ESATA suddenly quits

Question

I have an addonics controller card ADS3GX4R5-E that is connected to a Mac G4 ADP 400Mhz upgraded to 1 G with 1.2 Gigs ram running OSX version 10.4.9. While just operating the computer, the system will tell me the “Device was removed improperly”. In other words it suddenly quits or removes drive. I have it attached to a Port Multiplier Four SATA ICEBOX-PM4 using a Maxtor SATA II 500 Gig drive. How do I keep all things recognized by my system? Is there a control panel that is to loaded or available? The CD supplied does not specify. This seems to happen when importing to iPhoto its the only constant I can find. I repaired all disc and permissions.
Also my second internal only loads sometimes when the computer is restarted. How do I make it stick so each time I get all my drives?

Answer 1

Hi-
I took a look at the Addonics site, and, it seems to me, that the card that you have is more specifically designed for RAID configurations. The ADS3GX4R5-MLM card seemsto be more for using SATA drives individually, or non RAID.
http://www.addonics.com/products/multilane/ads3gx4r5-mlm.asp
Also, this note concerning the drivers for your card:
"SiI3124 0.42.4 drivers designed only for use with Port Multiplier. For use with individual SATA drives in a direct connect configuration, the SiI3124 1.1.0 drivers are required. However, the SiI3124 1.1.0 drivers have no uninstall program available, so you will find it difficult to uninstall the SiI3124 1.1.0 drivers to revert back to the SiI3124 0.42.4 drivers."
I'm not sure of your system configuration- what is your startup drive? Is it also SATA? I assume the Maxtor in the Icebox is the second drive?
One additional note, that I noticed on the page for the card that you have, is
"To install OS onto a single hard drive (not in a RAID set), it must be connected to the 1st port (the lowest port on the PCI bracket)".
Is your setup configured as a RAID, or, as single drives?
As far as control panels go, in OS X, there are none. If not in the Addonics driver /software set, then, Start up disk in the System preferences is all the control that you have.
It's a shame that Addonics doesn't provide support to Mac OS users.....
G4AGP(450)Sawtooth, 2ghz PowerLogix, 2gbRAM, 300gbSATA+160gbATA, ATI Radeon 9800   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   Pioneer DVR-109, ExtHD 160gb x2, 23"Cinema Display, Ratoc USB2.0, Nikon Coolscan