Installing a Fifth SATA Hard Drive in a Mac Pro

slugheadslughead
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Installing a Fifth SATA Hard Drive in a Mac Pro



Sorry I can't repost it, I put a crapload of pictures in there for instructional purposes and I'd have to redo the formatting to repost here.



basically it's not as easy as you think



I just updated it to make it a bit simpler

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    The "floating drive method" and a little duct tape would have been way easier.



  • Reply 2 of 15
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    This just proves that no matter how many bays/slots/DIMM slots/USB ports/FireWire ports Apple puts in, someone will always complain that it isn't enough. Or in the case of PCI slots, no matter how configurable Apple makes them, they won't be configurable enough.



    Now they need to add another optical drive bay!
  • Reply 3 of 15
    aquamacaquamac Posts: 585member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by slughead


    http://www.tenthousandpercent.com/in...&section=other



    Sorry I can't repost it, I put a crapload of pictures in there for instructional purposes and I'd have to redo the formatting to repost here.

    basically it's not as easy as you think

    I just updated it to make it a bit simpler



    Why not get an eSATA PCIe card and use an eSATA drive enclosure?



    Just an Idea....
  • Reply 4 of 15
    eckingecking Posts: 1,588member
    What an enterprising bastard. lol
  • Reply 5 of 15
    slugheadslughead Posts: 1,169member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AquaMac


    Why not get an eSATA PCIe card and use an eSATA drive enclosure?



    Just an Idea....



    $80 for the card, $50 for the enclosure



    While normally I'd agree, it's just not worth it for 1 more drive



    And for the record, I never complained about the lack of hard drive bays in the Mac Pro.. I didn't think the two in the G5 were enough
  • Reply 6 of 15
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    I have a couple pair of those drive brackets in my Compaq workstation. Based on the manual, that was the intended idea if you wanted five hard drives in the thing.



    I just went spelunking in my machine to see what it was like. I don't think it's that hard, but my perspective is a little different. I might just drop in an ATA drive though.
  • Reply 7 of 15
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Man, and Apple thought four would be the final answer.
  • Reply 8 of 15
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    I just did this operation myself. The Seagate retail package + separate mount adapters were all that was necessary to install it. I didn't need to consider breaking the cable end, the end cap was short enough.



    http://www.flickr.com/photos/34962649@N00/339981153/
  • Reply 9 of 15
    jvbjvb Posts: 210member
    I'm just overly curious on this one, but what exactly do you need a 5th hdd for? What's on the others?
  • Reply 10 of 15
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jvb View Post


    I'm just overly curious on this one, but what exactly do you need a 5th hdd for? What's on the others?



    For me, video edit work, pictures and HD recordings. plus it serves and stores all the documents that I use for my job too. A single HD movie recorded by eyeTV takes 10-20GB. I also keep the installers for all the software and drivers I use, and a few previous versions in case the newest version turns out to cause trouble with something.



    I could have just replaced the existing drives, two of them are only 250GB, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet.
  • Reply 11 of 15
    jvbjvb Posts: 210member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    For me, video edit work, pictures and HD recordings. plus it serves and stores all the documents that I use for my job too. A single HD movie recorded by eyeTV takes 10-20GB. I also keep the installers for all the software and drivers I use, and a few previous versions in case the newest version turns out to cause trouble with something.



    I could have just replaced the existing drives, two of them are only 250GB, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet.



    I sure am not jealous of you! Although I'm unsure why you wouldn't upgrade the previous drives to larger capacities before fooling around with this seemingly more complex 5th hdd addition? But I'm only speculating, I have no clue.
  • Reply 12 of 15
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jvb View Post


    I sure am not jealous of you! Although I'm unsure why you wouldn't upgrade the previous drives to larger capacities before fooling around with this seemingly more complex 5th hdd addition? But I'm only speculating, I have no clue.



    I don't think it's that complex of an addition. It would have been easier if the fifth was just an ATA drive because that bay has an ATA connector, but it was the SATA version on sale ($70 less), and that lets me eventually put it in a regular drive bay eventually if I so desire.



    I'm just trying to do what seems like the most sensible next step. The other drives are in two stripe pairs, so I would want to buy two drives to upgrade them. Also, displacing drives rather than adding means not having as big of an upgrade. I'm not sure what I would do with the displaced drives either, maybe by a dual drive eSATA enclosure for backups. But that route would have been pretty expensive because that's buying two drives and an external enclosure vs. just adding a single large drive.
  • Reply 13 of 15
    slugheadslughead Posts: 1,169member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jvb View Post


    I'm just overly curious on this one, but what exactly do you need a 5th hdd for? What's on the others?





    1. Boot Drive (80GB 10,000RPM)

    2. Bootcamp Drive (250GB 7200RPM - stock model)

    3. User Folder (500GB 7200RPM)

    4. RAID-0 part 1/2 (300GB 7200 RPM)

    5. RAID-0 part 2/2 (300GB 7200 RPM)



    I'm getting another 500GB this week which I'll pair with the aforementioned 500 to create a 1TB RAID-0.



    The two 300GB's will go external (39inch SATA + extended molex), and I'm going to add another optical drive.



    So yeah, no more 5th internal HD



    An issue I have is that the 'startup disk' control panel in XP (under bootcamp) doesn't detect drives on the extra SATA busses. Only the 4 normal drives are detected. With my bootdisk on the undetected bus, I can't switch back to OS X without holding down 'option' while booting. I could just swap the drive, but then newegg.com was having a sale on 500GB SATA's, and I'm out of room, so I had to buy one



    I do a lot of video editing and I have a very large music collection which I rip in extremely high-fidelity formats. I also require a whole drive dedicated to bootcamp.
  • Reply 14 of 15
    jvbjvb Posts: 210member
    I like your decision to move the 300 gig drives external. It isn't necessary to keep them all internal and it might help keep your case temperatures down a bit. Hope it works out!
  • Reply 15 of 15
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jvb View Post


    I like your decision to move the 300 gig drives external. It isn't necessary to keep them all internal and it might help keep your case temperatures down a bit. Hope it works out!



    How would it make a difference in case temperature? The drives don't consume that much power, and the drives have good air flow, the "fifth" drive has the best air flow. A good drive enclosure costs money and requires another power socket and couple more cables to deal with too.
Sign In or Register to comment.