OT: ProAvio RAID - how access from BootCamp?

fausseplanete wrote on 4/4/2009, 10:00 PM
Mac Pro with RocketRaid 2522 card driving external ProAvio RAID. Mac OS sees it OK but BootCamp can't use it (because BootCamp freezes during boot if RAID is switched on). Anyone know a fix? Have workaround in the form of a GRAID but the ProAVIO is also needed. RR2522 makers told me BootCamp is not supported.

I understand that for example "the SeriTek/2SE2-E controller can provide additional storage for boot camp". Anyone able to comment on whether this (replacing the RR2522 card by a 2SE2-E card) is indeed a good solution or if there are any others? In general would changing over to a new card lose the existing contents of the RAID? (I would back up in any case) or is it very broadly akin to using a different manufacturer's FW or USB card?

Comments

fausseplanete wrote on 8/10/2009, 4:56 AM
Just for the record (better late than never), my system supplier sorted it out with some brown-firm-ware. They obtained tried-and-tested hacked firmware to omit the BIOS stage. Apparently the BIOS stage makes some assumption of USB availability which, at the stage that the BIOS is brought on by Mac BootCamp, is not enabled (so it would wait forever). While that hack is in place, the only side-effect is that I can't reconfigure the RAID - but then I will never went to, so "no loss" there (and original firmware could be restored if need be).

Now the [Mac+BootCampXP+RocketRAID(card)+ProAVIO (raid array)] combination boots fine. I partitioned the RAID array into NTFS and HFS+. Mac OS X can read NTFS natively but XP requires the addition of other software such as MacDrive.

I installed MacDrive 7 (now superceded) which technically speaking allows Windows to access HFS+ files directly. So in theory Vegas (8.0c) should be able to access those files directly on the HFS+ partition. However in practice such access is unreliable, and 50/50% I get "corrupted file" errors. The file is not actually corrupt, just the access to it is. For safety, I configured MacDrive to Read-Only. Workaround: copy files over to NTFS partition so that Vegas can access them from there. No problems with that. Sometime (not mid-project(s)) I will try MacDrive 8 but for now I will play-safe.

My only negative experience is that when the RAID NTFS partition gets almost full (e.g. 10GB left out of 1TB) then on BootCamp-XP I get system freezes. May be coincidence of course. However I wonder if anyone with greater experience of RAIDs can shed light on whether that is normal, and if so, how much headroom (GB? %?) is advisable. The system disk is a standard internal hard disk, not the RAID.
ritsmer wrote on 8/11/2009, 12:17 AM
I have a MacPro (2xXeon 2.8) too and as I got tired of BootCamp I decided to try to install Windows 7 x64 on it.
Windows 7 can do without BootCamp as it can access the newer "bios" in the MacPro directly - so I understand, at least.

The system has worked now for some months - and is rock stable - have not seen one single Windows crash or hang.

The reason I installed the x64 version - but still run many 32Bit programmes (Vegas 8.0c, Vegas 9.0a etc) is that I can have several of these programs running at the same time and at full speed.
RNLVideo wrote on 8/11/2009, 5:56 AM
ritsmer,

So you just did a plain old install and reformatted your primary disk as NTFS to install Win 7? That sounds like a great option for those with an extra HDD (another drive for Mac OS if wanted)... I'm wondering - does holding down the option key at startup give you startup disk options (i.e. if so, and if you have Mac OS on another drive, you could select your OS without worrying at all about BC)?
Coursedesign wrote on 8/11/2009, 7:27 AM
Yes, the Option key allows you to switch between both OS X and Windows partitions.

Who would have thought that MS would finally get around to supporting EFI?

Intel started pushing EFI 10 years ago when the old BIOS was seen to be a drag on workstation performance and security. HP picked it up for its pricey Itanium systems, after that nothing serious until Apple chose it for their new Intel Macs four years ago.
RNLVideo wrote on 8/11/2009, 7:52 PM
Sweet. I'm going to have to try going Win only on my MacBook Pro when I have some spare time.