want to remove mac raid card and just use sata drives

[theprojectabot]

So I have followed a bunch of the 'MacPro with mac raid card users wanting to do bootcamp' threads. I have attempted all the hacking required but have not been successful. I heard that bootcamp 3.1 will fix this problem possibly... so in the mean time I would like to remove my SAS drives and raid card and just use the sata drives that I have to do Mac OS and Windows.

I have removed the card but when I plug the drives in and boot up the machine, the drives are not recognized. Is there some plug that I need to reconnect somewheres?

 

[UltraNEO*]

Hmm... this drive you've installing for windows, is it new? has it been formatted??

Which model of MacPro are you using??? Trust me, it'll help a lot!

 

[nanofrog]

So I have followed a bunch of the 'MacPro with mac raid card users wanting to do bootcamp' threads. I have attempted all the hacking required but have not been successful. I heard that bootcamp 3.1 will fix this problem possibly... so in the mean time I would like to remove my SAS drives and raid card and just use the sata drives that I have to do Mac OS and Windows.

I have removed the card but when I plug the drives in and boot up the machine, the drives are not recognized. Is there some plug that I need to reconnect somewheres?

NONE of the Apple RAID cards will work with Windows. No driver support at all, and Apple's not intersted in changing that IMO.

To use SAS drives under Windows, you'd need a separate card. BIOS based versions will boot under Windows, but be unavailable to OS X for boot. Driver access is possible though. And those that can, are usually capable of booting withing the EFI environment as well (though boot = one or the other; cards can contain either BIOS or EFI firmware, but not both). Areca (depends on the specific model), ATTO (watch the specifications here as well, as they've begun to introduce 6.0Gb/s capable cards <at least HBA's, not RAID last I looked>), or even Highpoint's RR43xx series are capable of this.

 

[theprojectabot]

thanks for your time.

I am running a 2008 Mac Pro 2.8 octo xeon.

I really just want to know how to run the mac pro with regular sata drives
as I have already removed the Sas raid contoller card....

I now have a computer with 4 empty slots that can fit 4 sata drives(or the 2 sas i had before hand)

I want to stick my one sata drive in the box and have that boot up allowing for both windows and mac.

The problem is that with the raid card removed.... it doesnt even see my Mac OS partition on that drive...
If I put the raid card back in then plug the sata drive back into the slot(aka going through the raid controller) the Mac OS drive shows up(as does the Bootcamp drive, though that is not bootable because it is going through the raid card)

 

[panzer06]

Want to sell the raid controller?

 

[nanofrog]

thanks for your time.

I am running a 2008 Mac Pro 2.8 octo xeon.

I really just want to know how to run the mac pro with regular sata drives
as I have already removed the Sas raid contoller card....

I now have a computer with 4 empty slots that can fit 4 sata drives(or the 2 sas i had before hand)

I want to stick my one sata drive in the box and have that boot up allowing for both windows and mac.

The problem is that with the raid card removed.... it doesnt even see my Mac OS partition on that drive...
If I put the raid card back in then plug the sata drive back into the slot(aka going through the raid controller) the Mac OS drive shows up(as does the Bootcamp drive, though that is not bootable because it is going through the raid card)

The logic board will work with the SATA drives you have, but not SAS drives. You'd need a SAS card of some sort for that (HBA or RAID card that's capable of running under Windows, and it would require BIOS firmware to boot Windows, if that's what you want to do).

The logic board can boot a dedicated Windows drive, so long as it's in one of the HDD bays (it won't work if the drive's attached to one of the ODD_SATA ports). To use a single HDD with both Windows and OS X, you'll have to use Boot Camp's partition tool.

Note: BC 3.0 doesn't support Win7 properly, though there's been some work-arounds (a search should pull the thread/s up, as it's on MR somewhere). BC 3.1 is suppoosed to officially support Win7, but it's not out yet AFAIK.

 

[gugucom]

You have two options to dual boot with OS X and Windows in a Mac Pro. Boot both operating system from one SATA drive or use separate drives for each system. The second method is preferred.

If you have an option to clone your existing OS X system to a SATA drive by USB 2.0 or Firewire your can take that shortcut or you can later use an external time machine backup like the time capsule. Then take out the Apple RAID card.

Fit the cloned SATA drive. If you don't have one use the OS X install disk to partition a SATA drive with the GUID partition table (Option GUID) and the Mac OS X journaled plus file system. Install OS X from the install DVD or use the Time machine backup.

To install Windows fit a second SATA drive or use Bootcamp utility to create a Windows partition on your first SATA drive. If you use a second drive also use the Bootcamp utility to partition that drive.

Install Windows from a genuine Install DVD and take care that you do not partition the drive during the Installation. It will give you trouble if you do. Make sure you format the Bootcamp partitioned drive and use the BOOTCAMP partition. Some people install Windows into their OS X partition which would obviously destroy it.

Windows shuts down and restarts two times during installation. Make sure you boot from the new Windows partition on your drive and not from the DVD. Push the "Alt" option key when the Mac shuts down and select the right disk in the EFI menu.

When Windows is properly installed use the OS X install DVD to install the drivers. You must insert the DVD in Windows and start setup. If you use a 64-bit version of Windows do not use any executable or setup file. Use Windows Explorer to start the Bootcamp64.msi file which can be found in the drivers/Apple directory.

All other Apple Mac Pro models can use ODD-SATA ports to install a Windows drive. Unfortunately there seems to be an issue with the 2008 Mac Pro which prevents you to use such a port. So stay on the safe side and use one of the HDD ports.

 

[fxdxt]

Want to sell the raid controller?

I will sell mine . I pulled it out weeks ago.

Tom

 

[nanofrog]

I will sell mine . I pulled it out weeks ago.

Tom

Unfortunately, you're not yet able to post in the Marketplace section. You'd have to go outside of MR to comply with the rules, and keep the mods happy.

eBay or Craig's List would be an option as well. Maybe just email a link to the item.

 

[fxdxt]

Unfortunately, you're not yet able to post in the Marketplace section. You'd have to go outside of MR to comply with the rules, and keep the mods happy.

eBay or Craig's List would be an option as well. Maybe just email a link to the item.

Sorry

 

[nanofrog]

Sorry

I presumed you weren't aware of it and made a post (before the mods did ). Nothing to be sorry about.

 

[TripHop]

2008 Mac Pro RAID Card Removal Nightmare?

So I have followed a bunch of the 'MacPro with mac raid card users wanting to do bootcamp' threads. I have attempted all the hacking required but have not been successful. I heard that bootcamp 3.1 will fix this problem possibly... so in the mean time I would like to remove my SAS drives and raid card and just use the sata drives that I have to do Mac OS and Windows.

I have removed the card but when I plug the drives in and boot up the machine, the drives are not recognized. Is there some plug that I need to reconnect somewheres?

I am in the same situation as this person from 3 years ago. I have both a 2.8GHz 8 core erly 2008 Mac Pro and a 3.2GHz 8 core early 2008 Mac Pro with Apple RAID card. But the faster one can't see more than 2.2 TB worth of Hard Drive space in 3 or 4 TB drives. So I pulled the RAID card and now it sees nothing of the SATA drives I moved over from the 2.8 non-raid card model. Does the RAID connector cable have to be removed from the motherboard before the Mac can see any drives or what?