Please help with Mac Pro (early 08) and Highpoint 4310

[peterltralf]

Hi,

I have a Mac Pro from early 2008, dual processor, dual core 2.8GHz, 10GB RAM, Snow Leopard (10.6.8). It came with the Mac Pro Raid card (late 2007) with a battery that never charges ("battery is precharging and can't be read") and refuses to do RAID because of it. I have two 300GB 15K SAS drives (st3300655ss).

I got a Highpoint 4310 RAID card and the MaxUpgrades extension (MaxConnect SAS/SATA Link with Multilane MiniSAS- MiniSAS Cable #SZ-DCMSAS-R2MS) that allows the cable that goes to the drive backplane to reach the Highpoint card.

I removed the Mac Pro RAID card and plugged the MiniSAS cable that used to go into it into the MacConnect extension and plugged the cable from that into the 4310.

I powered it all up and all that happens is that the red LED's on the memory boards flash continuously and the fan goes to maximum. There's no chime. I disassembled it all, put the Mac Raid Pro back in, and it's all fine again except I still can't get RAID to work.

I would be very very grateful for any help. Ideally, it would involve use of the 4310 but if you just tell me where to get a decent battery for the &^%$* Mac Pro RAID card (late 2007), that'd be helpful too.

Thanks!

Weary Peter in Toronto

 

[peterltralf]

4310 works but can't manage it to configure RAID

Hi,

I configured a USB drive to boot Snow Leopard and now my 4310 sees the SAS drives and makes them available to the Mac Pro (it appears to be functioning simply as a SCSI controller) but I can't connect via http://localhost:7402 to configure them for RAID.

Any ideas?

Peter, encouraged

 

[nanofrog]

What are you doing for drivers?

I ask, as the RR4310 isn't listed on hptmac.com, or have OS X drivers on their main site (closest is the 4321). Since the 4321 uses drivers already in SL, then it seems you've proven they won't work with the 4310.

But if you can return the 4310, I'd recommend getting a different card. Either an Areca or ATTO (the Apple RAID Pro is a pile of junk, so it's best to just switch it for a better card). BTW, Areca and ATTO both work with OS X, and will also boot once the firmware has been flashed with EFI firmware that's available.