MP 7,1 HighPoint Drivers and Big Sur

[jasonmvp]

As I've written in the past, I have two HighPoint 7101A-1 cards in my 2019 Mac Pro, and an 8TB RAID10 volume made across both of them (eight 2TB drives) using the HighPoint driver/utility. I figured the upgrade to Big Sur would cause some initial issues with the driver, possibly requiring a re-installation. Sure enough, when Big Sur booted, my single 8TB volume was gone and the OS could see the eight 2TB NVMes.

I disabled SIP and reinstalled the HighPoint drivers. After a reboot: zilch. Nothing. The little web-based utility claimed it couldn't connect to the hardware. And interestingly, even though the KEXTs were in the proper directory, they weren't being loaded. I manually loaded them and checked the utility again: nothing.

Nothing I could figure out on my own would bring that 8TB volume back. I'll bet there's a way to do it, but I also always have a handy Time Machine backup. So I let the OS recreate the volume (two stripes into a mirror) and am back up and running if a teeny bit slower.

At this stage I have no idea if HighPoint needs to release new versions of the KEXTs, or if there's some other sneaky trick that we need to do to get the OS and utility to connect to the card(s).

 

[OliZ]

same here, had a long weekend. time maschine brought my drive back.
i also had trouble after each reboot, the system hangs and could only boot after a hard shut down.
i also tried to reinstall, clean install, with and without sis.
i think highpoint must help us here.

 

[generalkenobi]

How did you recreate the volumes from Time Machine? I ran into the same problem with my drivers not being loaded. I had a second admin account on my Mac Pro that I logged into to check things out. But is there an easy "recreate this home folder from this Time Machine backup to this HighPoint RAID array" button I'm not thinking about?

My thought process is:

1) erase the HighPoint drives (because I have a time machine backup)
2) re-format them using Disk Utility (rather than the HighPoint GUI as before)
3) Am I using Migration Assistant to restore my user account from a Time Machine backup?

 

[CNDCodewarrior]

Yup drivers are broken, had to use Apple raid, and then restore via time machine.

 

[OliZ]

correct, i've done the same.

 

[LeonPro]

I was looking at HighPoint at one time, but decided on a driverless software RAID using Sonnet Tech m.2 4x4 PCIe x16. And part of the reason was due to these occurrences if Apple decides to change the way their OS operates.

 

[OliZ]

you can use the highpoint card without any driver like the sonnet.

 

[jasonmvp]

I was looking at HighPoint at one time, but decided on a driverless software RAID using Sonnet Tech m.2 4x4 PCIe x16. And part of the reason was due to these occurrences if Apple decides to change the way their OS operates.

That's nice, and it's great that you found a solution that works for you. As mentioned, the driverless install of the HighPoint works just as well as the Sonnet; with the drivers the performance is faster. I've already done the testing to verify that.

Whether the increase in performance is worthwhile to you or not is another story of course.

 

[LeonPro]

Ah I didn’t realize it works without a driver. Great to know.

 

[Adult80HD]

I'm watching this space...in case someone mentions that HighPoint has a new driver available. Nothing on their website.

 

[lbeale]

I contacted HighPoint when the drivers failed to work after upgrading to Big Sur (I subsequently downgraded to Catalina). I got a message last night that they have updated drivers and installation processes available for Big Sur. I haven't tried installing them yet, but it's a new driver and a driver patch that are installed after the upgrade. I don't see the drivers on the web page yet, but they do have an email link for Big Sur updates that should get them to you. HighPoint's support was pretty quick in getting back to me.

 

[Adult80HD]

I contacted HighPoint when the drivers failed to work after upgrading to Big Sur (I subsequently downgraded to Catalina). I got a message last night that they have updated drivers and installation processes available for Big Sur. I haven't tried installing them yet, but it's a new driver and a driver patch that are installed after the upgrade. I don't see the drivers on the web page yet, but they do have an email link for Big Sur updates that should get them to you. HighPoint's support was pretty quick in getting back to me.

Can you share the link? I was told a week ago it wasn't ready yet, but no one has gotten back to me with the links.

 

[lbeale]

Can you share the link? I was told a week ago it wasn't ready yet, but no one has gotten back to me with the links.

The links are contained in the reply to my support request, and I can't link directly or post them here. I'm pretty sure they'll get back to you quickly with the update.

 

[BuxtonAus]

This is on their web page now, a link to email sales for status updates (top right corner).

 

[jasonmvp]

This is on their web page now, a link to email sales for status updates (top right corner).

It seems a bit strange to me that they won't just put a link to the drivers up on their support page. My "BS" alarm is going off.

 

[BuxtonAus]

Yes it is odd behaviour.
My first thought is the drivers are still in beta.
I've sent an email requesting a status update but no reply yet.

 

[BuxtonAus]

This is the reply I received from support yesterday 30th Nov:

"Dear Scoot,

This is Shunyu from HPT customer support department. Thanks for contacting HighPoint

Currently we have Beta driver available and official release will be available on our official website by December 01, 2020.

For customer who wants to test out Beta driver please provide below information:

1. Please provide a screenshot of the Mac system, please refer to the attached example

2. Have you upgraded to Apple Big Sur yet?

3. if yes, what phenomenon you encountered?

4. Product Model

Thank you

Best Regards,

Shunyu Zhao

Customer Support Department

HighPoint Technologies, Inc."

It's the 1st Dec where I am now and its not on there website yet.

 

[Bggale]

HighPoint's new software and manual for using their bootable RAID cards with Big Sur is now on the web site. Has anyone tried it yet? I just bought an SSD7103 for my 7,1.

 

[lbeale]

HighPoint's new software and manual for using their bootable RAID cards with Big Sur is now on the web site. Has anyone tried it yet? I just bought an SSD7103 for my 7,1.

I haven't installed yet, but these are different drivers/install procedures than what I was sent as part of the Beta. I'm going to go ahead and install the latest version.

 

[ldstern10]

I installed latest driver and GUI. All works without problem.

 

[Bggale]

Good to know, but which card are you using? I want to know if the SSD7103 is really bootable under Big Sur (like HighPoint says).

 

[OkiRun]

I installed latest driver and GUI. All works without problem.

Can you make signature?

 

[ldstern10]

Good to know, but which card are you using? I want to know if the SSD7103 is really bootable under Big Sur (like HighPoint says).

7101A-1. Not using as bootable card.

 

[jasonmvp]

I've installed the drivers and have had no end of trouble with my Mac since. I've uninstalled, since that was the only thing I changed, and I'm still having a lot of filesystem access issues. So much so it's made my Mac Pro unusable, so I'm re-installing Big Sur.

It could just be coincidental and something else was wrong that I didn't know. But, again: the only I changed was adding the HP drivers. Once I get the OS re-installed and un-farked, I will not be re-installing said drivers.

ETA:
I just completed the re-install and restore of my data from Time Machine. Everything seems to be back to normal. I'm hesitant to try to the drivers though.

 

[Bggale]

I just completed the re-install and restore of my data from Time Machine. Everything seems to be back to normal. I'm hesitant to try to the drivers though.

I gather you don't have a bootable backup of your drive? I have several, and would never try installing something so radical on my primary boot drive. My SSD7103 is on its way, but Christmas expenses mean I probably won't buy the 1TB 980 Pros until January. I'll advise of my progress then.