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EX490 - Boot from eSATA?
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Author:  bearxor [ Sat Mar 23, 2013 12:37 pm ]
Post subject:  EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

Hey all,

I've been pulling my hair out over this because I can not find the answer.

I want to boot my EX490 from a SSD plugged in to the eSATA port running Server 2012 and have my 4 storage drives in their bays.

I want to do this so that I can have 4 drives and not require an external power brick. Power would be drawn with an esata enclosure using the USB port on the server itself.

I tried using a self powered eSATA dock and pulling my boot drive and putting it in there, but it didn't appear to do anything. I don't have the KVM header, so I'm unsure if it's possible to do with the header. If it is, I'll happily buy one, but I can't tell rom any of my searching if booting from esata is even possible.

If it's not possible, then I'll just end up buying a 4-bay external esata drive cage.

Author:  orinoco [ Tue Mar 26, 2013 7:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

I've tried this in the past, and I don't think this is possible. If you're successful, please let me know!

Author:  msawyer91 [ Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

I think it may be possible, but the debug board is required. It's the only real way you would be able to see what's on the screen. Otherwise you'd be blindly pressing keys in the hopes of getting the exact sequence of keystrokes correct to bring up the boot pop-up menu, then know which position the desired disk is in, etc. The EX48x and EX49x will happily boot from multiple different devices, and in the BIOS you can change the boot priority of connected devices.

One potential gotcha with the EX490--the eSATA is a Silicon Image controller, unlike in the EX48x server, which is the last port on the Intel ICH9 controller. I don't see the Silicon Image SiI display a BIOS loader, which could make booting from the eSATA port on the EX49x impossible.

Author:  Comp1962 [ Sat Mar 30, 2013 5:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

While I am uncertain about booting from the eSATA Port I believe you would stand a better chance booting from the bottom rear USB Port provided there were was not a bootable drive in the system bay. Of course using the USB Port is slower than the eSATA Port but the best place to boot from would be the bottom bay in the server itself.

Personally I would just adapt the bottom tray for the SSD and use that bay to boot the server from the SSD and I would also add a DEBUG Board to assist me in getting things working. However its also fun trying to get things like what your attempting to do working and I wish you success but if your not successful then you will need to work with the hardware the way it was intended on working to get it functional and running Server 2012.

Author:  el aye [ Fri May 17, 2013 11:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

Any luck with booting from eSATA? I was thinking about doing the same thing with my ex495.

Author:  jefftj86 [ Mon Jul 14, 2014 3:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

I have the debug board and I installed linux on my system. I did not try hooking up anything through the esata port. I have a spare SSD lying around and I will attempt this and report back!

Author:  richlars [ Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

What are you guys using to get the SSD into the MSS tray to get it to fit correctly? All the adapters I can find would not line the connections properly.

Author:  msawyer91 [ Wed Aug 20, 2014 10:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

I use this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817994083

It's the ICY DOCK MB882SP 3.5-to-2.5" drive converter. Both my EX487 and EX490 use this to hold the SSD. Never had an issue with connections lining up. The ICY DOCK just pops into the EX4xx drive tray like a hard drive and slides right into the connector. Couldn't ask for an easier to use product.

Author:  Comp1962 [ Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

That's very cool and very affordable.

On the same screen they have another version which costs a bit more but does allow more airflow.

I have a 2 drive IcyDock running in an EX485 in a RAID 1 for my System Drive. Unfortunately they have been discontinued http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=121

Author:  houlster [ Sun Aug 09, 2015 2:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

Comp1962 wrote:
That's very cool and very affordable.

On the same screen they have another version which costs a bit more but does allow more airflow.

I have a 2 drive IcyDock running in an EX485 in a RAID 1 for my System Drive. Unfortunately they have been discontinued http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=121



Same here, after my OS drive crashed on my first setup. Now running and SSD & old laptop drive in mirrored mode with the icy dock.

--Dan

Author:  msawyer91 [ Mon Aug 10, 2015 9:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

I also believe with respect to the OP, you can't boot from the eSATA port on the EX49x. The eSATA on the EX49x is driven by a Silicon Image controller, while the four internal ports are driven by an Intel controller. The BIOS only controls the four Intel ports, not the Silicon Image port. So there's no way to boot from the eSATA since there's no Silicon Image bootable BIOS.

Author:  onus [ Thu Oct 08, 2015 9:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

msawyer91 is this true "you can't boot from the eSATA port on the EX49x. The eSATA on the EX49x is driven by a Silicon Image controller, while the four internal ports are driven by an Intel controller. The BIOS only controls the four Intel ports, not the Silicon Image port. So there's no way to boot from the eSATA since there's no Silicon Image bootable BIOS." for the EX470 as well? i would assume so but i do not want to squash my hope so soon...

thanks!
-onus

Author:  msawyer91 [ Thu Oct 08, 2015 10:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 - Boot from eSATA?

I don't know. I don't have an EX74x. I've got an EX487, an EX490 and an EX495.

In the case of the EX48x servers, all five ports--four internal and one external--are driven by the Intel RST controller. In the case of the EX49x servers, the four internal are Intel RST and the external is a port multiplier (supports 1-4 devices) driven by a Silicon Image controller.

You'd have to go into Device Manager on your EX470 and see what hard drive controllers there are. Look under IDE/ATAPI, SCSI and Storage Controllers (you may have one, two or three of those device categories). If you've got Intel RST or Intel Matrix Storage Manager installed, that too can tell you how many ports there are.

If you're still unsure after checking those places, you can always try pulling all the drives and installing an OS on an external disk, whether Windows or Linux. Then see if the server can/will boot from that.

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