Qio for Mac
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Driver (6)
Firmware (2)
Manual (4)
IDDownload TitleDownload LinkPost Date
497 Qio Mac User's Guide [English]May-08-19
498 Qio Mac User's Guide [Japanese]May-08-19
844 Qio, Qio CF4, Qio E3 Thunderbolt Interface Kit User's Guide [English]May-08-19
845 Qio, Qio CF4, Qio E3 Thunderbolt Interface Kit User's Guide [Japanese] May-08-19
 
FAQ (31)
IDArticle TitlePost Date
491 Are Sonnet Tempo SATA cards compatible with the Drobo S?Feb-02-11
495 My P2 card is unexpectedly unmounting from my Qio after I wake a Mac Pro or MacBook Pro from sleep.Aug-01-13
499 I get a blue screen on my Mac Pro/MacBook Pro instead of booting when I connect QioMar-24-10
The first time you boot with the Qio connected, the screen will stay blue for up to 6 minutes while the Mac is configuring the Qio slot space. Please be patient. Subsequent boots should be normal. Note that you must install the Qio software before connecting the Qio.
 
501 Are all C600X CF Cards more or less equal performance in a Qio?Mar-22-10
503 Can I power the Qio from a FireWire port on a MacBook Pro?Mar-23-10
509 Is the Qio driver compatible with a 64-bit kernel boot of OS X 10.6 or 10.7?Aug-01-13
Yes. Compatiblity requires Qio software version 1.2.3 or later.
 
510 Can I use the AJA IO Express with the Sonnet Qio in a MacBook Pro?Mar-23-10
Yes. Just plug the AJA ExpressCard/34 adapter into one of the Qio's two ExpressCard/34 slots.
 
512 My Qio was working fine with my ExpressCard/34 bus interface card, but the Qio does not work with my PCIe Express bus interface card in an early 2009 MacPro.Mar-31-10
Check the serial number on the bottom of the Qio. If it starts with A, contact Sonnet support for more information.
 
514 My unibody MacBook Pro will spontaneously restart after shutdown with Qio attached.Mar-31-10
516 What kind of battery can I use with the Qio?Apr-08-10
527 Why does my Maci take so long to boot when the Qio is attached? Jul-31-13
528 Why can't a Mac Pro acknowledge the Qio if it is plugged in after the Mac is booted? Sep-13-13
536 With a Qio connected, my Mac Pro kernel panics when I shut down after using Avid Media Composer.Jul-31-13
547 I'm getting a OS X kernel panic when I remove an SxS card from the Qio connected to a tower Mac Pro that also has a video capture card installed.Oct-31-14
If you have a Mac Pro model 1,1, put the video capture card (such as AJA Kona or Black Magic DeckLink card) in Mac Pro PCIe slot 3 and the Qio bus interface card in PCIe slot 2 to fix this issue. If you have a different model of Mac Pro, the problem occurs only in one of Qio's SxS slots, so use only the other SxS slot. Sonnet and Sony are working to address this issue.
 
563 I'm getting a long blue screen when I boot a Mac with Qio installed.Sep-13-13
Reinstall the Qio software.
 
566 I upgraded to 10.6.8 and my system no longer boots.Sep-26-11
If you have Qio 1.0.5 software installed and you upgrade to 10.6.8 you will no longer be able to boot. Sonnet strongly recommends that you install Qio 1.1 software before upgrading to 10.6.8 or 10.7. If you have installed 10.6.8 prior to installing Qio 1.0.6 or 1.1 software and are not able to boot, you can recover with the following steps:

1) Boot Mac OS X from an external drive or DVD.
2) In the Finder, remove the spaces from the name of your system disk that won't boot. For example, rename Macintosh HD to MacintoshHD. (If your system disk has another name use that name in place of MacintoshHD in the next two steps.)
2) Launch Terminal and type:
sudo rm -r /Volumes/MacintoshHD/System/Library/Extensions/STPCIFamily.kext
3) Type:
sudo cp -r "/Volumes/MacintoshHD/Library/Application Support/QIO/IOPCIFamily.kext" /Volumes/MacintoshHD/System/Library/Extensions (typed all on one line)
4) Type:
sudo touch /Volumes/MacintoshHD/System/Library/Extensions
5) Restart
6) Install Qio 1.1 or greater
7) Restart
 
576 What version of OS X do I need to use Qio with MacBook Pro?Aug-20-14
581 Is Qio Compatible with 17" Thunderbolt MacBook Pro?Sep-13-13
632 Is Qio compatible with Echo ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adapter?Jul-31-13
Yes, but it requires the Sonnet PCIe Bus Extender ExpressCard/34 Revision B (serial number beginning with B), which began shipping December 2011; or the Sonnet PCIe 2.0 Bus Extender ExpressCard/34.
 
633 Is Qio compatible with the Matrox T/ADP Thunderbolt Port Adapter?Feb-28-12
639 Is the Qio PCIe 2.0 Bus Extender card compatible in all slots of the Mac Pro 5,1?May-06-13
No, the Qio PCIe 2.0 Bus Extender card does not work in the x16 slot (slot 2) in the Mac Pro 5,1. Use slot 3 or 4 instead.
 
646 How can I read UDF Formatted SxS cards?Aug-11-17
648 Why is the Panasonic OS X P2 driver not compatible with 64-bit mode, while the Sony SxS driver, CF driver and SATA drivers are compatible with 64-bit mode?Oct-31-14
651 Do Qio and Qio CF4 support UDMA 7 CompactFlash cards?May-06-13
Yes, Qio and Qio CF4 support UDMA 7 CompactFlash cards in UDMA 6 mode.

Background: CompactFlash Revision 6.0 (November 2010) added UltraDMA Mode 7 (167 MB/s), which is up to 20% faster than UDMA 6 (133MB/sec). All UDMA 7 CompactFlash cards are compatible with UDMA 6 cameras and readers.

The Qio's CompactFlash slots can be read concurrently. The Qio can read the fastest CF cards at up to 133MB/s each and a total aggregate of 200MB/s (two cards).

The Qio CF4 can read all four CompactFlash slots concurrently. When connected to a desktop machine, the maximum aggregate read speed is 133MB/sec (one card), 266MB/sec (two cards), 400MB/sec (three or four cards).
 
653 I connected a Red Station media reader to the eSATA ports, but the media would not mount. How do I mount the media?May-06-13
678 Is the Qio compatible with OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks)?Oct-31-14
693 My computer kernel panics after updating OS X to 10.8.2. What can I do to fix it? (Qio/Qio CF4/Qio E3 issue)Nov-06-12
713 My Qio Does Not Recognize My SD-to-SxS AdapterMay-07-13
730 I have a Retina MacBook Pro (or other Mac introduced in 2012), and my machine won't boot after installing Qio software.Dec-06-12
Boot in safe mode. In Terminal, type: sudo nvram boot-args="dart=0x0" and restart. You can undo this later with the command sudo nvram -d boot-args .
 
757 My Stardom RAIDSonic ST3620-2S-S2 is not reliable with 6Gb drives and and a 6Gb controller.Jul-08-13
1135 Can I format an SxS card in UDF format in macOS?Jan-20-21
Yes, but you must use Terminal.
1) Open Terminal

2) Run
diskutil list
to get the name of the disk. It will be something like "disk4". Ejectable media are typically the last in the list.

3) Run
newfs_udf -v "My Volume Name" disk4
if disk4 was the correct one. The volume name is anything you want of course.

4) Unplug and replug the SxS card
(Due to somebody's bug, the disk will only mount after being ejected.)

5) You can run
newfs_udf
without any parameters to see other parameters that can be set.

The process can be automated somewhat by writing a bash script, which can be looked up on the internet.