" Barracuda 7200.9 report (update)
I have been told by Seagate that firmware prior to 3.AAH does not work properly in Macs. This is the cause of the 90 second delay when waking from sleep. Seagate had me return the drive under warranty for replacement with a drive containing the latest firmware.
-Will "

I asked Will if Seagate said that the spinup/ready delay was what they meant by "not working properly" (i.e. That delay specifically - and nothing else?)
A similar spinup/ready delay after waking from sleep was reported by a Maxtor (500GB IIRC) owner also a month or so ago. I also found similar problems mentioned by an Intel CPU iMac owner with a WD Raptor 150GB. (That's one of the drive models that a Western Digital tech note lists as not compatible with G5 Macs onboard SATA.)
Update - here's Will's reply to my earlier question:

"(did they say exactly what they meant by "not working properly"?)
They simply said that it was fixed with the latest firmware revision.

(Did you see any other problems with the drive other than the (90 sec. delay to ready) on wake from sleep?-Mike)
The drive worked very well for me other than the issue waking up. They did not say if there were other fixes in the revision.
The firmware update that they sent me was 3.AAH. I was unable to perform the update so I can't confirm that it fixes the problem. (I assume it was a PC only utility)
Yes, they sent me a PC update. In fact, it is an MS-DOS update utility that must be run from a floppy. Also, the update is "married" to the drive serial number and cannot be used on another drive. The update process is the most hack-like update process I have ever seen.
I did everything needed: tracked down a PC with a floppy and SATA controller, made the boot floppy, and unplugged all drives. When I ran the utility, it never saw the drive. (the boot floppy drivers didn't support the PCI SATA card used) Needless to say, a time-consuming and frustrating process.

The easy way to tell if it is the same problem is to look in the system.log file using Console. After waking, the log will show the following repeated about every 11 seconds until the drive responds:

kernel[0]: IOATAController device blocking bus.

-Will "

That error message rings a bell from the past, but I can't remember the drive/model specifics now...
Originally 7200.9 drives had SSC (Spread Spectrum Clocking) enabled and would not work (at all) with onboard SATA in Macs. Seagate has a PC utility to toggle SSC on the drives, but no mac version.

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"AMUG has just posted an article on the Addonics 5X1 eSATA Port Multiplier (AD5SAPM-E). The Addonics 5X1 eSATA Port Multiplier is a board that allows compatible enclosures to be upgraded to support port multiplier capability. With a SATA 5X1 PM up to five hard drives can be mounted via a single host adapter port.

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Best Regards,
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TEAM AMUG"

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