for the update!

 

[Bggale]

I hear from HighPoint that they are still supporting drivers for Mac OS. I suggested they update their download page to reflect that the existing driver works with Mac OS 12.0.1, and I just went to see if they did. Their old download page has been replaced with a new one (in fact it looks like most of their web pages have been updated). The software is the same as before, and it still says it works with Mac OS 11.x. Nothing about Mac OS 12.x yet.

 

[Polymorphic]

I hear from HighPoint that they are still supporting drivers for Mac OS. I suggested they update their download page to reflect that the existing driver works with Mac OS 12.0.1, and I just went to see if they did. Their old download page has been replaced with a new one (in fact it looks like most of their web pages have been updated). The software is the same as before, and it still says it works with Mac OS 11.x. Nothing about Mac OS 12.x yet.

I wonder if they are still doing validation testing. There might be some edge case bugs they want to fix before claiming the driver is ready for macOS 12. But it's good to know that you aren't having problems. I installed a HighPoint 7104 in my Mac Pro 7,1 this weekend. So far, so good, though I'm still running Catalina. I'll probably try the Monterey upgrade in January.

 

[Bggale]

HighPoint driver v1.1.26 seems to be working fine with MacOS 12.1.

 

[Bggale]

HighPoint finally acknowledged Mac OS 12 on their Downloads website, and they have updated the driver to v1.1.29. I have not tried it yet, since, for some reason, I suddenly can't get v1.1.26 to work on my clone drive, even though it's a clone of my boot drive where v1.1.26 works fine. Every time I boot the clone, I get a message about a third party extension conflict, and the HP driver gets disabled. Weird.

 

[Polymorphic]

I updated to version 1.1.29 of the HighPoint drivers today and immediately regretted it on my Mac Pro 7,1 with HighPoint 7104 adapter. Very long boot times in macOS Monterey, disks not mounting, and crashing at shutdown are among the new "features." I had to roll back to v1.1.26. YMMV.

 

[Bggale]

I finally tried HP driver v1.1.29 on my 7,1 Mac Pro. Works fine for me with Mac OS 12.1. Still can't get it to work on my clone drive - it still has an extension conflict disabling the driver. Odd since this drive is cloned from the boot drive with no such conflict. Still trying to figure this out...