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FYI for Mac ATTO R680 users
I learned the hard way that my unsupported ATTO R680 that’s been working beautifully on two unsupported MacPros for years are not compatible with Monterey 12.7.
IDK exactly when ATTO stopped supporting this SAS RAID PCIe card – probably after introducing the newer 12 Gbps standard years ago, BUT it had been working well, first on a 2012 MacPro5,1 up to High Sierra, and then on my MacPro7,1 since I bought it in Dec. 2019, up to the upgrade to Monterey 12.7.
I had cloned my boot drive (12.6.8) prior to upgrading the OS to 12.7, so it was fairly easy to revert my system back so that I can use my ATTO R680.
I’m posting this as information that might be useful to anybody else running that PCIe card.
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3 Replies
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An FYI as well for windows users as I just upgraded to a new HP tower — it appears that the R680 isn’t compatible with windows 11. ATTO support thought that the driver ‘should’ work in windows 11, but it doesn’t (at least on my system) and since it’s now a legacy product there will be no more driver updates.
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I should have updated my post earlier.
I installed 12.7.2 on an external drive, booted from it, and my R680 function was back. My RAID mounted. So, I installed 12.7.2 on my internal boot SSD, and all was well again.
I’ve since upgraded the OS to 12.7.3 and all is still well, RAID is mounting. ATTO Configuration Tool is working as normal. I have gotten a few messages along the lines of “Firmware version can’t be retrieved.” But, I dismiss it and all is well. I can see what firmware version is installed in the Tool.
I don’t expect there will be more firmware updates. ATTO is calling this card “deprecated.” Although, they don’t officially support it, I’ve found their support to be among the best I’ve ever seen, and they’ve answered a few of my questions related to this product and the H680 I have to run my LTO. The H680 works on 12.7.3 also.
ATTO also restored the latest versions of driver & firmware on their site, after removing it for a while for being deprecated.
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I agree with Jim that ATTO provides great support. We can confirm that the H680 family of cards continues to work with macOS including the latest macOS 14 Sonoma. These cards can be used with all SAS LTO drives, unlike the R680 which is not compatible with LTO. Note that a lot of Thunderbolt tape drives have an H644 or H608 inside so continued driver availability from ATTO is very important. We test the H680 and H1280GT regularly with both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.
Martin
CTO
YoYotta Ltd
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