If anyone is interested. I just did a recovery boot and my USB 3.0 drives attached to the KT-4004 were recognized. The RocketU was not. Looks like a KT-4004 attached drive makes for the perfect TM companion.
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USB 3.x PCIe Cards for Classic Mac Pro
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Can anyone confirm that the KT-4004 can boot a CCC cloned drive in a MP 3.1? That would be awesome...
No you can't boot from it. The OS X driver has to load before it's recognized. I was just reporting that even if you boot from a restore partition, all the tools recognize the drives attached to the KT-4004. Obviously the driver is included in the recovery boot files, but no booting directly from USB 3.0, it simply isn't supported in the cheese graders.
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Update on previous post. In the mean time received other USB 3 hard drives and flash drives from clients. I may have been too busy to notice what was really going on before.
Now I see storage devices attached to the KT4004 ejecting when entering sleep mode, but they are "clean" ejects. As in no pop up warning upon waking up. When the mac has woken up, it remounts the devices.
If I have a Quicktime file open from one of the USB 3 drives attached, then sleep, then wake, the Quicktime player windows is still open, but if I play the file nothing happens.
Sorry again for flagging a false positive in my previous post.
Now I see storage devices attached to the KT4004 ejecting when entering sleep mode, but they are "clean" ejects. As in no pop up warning upon waking up. When the mac has woken up, it remounts the devices.
If I have a Quicktime file open from one of the USB 3 drives attached, then sleep, then wake, the Quicktime player windows is still open, but if I play the file nothing happens.
Sorry again for flagging a false positive in my previous post.
Thanks Lou. Would have been nice to 'upgrade' from FW800 to USB 3.0 though for my back-up maintenance.
I don't see why you couldn't use it for those purposes. The only time it wouldn't work is, if you wanted to boot from a usb attached device (this includes a USB OSX install flash drive).
That would require either a EFI extension chip on the card, and BIOS if you will, or that the Mac's own EFI to be updated with recognition and driver support for the card.
I have my TM connected and recently had to boot to my recovery partition to restore. The USB drive connected to KT-4004 was instantly recognized and and restored the TM backup in about 15 minutes. It was fast and I was surprised, so apparently the drives are included so that the attached USB 3.0 drives are visible for that type of maintenance.
Give it a shot, if it doesn't work out, send it back or sell it.
Thanks for your clarification here. Any advise on a solid HDD enclosure (RAID1) with both FW800 (bootable CCC) & USB 3.0 (back-up maintenance and restore)?
I have had good results with the OWC "Guardian MAXimus" RAID1...
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/usb/raid_1/Gmax
You can get it bare, or with various sized drives and it has USB 3.0, FireWire 800/400, and eSATA interfaces. It can be switched to various RAID modes.
-howard
I recently converted. I'm using open drive sleds and the KT4004. If I do need to boot one, I can plug it into a usb2 port. I also have an internal drive with a boot clone so I can't imagine needing to but I can. You want an ASMedia chipset in the sleds or you'll be back to sleep problems. I tested a TI chipset and it would not sleep (at least with 10.9.2).
Hi Jhero If you have friends staying in the US you can try asking a favor to have the Inateck USB 3 card sent to them from Amazon and your friend can ship the card to you in Canada. The card is small so I guess not much of a hassle.
SpringRainUK will ship Inateck products internationally, but they charge about 18 Euros for shipping.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18808892/
Thanks Howard, putting it on my comparison list!
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I have the same question...
I had sleep problems with FW and external drives. Much research and discussions with apple showed this to be a problem with oxford chipsets and mavericks. I bought a kt4004 usb3 and owc usb3 enclosures but they would not sleep either, owc was using the TI chipset. I then tried usb3 enclosures with ASMedia chipsets and they worked fine. That's my short story.
Gotcha, what threw me off was you said Asmedia in the SLEDS, what you meant was Asmedia chip in the attached drive enclosure.
Mine can all sleep. I have Inateck, Seagate, Touro, and generic enclosures. I guess none of mine have said Oxford or TI chips.
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I call an open enclosure a sled. The drive slides into the enclosure and out without permanently being "enclosed". The sleds keep the drives cooler and my remote drives are now just drives and not a full enclosure.
Hello,
The FASTA-6GU3 Pro fits my needs perfectly as far as ports go. I'd have a Mac boot SSD on the internal port, a 4bay eSATA enclosure and a USB3 dock. Two remaining questions:
-What's it's top speed for the internal SATA3 ports?
-Can it boot OS X using those internal SATA3 ports? (website doesn't specify Mac booting)
Thanks!
Loa
P.S. On Caldigit's website, they specifically state (in the FAQ) that the card doesn't need drivers for 10.8.4+. If that's true, it may be worth updating the first post here about driver requirements.
The FASTA-6GU3 Pro fits my needs perfectly as far as ports go. I'd have a Mac boot SSD on the internal port, a 4bay eSATA enclosure and a USB3 dock. Two remaining questions:
-What's it's top speed for the internal SATA3 ports?
-Can it boot OS X using those internal SATA3 ports? (website doesn't specify Mac booting)
Thanks!
Loa
P.S. On Caldigit's website, they specifically state (in the FAQ) that the card doesn't need drivers for 10.8.4+. If that's true, it may be worth updating the first post here about driver requirements.
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Summary of current USB 3.0 options?
Hi All:
This thread is too crazy long. I'm trying to go through it, but not sure I have a great grasp, so here go a few questions/summaries:
No USB 3.0 cards are bootable with OS X.
The current most compatible card that folks like is the Inateck KT4004. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J7F4GXG...colid=ZCJYBY6EVNJM&coliid=IQ7T5WPCO6NO7&psc=1 It doesn't require drivers (as long as you have 10.8.5 or newer). It doesn't have sleep/drive eject problems. It has 4 USB 3.0 ports.
Is the above correct?
If you have no PCI slots, you can plug in a USB 3.0 card into the Mac Pro's airport card with this: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/19039972/
- Not clear if this card has sleep/eject problems or not?
If you want a good combo card that includes eSata ports and no drivers, you can get this: FASTA-6GU3 Pro - eSATA 6G and USB 3.0 Combo Card for Mac and PC http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IFHXIAY...=UTF8&colid=ZCJYBY6EVNJM&coliid=IN75SWGCNE7NX
-This card also does not seem bootable either from USB or the eSata ports, but there is no confirmation.
-Not clear if this card has sleep/eject problems or not?
-This seems to be the only card that has UASP which is faster than the BOT protocol used by most other cards.
-This card seems to not require any drivers.
If you want a card with a lot of ports, there are these:
- the 7 Port Inatek http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J7F4GXG...colid=ZCJYBY6EVNJM&coliid=IQ7T5WPCO6NO7&psc=1
-Not clear if this card has sleep/eject problems or not?
-This card requires extra power from a 15pin SATA connector
Hi All:
This thread is too crazy long. I'm trying to go through it, but not sure I have a great grasp, so here go a few questions/summaries:
No USB 3.0 cards are bootable with OS X.
The current most compatible card that folks like is the Inateck KT4004. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J7F4GXG...colid=ZCJYBY6EVNJM&coliid=IQ7T5WPCO6NO7&psc=1 It doesn't require drivers (as long as you have 10.8.5 or newer). It doesn't have sleep/drive eject problems. It has 4 USB 3.0 ports.
Is the above correct?
If you have no PCI slots, you can plug in a USB 3.0 card into the Mac Pro's airport card with this: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/19039972/
- Not clear if this card has sleep/eject problems or not?
If you want a good combo card that includes eSata ports and no drivers, you can get this: FASTA-6GU3 Pro - eSATA 6G and USB 3.0 Combo Card for Mac and PC http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IFHXIAY...=UTF8&colid=ZCJYBY6EVNJM&coliid=IN75SWGCNE7NX
-This card also does not seem bootable either from USB or the eSata ports, but there is no confirmation.
-Not clear if this card has sleep/eject problems or not?
-This seems to be the only card that has UASP which is faster than the BOT protocol used by most other cards.
-This card seems to not require any drivers.
If you want a card with a lot of ports, there are these:
- the 7 Port Inatek http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J7F4GXG...colid=ZCJYBY6EVNJM&coliid=IQ7T5WPCO6NO7&psc=1
-Not clear if this card has sleep/eject problems or not?
-This card requires extra power from a 15pin SATA connector
None of the cards can boot from USB 3.0. It's a Mac shortcoming, not the cards. Apple would have to modify it's EFI (bios if you will) for that to happen.
The KT-4004 does support UASP, and it's beyond fast. This is the ONLY card I can recommend without any caveats.
The new CalDigit card may suit you just fine too, I can't recommend it because I haven't personally gotten around to picking one up yet. Recently I've just started playing with SSDs and that's kept me busy.
You can't go wrong with the Inateck KT-4004 for normal (non-RAID) USB 3.0 duties.
Hi ZombiePhysicist. Some answers below to your inquiries.
—No USB 3.0 cards are bootable with OS X.
—The current most compatible card that folks like is the Inateck KT4004. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J7F4GXG...colid=ZCJYBY6EVNJM&coliid=IQ7T5WPCO6NO7&psc=1 It doesn't require drivers (as long as you have 10.8.5 or newer). It doesn't have sleep/drive eject problems. It has 4 USB 3.0 ports.
Is the above correct?
Yep. Adding more inputs. I am using Inateck KT4004 and works with Mountain Lion 10.8.3 version and up. I did not have any sleep/eject problems with this card using external hard drives. The Inateck also supports other USB devices like keyboard, mouse, cameras. This is the only brand that I know has this feature. The other brands I am also using are Caldigit eSata/USB 3 combo ( old model), RocketU CM1144 and Newertech eSata/USB 3 combo and none of them supports other USB 3.0 or 2.0 devices other than external HDs and flash drives.
—If you have no PCI slots, you can plug in a USB 3.0 card into the Mac Pro's airport card with this: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/19039972/
- Not clear if this card has sleep/eject problems or not?
I could not comment on the above inquiry as I have not tried this.
—If you want a good combo card that includes eSata ports and no drivers, you can get this: FASTA-6GU3 Pro - eSATA 6G and USB 3.0 Combo Card for Mac and PC http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IFHXIAY...=UTF8&colid=ZCJYBY6EVNJM&coliid=IN75SWGCNE7NX
-This card also does not seem bootable either from USB or the eSata ports, but there is no confirmation.
-Not clear if this card has sleep/eject problems or not?
-This seems to be the only card that has UASP which is faster than the BOT protocol used by most other cards.
-This card seems to not require any drivers.
With my Caldigit eSata/USB 3.0 combo, the old model, I can boot with OSX using the eSata ports from an external HD. With the new Caldigit model, according to the OWC site, can also supports Booting using the eSATA port. The old model requires drivers and can work with OS 10.5, 10.6 SL and ML 10.8. For USB 3.0, CrJackson is correct as you cannot boot with USB 3.0. Based on my usage of Caldigit and Newertech eSATA ports, the transfer speed is not too far compared to USB 3
—If you want a card with a lot of ports, there are these:
- the 7 Port Inatek http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J7F4GXG...colid=ZCJYBY6EVNJM&coliid=IQ7T5WPCO6NO7&psc=1
-Not clear if this card has sleep/eject problems or not?
-This card requires extra power from a 15pin SATA connector[/QUOTE]
You can plug the card's power cable to your HD Bay 4 SATA/power I could not comment on the sleep/eject problems
Hope these answers your inquiry.
Thanks Macsonic. Can you boot the Caldigit from the internal eSata? Is the internal eSata the 6GBps version? If so, I wonder if there is someway to feed that to the 4 sleds so it would be a nice upgrade for the entire machine to have the faster SATA connection.