Store and Share your Digital Creations SeriTek /1SM2 ™ Two Port External Serial ATA CardBus Adapter For Notebook Computers User Manual for Power Macintosh
FirmTek, LLC www.firmtek.com Copyright Copyright © 1998-2006 FirmTek, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this manual may be reproduced, translated by any means, photocopied, or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission of FirmTek. Trademarks FirmTek, UltraTek, AV-Tek, SeriTek names and logotypes are trademarks of FirmTek, LLC. Apple, Macintosh, Power Macintosh, PowerBook, Mac OS 9.XX, Mac OS X, and the Mac logo are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Incorporated.
TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction.. ............................................................................................ 1 II. SeriTek/1SM2 System Requirements ..................................................... 4 III. Installing the SeriTek/1SM2..................................................................... 5 IV. Connecting and Formatting Hard Drives................................................. 8 V. Using SeriTek/1SM2 Hot-Swap Functionality .......................................
I. Introduction Welcome Congratulations and thank you for purchasing the SeriTek/1SM2 Serial ATA CardBus host adapter. This product is yet another innovative solution from the innovative folks at FirmTek. About This User Manual This User Manual was written with the assumption you are familiar with your PowerBook computer, and are comfortable with inserting devices into its CardBus slot. For further information, and to get acquainted with your computer, please refer to your PowerBook User Manual.
SeriTek/1SM2 Two eSATA external ports with exclusive hot-swap capability Plug-and-Play ease of use Boosts overall system performance with per-port data transfer rates of up to 150MBytes/sec or 1.5Gbits/sec Supports PowerBook CardBus 32 interface Supports Mac OS 9 with limited functionality. Mac OS X version 10.
SeriTek/1SM2 Specifications General System Hardware Requirements PowerBook, or Power Macintosh with available 32bit CardBus expansion slot Operating Systems Supported Limited Mac OS 9.xx support: File Transfer only Mac OS X version 10.3 or later Bus Type 32-bit CardBus External Connectors 2-port external Serial ATA (SATA) shielded interface eSATA connectors Drive Types Supported Serial ATA hard drive Data Transfer Rates Up to 150 MBytes/second or 1.
II. SeriTek/1SM2 System Requirements Operating System Mac OS X version 10.3 or later Mac OS 9.XX drivers are included but support is limited to transferring data from a Mac OS 9.XX system to a Mac OS 10.3 or later system. Hardware Requirements Compatible PowerBook notebook computers with available 32-bit CardBus expansion slot. See the PowerBook compatibility list below for a list of PowerBooks that have been tested for compatibility with the SeriTek/1SM2 adapter.
III. Installing the SeriTek/1SM2 Introduction This section describes the proper method of installing your SeriTek/1SM2. Caution: Please make sure your data is backed up prior to installing the SeriTek/1SM2 CardBus adapter and hard drive(s) or peripheral(s). The SeriTek/1SM2 CardBus adapter and your Macintosh contain sensitive components that can be permanently damaged by Static Electric Discharge.
SeriTek/1SM2 CardBus adapter Installation on systems running Mac OS X 10.3 or later 1. Before inserting the SeriTek/1SM2 into your PowerBook computer, install the appropriate driver that is located on your SeriTek/1SM2 CD by installing the drivers on the CD. 2. The CD contains two installer applications, one for systems running Mac OS X 10.4.0 or later, and another for systems running Mac OS X versions prior to 10.4.0.
Figure 4: SeriTek/1SM2 Being Identified by the System Note: If you inserted your SeriTek/1SM2 card into the system before installing the driver, the system will identify the card as being from an “ Unknown Vendor”(see Figure 5). This is not a reason for concern as the next time your storage is mounted the card will be properly identified as a SeriTek/1SM2. Figure 5: “ Unknown Vendor”Being Identified by the System 6.
IV. Connecting and Formatting Hard Drives Introduction This section describes how to connect external hard drive enclosures and a method of formatting your Serial ATA hard drive(s) using Apple’ s Disk Utility (Mac OS X). If you decide to use a third party drive setup utility, please refer to the documentation provided with the utility. Connecting the SeriTek/1SM2 to an External Enclosure 1. The SeriTek/1SM2 is compatible with a wide range of external enclosures.
Figure 7: Using SeriTek/1SM2 with a drive enclosure that has I-shaped eSATA connectors; both cable connectors will be identical. Making the Serial ATA Connection Caution: Be sure to connect the cable using the proper orientation to your SeriTek host adapter and external enclosure. It should easily snap into place. Please do not force the cable connector onto the host adapter and hard drive or peripheral interface.
Figure 9: Examples of More Details Message Windows: (Mac OS X examples) 6. If the storage device(s) have not been formatted for use with the Macintosh, Disk Insertion message window will appear on your desktop for each un-configured storage device. Select Initialize to setup your storage or Ignore if you wish to configure these disks later (see Figure 10).
Formatting Serial ATA Drives Using Mac OS X Version 10.3 or Later 1. Turn on your PowerBook computer. Note: in Mac OS X Drive Setup disks attached to the SeriTek/1SM2 will appear as CardBus devices (in Mac OS 9 they appear as disks). 2. Open Apple’ s Disk Utility which is located in the Utilities folder of the Mac OS X start-up volume.
3. Review the list of hard drives show within Disk Utility (see Figure 13). Drives currently in use should have a list of volume names below it. New, unformatted drives typically have no volume names listed. Carefully select the drive you wish to format. Note: Some versions of Apple Disk Utility incorrectly display Serial ATA hard drives as having the Connection Type of “ Slave.”Serial ATA hard drives are all in fact “ Master”drives.
4. After carefully selecting the hard drive you wish to format, select the Erase tab in Apple’ s Disk Utility (see Figure 14). Figure 14: Selecting the Erase tab in Apple’ s Disk Utility 5. For Volume Format, the most common choice is “ Mac OS Extended.” 6. In the Name field, you may type a name of description for your new hard drive. 7. Note: FirmTek Mac OS 9 support is limited to simple file transfer: FirmTek recommends that Mac OS 9 users use the FirmTek/1SM2 only to transfer files.
Creating a RAID Volume with Serial ATA Hard Drives Using Mac OS X version 10.3 or Later The Mac OS X 10.3 or later RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) capability allows you to increase volume sizes, provide data redundancy in case of a hard drive failure, or increase performance by allowing you to join multiple drives into a single volume. Two RAID types are supported, Stripe and Mirror. A volume that is striped (also known as RAID 0) has its data broken up and spread across multiple hard drives.
4. Select the RAID tab in Apple’ s Disk Utility (see Figure 15). Figure 15: Selecting the RAID tab in Apple’ s Disk Utility 5. Carefully select and drag a hard drive to add as a member of the new RAID volume onto the Disk status window. 6. Repeat step 5 for each member for the RAID volume. 7. Choose a RAID Scheme: Stripe or Mirror. 8. Name the new RAID volume.
9. For Volume Format, the most common choice is “ Mac OS Extended”(See Figure 16).
Note: For Mac OS X 10.4.
After reviewing the options you selected, click on the Create button to initialize the new RAID volume (see Figure 18).
10. After the RAID volume is successfully initialized, it should appear on the desktop.
V. Using SeriTek/1SM2 Hot-Swap Functionality Introduction The SeriTek/1SM2 provides advanced hot-swap functionality which provides flexibility similar to that of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and FireWire without the burden of having to power down your system when adding or removing hard drives. Using a unique patent-pending method, SeriTek/1SM2 support RAID hot-swap disks under both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. Hot-Swap Guidelines Do not disconnect or remove hard drives while transferring data.
Verifying Hard Drive Connections Once you have connected the external hard drive(s) a dialog box will appear which verifies how many devices were added to the system (See Figure 21). There are Two Serial ATA channels on the SeriTek/1SM2: 0, 1. One or more dialog boxes will appear verifying which drive was attached to which channel (See Figure 22).
Figure 23: Removing External Hard Drive(s) One or more dialog boxes will appear verifying which drive was attached to which channel (See Figure 24). Figure 24: Example Serial ATA hard drive removed from channel 0 Improperly Removing External Hard Drive(s) Caution: To prevent loss of data, save your work and close associated applications before removing the external hard drive (applications need to be closed since they may keep temporary working files open on the external hard drive).
After unmounting your disks, click on the CardBus symbol and select Power off Card, see below: Figure 26: Powering Off Your SeriTek/1SM2 Connecting and Immediately Removing External Hard Drive(s) If you connect an external hard drive, then remove it without acknowledging it has been added to the system, a dialog box will appear that explains no new hard drive(s) were detected (See Figure 27).
VI. Troubleshooting The SeriTek/1SM2 adapter does not seem to be recognized Check the SeriTek/1SM2 adapter by ensuring it is properly seated in the CardBus slot in your computer. My hard drive or peripheral won’ t work Check cables and connections. Ensure the 7-pin Serial ATA cable is properly oriented to the connectors on the SeriTek/1SM2 host adapter and the external enclosure. Ensure the hard drives in the enclosure are properly powered. Apple System Profiler under Mac OS X 1.
Does the SeriTek/1SM2 work with all PowerBook computers? No, the SeriTek/1SM2 requires a PowerBook with at least one 32-bit CardBus slot. PowerBooks made before the PowerBook 3400, iBooks, and PowerBooks with 12”screens do not have these slots. The SeriTek/1SM2 is optimized for use with G4 “ Titanium” PowerBooks or later models with 15”or 17”screens. Even though in most cases the SeriTek/1SM2 works well PowerBook models 3400 or later (these are black colored PowerBooks) functionality is NOT guaranteed.
VII. Product Support Technical Support For additional information on how to use the SeriTek/1SM2, download the latest firmware updates, or for technical assistance, please visit us at www.firmtek.com, or email us at support@firmtek.com. Please provide the following information when contacting us: Product model and serial number Driver version (You may use the Apple System Profiler as described in the troubleshooting section to determine the Driver version.
IX. Regulatory Compliance Statements Federal Communications Commission Radio Frequency Interference Statement WARNING: Changes or modifications to this unit not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user’ s authority to operate the equipment. This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC rules.
