Mapower MAP-TB32 Dual SATA RAID Enclosure

acruxksa · Posted: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:06:30 Post Subject:

Oskar,

I can't say how long it will take to mirror a 2TB drive, but I would guess that shutting the enclosure down before it completes it's task would require it to start from the beginning when turned back on. This enclosure offers great bang for the buck, but it's simplicity is a double edged sword in some respects.

For what it's worth, I still use mine frequently and it works great, but I've never tried it with anything larger than a pair of 1TB hard drives. I do have a couple 1.5TB drives that I could probably throw in it to get an idea how long mirroring takes, but by the time mine is done, you will probably already have an answer to your question.

When it does finally complete the mirroring process, please post back with the information for the benefit of the rest of us.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Oskar · Rated PG Joined: 09 Feb 2010 Posts: 2

vzloy · Rated PG Joined: 08 Apr 2010 Posts: 1

Dear Participants!

Some my colleagues have lost the manual for MAP - TB32. Would you be so kind to post/provide scanned pages where the jumper configurations for different modes are pictured. I have contacted the company; unfortunately, without an answer.

Sorry for the disturbance.

Best regards,
Volodymyr

PaulInLondon · Rated PG Joined: 25 May 2010 Posts: 1

I want to upgrade the firmware on my TB32, but I can't get Steelvine to work on my MAc (running Snow Leopard).

Any ideas of how to get round this?

Thanks for any help

Paul

Dfreak · Rated PG Joined: 03 Dec 2008 Posts: 7

I'm having problems again with my TB32. Today I tried switching from RAID1 mode to SAFE50, but now I only get to see the SAFE part and not the BIG part (it's not a problem of partitions or initializing). I also tried normal mode, normaly it shows the 2 drives seperatly, now it shows only 1 drive. SPAN, RAID1, RAID0, ... are working fine.

Then I thought a firmware update could help, so I got the latest firmware from Silicon Image and SteelVine Manager. When I start the update, it just keeps saying 0%.

Does anyone know what the problem might be?

UPDATE: the problem above is only with the USB connection, with eSATA it does work.

Dfreak

samz · Rated PG Joined: 26 Oct 2010 Posts: 2

Hi, I have already spend days with this device and I hope somebody can help me.

My Mapower was not working, so I have send it to the hw supplier for exchange or repair. It came back repaired (works somehow), but without the User Manual - which cause a lot of headaches to me. here are my questions to you experts:

Objective: I want to use it only as backup (Non-RAID or JBDD)

Infos:

- SATA Controller Intel ICH9 / ICH9R
- Harddisks foreseen in enclosure: Samsung 1TB (2 years old) and a brand new WD20EARS-2TB
- both drives are formatted and partioned
- Jumper Status: No jumper set on the mapower, no jumper set on the harddisks
- Reset Button was pressed a coupl of times of installation and power-on

Problem: At the moment I just see the WD20, which is directly connected to the base electronic (not via cables)

My Questions:

1.) Can somebody send me the User Manual? I could not find it on the Web, nor does Mapower have it on their website. It would enlighten me in terms of jumper settings and LED-Information

2.) What is the correct jumper configuration for the two functions "Non-RAID" and "JBOD" of the TB32CS??

3.) I am not sure if the mainboard controller needs to support PM (Port Multiplication), according to goo.gl/4Eav it does. Does it matter for this enclosure?

Please help me, I have wasted already too much time on this...

Thank you, Tom

==== EDIT=====
Thanks to this forum, somebody has send me a link to download the manual, this is great and answers Q1 and Q2. At the moment, I am formatting the drives and hope everything will be fine! Let's see if I get this working with a 2 TB Harddisk! Think I will try to update the firmware first.

samz · Rated PG Joined: 26 Oct 2010 Posts: 2

Ok, so far, so good. Jumper is set to normal. I got it running with a single 2 TB drive (WD20EARS) in "Normal Mode".

When I connect a second drive (Samsung 1 TB) to the upper slot via the cables and press the reset button, the second LED gets on (in blue, no blinking).

Problem: Xp does not recognize it at all, even after reboot. What do I do wrong?? Any ideas?
How did you guys get it running?

--- edit ---------
I have read the following: "Non-RAID: The drives will show up as two independent drives. When using eSATA in this mode only one disk is seen unless your PC has Port Multiplier (PM) Support in the SATA controller."

I have a SATA Controller Intel ICH9 / ICH9R, which should support PM...

--- UPDATE -------
Spending hours on this, is there nobody willing to help me please? Is there anybody who got the second drive running??
What I achieved in the meantime:

1.) Changed BIOS settings to AHCI and managed to get XP accepting this (THAT was NOT easy) wihtout getting a BlueScreen

2.) Installed new Firmware ALPHA-Version 11605, BTW: This only works with the Setup of the OLD Firmware Package 11516 !!

3.) Second drive can only be seen in USB mode

What now? Should I change to USB every time I need acces to the second drive? Oh yes, this gives some more safety for my data (it's not a bug, it's a feature....)

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Tue, 02 Nov 2010 16:02:25 Post Subject:

The reviewer who covered this product isn't around much these days... And I guess no one else is familiar. Glad you made some progress, hopefully someone can chime in!

acruxksa · Posted: Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:22:17 Post Subject:

Sorry all.

To be honest, I'm not currently in a position to even run a test on my mapower enclosure. Since our house flooded in July, we've been living in a rental and I've been confined to my 13" macbook. We are supposed to be back in our house by the end of this week, but that's what they said last week and the week before that as well.

Once we do get moved back and I get all my equipment up and running, I can probably take a look at this but that's still a few weeks out.

Off the top of my head, I'd make sure you had the latest drivers for the Intel ICH9/ICH9R (intel matrix drivers). Although the ICH9/ICH9R is supposed to support port multiplying, initially there was no driver support, perhaps this has changed and support was added to more recent drivers.

Also, could you give a bit more information, specifically your motherboard model and revision.

****update****
Only the ICH9R and ICH9DO appear to have Intel Matrix support. While http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/matrixstorage_sb.htm (scroll down to the table at the bottom) does mention support for PMP with the ICH9R and ICH9DO southbridge, it makes no mention of the ICH9 chipset at all which makes me believe the ICH9 chipset does not have PMP support.

Ok yet another update, apparently even if the ICH9(R) chipset supports PMP, not all motherboard manufacturers implemented it. You may want to check in your bios for a PMP toggle somewhere, probably in the same area as the AHCI settings.

acruxksa · Posted: Thu, 04 Nov 2010 01:10:28 Post Subject:

OK, Finally after a couple hours of research I've come across the information you need. It was actually on one of the first pages I found, but I overlooked the link Sad

Anyway here's the list of chipsets that support PMP. https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/SATA_hardware_features
Note only the ICH9R and ICH9DO support PMP, also note that the footnote mentions that only SOME versions of those chipsets support PMP so even if you have an ICH9R or ICH9DO chipset there's no guarantee you have PMP support.

It's probably not what you want to hear, but it should give you a better idea of what's going on.