Titan 256GB and Mac OS X 10.5 Problems

[ShortArc]

I am posting here to see if anyone got the TITAN Series 256GB SATA II SSD to work with their Mac? I have already contacted G.Skill tech support (1/26/09) and they are getting back to me. In the mean time this is the problem:

The SSD drive was externally connected via an USB 2 Universal Drive Adapter to my Macbook Pro (late 08 new Unibody model) running OS X 10.5.6. As the drive was not formatted for the Mac the Disk Utility program was used to Format the drive utilizing a GUID Partition Table. The Format was Mac OS Extended (Journaled). [NOTE: I always try to clone my internal drive to my new drive before installation-hence it being connected via USB 2]
Once the drive was formatted it would mount properly HOWEVER it could not be written to or read. On launching the Disk Utility program there after the program would hang trying to read the drive. Any program trying to read the drive would hang.

I decided to hook it up to a Windows XP Pro (SP3) machine.
Since Disk Management can not deal with this type of partition (GPT Protective Partition) I went into DOS and ran DISKPART, selected the disk and used the CLEAN function to remove all data etc. I then tried formatting the drive using Disk Management but without success.

Did Disk Utility destroy or alter the RAID 0 config? Is that even possible (hardware coded)?
Some folks have reported great success with the 128GB Titan SSD. What about the 256GB?

Not knowing if the drive may have been defective, I am awaiting a replacement from the vendor. Once I receive the replacement I will try the drive on a Windows machine first. If everything works I would like to try it on my Mac again.

If anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it.

Regards.

[G.SKILL]

sorry, but we are not familiar with MAC OS
as we know, to install windows, it's necessary to enable AHCI to complete installation
but we are not sure if it is necessary for MAC OS too



G.S

[ShortArc]

Replacement drive arrived and SUCCESS.
After experiencing the same format problems and applications hanging under Windows XP Pro having read post of folks successfully utilizing the TITAN 256GB, I knew something else had to be going on.
Sure enough it turned out to be the Newer Technologies (both original and second gen) USB 2 Universal drive adapter. For some reason when connecting the SSD via this device it will not format properly. So after installing the drive internally in my MBP everything worked like a charm. The OS X install program did hand once and I am not sure what may have caused that. Also do not believe the estimated time remaining during a Migration Assistant session. Other than that no problems so far. VMs are not as fast as expected but the processor may be playing catch-up with the SSD?

[ShortArc]

There may be an issue with the ?Put the hard disks to sleep when possible? setting. After leaving for a few hours I found the MBP asleep and it would not recover (power off required)?still testing.

[ShortArc]

Well I swapped the SSD with a Samsung HM500LI having the identical disk image. Sleep mode (including deep sleep) all work fine.
So there is definitely something going on between my MBP and the TITAN SSD. Sleep mode (other than closing the lid?) kills the MBP and requires a hard restart.
Please note that there are other folks who do not have this problem.
I am clueless for now.

[Bandito]

I've had my Titan 256GB SSD in my MacBook Pro (Late 2008, Unibody) for a week now and it's been generally good.

It works great under OS X 10.5.6, but does seem to be causing some "hangs" when I'm running Parallels Desktop 4 with Windows XP Pro. It's not too often, but it can even happen when Parallels is minimized to the dock.

I'm still keeping an eye on things, but so far it has been a good upgrade for my Mac.

@ShortArc

Sorry that you had install issues over USB-to-SATA, but I'm glad that things worked out. Do you think that your sleep problem may be related to the hang you had during the install? Just a thought.

[G.SKILL]

I've had my Titan 256GB SSD in my MacBook Pro (Late 2008, Unibody) for a week now and it's been generally good.

It works great under OS X 10.5.6, but does seem to be causing some "hangs" when I'm running Parallels Desktop 4 with Windows XP Pro. It's not too often, but it can even happen when Parallels is minimized to the dock.

I'm still keeping an eye on things, but so far it has been a good upgrade for my Mac.

@ShortArc

thanks for sharing the info


G.S

[ShortArc]

Bandito, I don't think my problem has to do with the installation hang as I re-installed and also used an existing working cloned OS. Same problems. I hope it is not a hardware issue with the card?

[ShortArc]

There is a fellow on the Macrumors forum who just posted the same "sleep" problems.

[Bandito]

ShortArc,

I'm not sure what you mean by, "...a hardware issue with the card." What card are you referring to?

I'll see if I can locate the other post on Macrumors to see if there's any more info there.

[ShortArc]

Bandito,
By hardware issue I mean the RAID 0 controller of the SSD (for example).
A friend who also bought the TITAN 256GB SSD can not get bootcamp to work with his MBP (roughly a year old utilizing a 1.5Gigabit bus). The speculation is the controller. After the window install is complete and the first reboot is performed no OS is found.

[ShortArc]

I thought I would summarize the information I compiled between some other MBP users and myself:
Generally the drive works fine with MBP.

However, some models require the drive to be formatted/OS X installed with the drive attached via an external drive adapter (OS X installation disk will not see drive internally). Other models like my MBP Unibody 2.8GHz required the opposite (utilizing a universal drive adapter would not format the drive properly and hung the machine).

My model MBP will not work properly in with power saving features like sleep mode. Earlier models do not have this problem.

Boot Camp works fine with my MBP but does not work with some previous models.

More later?.

[loccie]

I personally don't have this sleep problem, but one way to avoid issues with hang on coming back from sleep mode could be to always use "hibernate" mode in Mac OS X.
It's actually really simple to switch between traditional sleep (when data is still in memory) and hibernate (when everything gets dumps on SDD).

To see what is your current mode, run this command:

$ pmset -g | grep hibernatemode

To switch to "hibernate" mode, run this command:

# sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

These are the modes that are supported:

# 0 - Old style sleep mode, with RAM powered on while sleeping, safe
sleep disabled, and super-fast wake.
# 1 - Hibernation mode, with RAM contents written to disk, system
totally shut down while ?sleeping,? and slower wake up, due to reading
the contents of RAM off the hard drive.
# 3 - The default mode on machines introduced since about fall 2005.
RAM is powered on while sleeping, but RAM contents are also written to
disk before sleeping. In the event of total power loss, the system
enters hibernation mode automatically.
# 5 - This is the same as mode 1, but it?s for those using secure
virtual memory (in System Preferences -> Security).
# 7 - This is the same as mode 3, but it?s for those using secure
virtual memory.

Hope this helps. I've been using hibernate as I sometimes leave Mac off for a few days. This should keep the battery running longer since it would presumably go through fewer recharge cycles as well.

I would be interested to know if this tip helps folks who are having sleep issues on Mac OS with their GSkill drives.

[G.SKILL]

anyway, thanks for your sharing


G.S

[morg]

Hi Gskillers,
I recently bought a Titan 256 and did test under OSX and Vista on my Unibody.
I had to go through an external case, it was not seen properly by OSX. System profiler knew it was there but not disk utility... Weird. After Install great boot time even if it hangs around 7-8 sec before giving the Apple but after that it's fast to get to the Finder.
NO Sleep or Hibernation under OSX my main OS
Sleep and Hibernation under Vista, no problem at all. SSD Optimizer works GREAT !

I did test with XBENCH and ATTO
Screenshot here

Windows gives me the speed advertised but not OSX, I get half or at best 3/4 of the advertised performances.

I don't think the problem comes from OSX or the Titan, I could be wrong but the Unibody itself as it was the first Apple product to get the nforce730i and I'm wondering if it's handled properly by OSX...

From my research, only Unibody users seems affected by weird behavior of the Titan. My disk rev is 0955 if it helps...
On the other hand it is a great product, I can't change my SSD right now cuz I need it for production. My biggest issue SLEEP I simply shut it down before closing it but on the go this is time consuming... Any help/thoughts ?