Does Mac OS 10.8.2 Support "eSATA" drives?

[mint13nts]

Does anyone know if eSATA is supported on Mac OS 10.8.2?

I did some Google searches, but the results left me more confused!

My hackintosh motherboard has an eSATA port on it that I would like to use.

But before I do anything, I want to hear what you had to say on this topic.

Thank you for replying.

 

[Dschijn]

eSATA is working good on my UD5H board.
Was working "ok" on my old Z68X-UD4-B3.

 

[DBP]

What board do you have?

So far I've found that external ports connected to Marvell and ASM1061 controllers (supported by the "3rd Party eSATA" driver available through MultiBeast) work great. This includes the eSATA port on my GA-Z77X-UP5 TH motherboard.

However not so much luck with eSATA ports connected to the Z77 SATA ports on any board I've used so far. It's possible in many BIOSes to mark specific ports as hot-swap, and you can cable that port up to an eSATA bracket on the case. Drives there will be seen as external, however once you eject them new drives are not detected properly. I've got a separate thread talking about this in the hope of finding a solution.

Also note that some chipsets/drivers don't support eSATA Port Multiplication (PM).

So back to your board: which is it?

 

[mint13nts]

The motherboard is a Foxconn H67S with

Intel Pentium 2.90 GHz G645 processor

8GB of DRAM

NVIDIA GEForce GT 520 video card with 1024 MB (using HDMI for video only),

RealTek Gigabit ethernet (works fine)

Syba USB Audio adapter (works fine)

Microsoft LifeCam Cinema for FaceTime and PhotoBooth (both work fine)

IOGear BlueTooth (works fine)

Canon Pixma i1700 connected to USB port (and also an HP LaserJet 4050TN, and an HP LaserJet 4M Plus networked printers)

The motherboard has one eSATA port on the back panel.
For the last few weeks, I have been tempted to test it but have stayed away from it.
I have a few eSATA devices that I have lying around and would like to try one of those on this Foxconn machine.

As a hackintosh newbie, I have found that it is better to seek advice before trying anything.

Thanks.

 

[mint13nts]

I found this written by "DSCHIJN" while I was reading about his hackintosh build:

===========

My onboard eSATA works great on my main board.

I had to install the eSATA driver from MultiBeast

But since OS X 10.7 eSATA drives are not really hot-luggable any more, you have to:

1) power the drive
2) wait until it is running
3) then plug in the eSATA cable

Dschijn's G5 Mod

===========

Hope this helps you.

Mint13NTS

 

[davevegas]

Never got it working on my P6T Se. Will using the tip mentioned above, thanks!

 

[nobodynose]

My experience has been this - I have a Gigabyte Z68 motherboard, all the SATA ports are on the Intel chipset (i.e. no extra Marvell or ASMedia controllers). The BIOS doesn't have any settings to designate a port as eSATA. But I have my last two ports connected to an eSATA bracket. It works if I have the drive connected and on at boot time, but isn't hot-swappable (so to connect a different drive I have to shut my machine down, swap it, and boot back up). Not very convenient. Also, external port multipliers (such as a dual-bay "toaster" style enclosure like the Thermaltek BlacXtreme) don't work; I can only connect one drive at a time to each port.

 

[potemkin]

Have same board.
eSata works fine if plugged in and turned on before boot.
It is not hot swappable.