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mrjayviper

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 17, 2012
244
27
I want to hot swap SATA drives but unsure what command to run so macOS Mojave can recognize the new drive. Thanks
 

bookemdano

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2011
1,512
843
"Features

The Tempo SATA Pro Plus supports hot-swapping of external drives under OS X, and supports booting from attached drives under OS X"
https://no-trouble.com/hardware/585-tempo-ssd-pro-plus.html

When did OP refer to using a "Tempo SATA Pro Plus" card? I think he would have mentioned if he was using one.

My answer refers to the built-in SATA controller on the Mac Pro's logic board, which it's safe to assume the OP was asking about.
 
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chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,548
7,075
I want to hot swap SATA drives but unsure what command to run so macOS Mojave can recognize the new drive. Thanks
Don't do that. The Mac Pro's drives are not intended to be hot swappable, and you're going to cause yourself some problems by trying to do so.
 

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,683
6,958
I’m won
Don't do that. The Mac Pro's drives are not intended to be hot swappable, and you're going to cause yourself some problems by trying to do so.
I’m wondering. Somebody made a program that makes external drives appear as internal.
Now just a maybe......
Maybe the reverse can be done and when finished with a drive you eject it and remove?
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,548
7,075
I’m won

I’m wondering. Somebody made a program that makes external drives appear as internal.
Now just a maybe......
Maybe the reverse can be done and when finished with a drive you eject it and remove?
No, this is about the SATA controller itself. Hot swappable drives were considered for the Mac Pro but in the end were not included in production computers.
 
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mikehalloran

macrumors 68020
Oct 14, 2018
2,239
666
The Sillie Con Valley
No, this is about the SATA controller itself.
Exactly. It is possible to totally screw up a SATA SSD to the point where you hope that it's still under warranty.

eSATA is a little different. If you can eject the drives from the desktop and then turn off your external dock, you stand a chance of not damaging them on removal. They will not reappear on the desktop without shut down and restarting the dock before booting up.
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,548
7,075
Actually, the drives are hot swappable - but not when installed on a cMP internal SATA port.

The fault is with the cMP, not with the drives.
A rather semantic point, but yes, that's correct. The Mac Pro's SATA controller does not support hot swapping of disks; not even Apple's Mac Pro RAID card supported it. Presumably, Apple wanted buyers to steer toward the Xserve for that functionality.
 

bsbeamer

macrumors 601
Sep 19, 2012
4,311
2,704
Presumably, Apple wanted buyers to steer toward the Xserve for that functionality.

Ironic since the MP5,1 was basically offered as an XSERVE replacement at one point after it was killed as a product in 2011.

Believe Apple bailed on their XSERVE RAID in 2008. Many companies stepped up for RAID5 offerings at that time (CalDigit and Promise might be most consumer popular).
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,108
13,307
Looking for a schematic of the 4,1/5,1 - is the SATA controller in the PCH/NorthBridge, or is it a separate chip?

The PCH supports hot-swapping SATA.
pch/northbridge

Mac Pro SATA controller are part of the southbridge and don't have a hot-swap support circuit, just a SAS/SATA mux.

Screen Shot 2019-07-06 at 23.26.26.png
 
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tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,108
13,307
Thanks. I notice, however, that hot-swap is supported on other motherboards of that era (e.g. https://www.newegg.com/sr2600urbrpna-dual-intel-xeon-5500-series/p/N82E16816117123), so I assume that it was a chipset feature.

There are 4 distinct versions of ICH10 chipset, two consumer (ICH10 and ICH10R) and two corporate (ICH10D and ICH10DO):

Screen Shot 2019-07-08 at 01.11.17.png

Only the ICH10R and ICH10DO have RAID/hot plug support:

Screen Shot 2019-07-08 at 01.07.27.png
Screen Shot 2019-07-08 at 01.17.17.png

Mac Pro ICH10 version is 82801JIB, no RAID or hot plug support:

38919E10-0EBB-4935-9477-C69657797568.jpeg

Apple was selling a real hardware SAS RAID card as an option to be used with slot-4, with a SAS mux in the backplane, probably this is the motive why they chose the simplest ICH10 version (to make a cheaper BOM).

Btw, to have hot plug support some discrete components are needed, Mac Pro don't have it, but some of the Xserve boards have them.
 
Last edited:

AidenShaw

macrumors P6
Feb 8, 2003
18,667
4,676
The Peninsula
There are 4 distinct versions of ICH10 chipset, two consumer (ICH10 and ICH10R) and two corporate (ICH10D and ICH10DO):

View attachment 847182

Only the ICH10R and ICH10DO have RAID/hot plug support:

View attachment 847191
View attachment 847184

Mac Pro ICH10 version is 82801JIB, no RAID or hot plug support:

View attachment 847188

Apple was selling a real hardware SAS RAID card as an option to be used with slot-4, with a SAS mux in the backplane, probably this is the motive why they chose the simplest ICH10 version (to make a cheaper BOM).

Btw, to have hot plug support some discrete components are needed, Mac Pro don't have it, but some of the Xserve boards have them.
Thanks.
 
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