Thanks so much for the help Bill. I was afraid I had blown $100 out of ingnorance.
As a wrap-up (for future googlers): - I stuck the card in a PC (since Macs don't have POST) - Saw the Areca BIOS appear after system POST, hit "tab" to enter settings - Toggled from RAID to JBOD - Reinsert into Mac - sd0 shows up, ready to use/configure you all are the reason why OBSD is the only software I've ever paid for; thanks a million! -Scott > > The details should be 'there' in dmesg, but so long as the Areca has been > reported by the OS, the 'topmost' hardware layer should be in communication, > and the layers below it should 'JFDTRT' - already coded by other wizards. > > That said - the Areca and others being 'intelligent' controller's, you must > ALSO enter ITS OWN BIOS and tell it how you want it to behave. > > Even if only one drive is attached, the Areca has to be told what to do with > it, and what 'public face' to present to the OS for it. > > There should be a message from the Areca showing right after POST, prior to > seeking to load an OS. Perform the key-magic to enter that and things should > become clear. > > Only AFTER you have given the Areca the lie you want it to tell will that > lie become visible to the OS. > > It won't be the actual HDD, 'coz the Os now works to the Areca, not directly > to the device. > > Or pool of devices. > > Not uncommon to have an 9-drive RAID array including local and global spares > appear to the OS as a single device. And it might be one of several such. > > A decent controller earns its crust, manages spare swap-in, rebuild of spare > or hot-swapped devices, 'patrol' of its devices, and all that - w/o > troubling the OS. 'Most of the time' one can migrate the controller and its > array(s) to another OS, even another CPU arch near-as-dammit transparently, > so even w/o RAID, they are a good investment when you have a lot of data. > > FWIW, historically those based on LSi chipsets, and more recently Areca, are > generally among the most cross OS/architecture portable and least > problematic of such controllers. > > HTH, > > Bill Hacker
