I think I can use an ssd in my old cheesegrater

[mightyduck]

I recently pulled my old Mac Pro 3Ghz out of storage to set up my Pro Tools HD System. The boot drive was unhappy and I was unable to repair it using Disk Utility or Disk Warrior. It won't boot into Single User Mode to run fsck.

Disk Warrior was talking about "disk malfunction".

I did manage to back up pretty much everything on the disk from the Disk Warrior Preview. I just copied stuff from that drive onto a couple of the other ones in the computer.

I was going buy another 7200 RPM drive, but they didn't have the right size, so I bought an SSD drive and a little adapter tray.

I started to try to reformat the old drive and try to use it again, but I canceled the operation. I think I might just leave it alone in case there is something important that didn't get backed up, and that can be rescued by someone with more tools.

So I think the SSD drive will work and I just have to format it, install the OS, and copy the files onto it that I backed up from the old drive. I guess I should copy everything but the system? Right?

Am I missing anything? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.



Best,

mightyduck

[JFreak]

You should do a clean install of the operating system, install all applications and plugins, and only copy the files you are missing. DO NOT use migration assassin in any circumstance!

[Darryl Ramm]

More info would help. What exact model Mac Pro? Model number or even better EMC code. What exact OS are you running/upgrading to (affects what drives are supported and recommendations for trim settings).

What "SSD" are you thinking of, SATA? PCIe?

You can always connect a SATA SSD.

The limitation is the original Cheese graters only have SATA II (3Gb/sec) drive connections on the motherboard, still the SSD is going to be much faster than a HDD for random IO.

You can add a SATA III controller card in any of the PCIe slots and route a SATA connection to a SATA III drive, especially if say replacing the optical drive.

You can get SATA III controller cards that have space on board to mount a SATA SSD.

But.. if I was really updating this computer to use I would look at moving to PCIe/NVMe M.2 SSDs mounted on a PCIe adapter card. Much faster than SATA and at very compelling prices... seems bad to spend ~same on SATA.

If your computer can be updated to run Mojave then that supports booting off NVMe, and what I would aim for. Older cheese graters may need their boot prom upgraded to enable this. All well documented all over the Web.

And the old Cheese graters only have PCIe2 slots. So I'd be looking at adapter cards that allows the PCIe 2 lanes to give PCIe3 speed. Like the I/O Crest (SYBA SI-PEX40129) adapter. Lots of threads about that here and on the Web. See pasts threads like ... http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=405618

---

And sure if this is just a quick recover to say test stuff on or recover old sessions from etc. Then just using a SATA SSD connected to the motherboard controllers is still a nice idea, OS installs will be faster, the systems should overall appear faster even with just SATA II etc. I'd be looking at the Samsung 860 Evo. But lots of other good choices, and some probably bad ones as well, out there as well.

[mightyduck]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

More info would help. What exact model Mac Pro? Model number or even better EMC code. What exact OS are you running/upgrading to (affects what drives are supported and recommendations for trim settings).

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/m...008-specs.html

What "SSD" are you thinking of, SATA? PCIe?

You can always connect a SATA SSD.

SATA

The limitation is the original Cheese graters only have SATA II (3Gb/sec) drive connections on the motherboard, still the SSD is going to be much faster than a HDD for random IO.

You can add a SATA III controller card in any of the PCIe slots and route a SATA connection to a SATA III drive, especially if say replacing the optical drive.

You can get SATA III controller cards that have space on board to mount a SATA SSD.

But.. if I was really updating this computer to use I would look at moving to PCIe/NVMe M.2 SSDs mounted on a PCIe adapter card. Much faster than SATA and at very compelling prices... seems bad to spend ~same on SATA.

If your computer can be updated to run Mojave then that supports booting off NVMe, and what I would aim for. Older cheese graters may need their boot prom upgraded to enable this. All well documented all over the Web.

And the old Cheese graters only have PCIe2 slots. So I'd be looking at adapter cards that allows the PCIe 2 lanes to give PCIe3 speed. Like the I/O Crest (SYBA SI-PEX40129) adapter. Lots of threads about that here and on the Web. See pasts threads like ... http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=405618

probably not looking to upgrade right now. just want to get it running for my Pro Tools HD rig. Thanks for the info, though. Interesting idea, maybe it could be useful to run current PT.

---

And sure if this is just a quick recover to say test stuff on or recover old sessions from etc. Then just using a SATA SSD connected to the motherboard controllers is still a nice idea, OS installs will be faster, the systems should overall appear faster even with just SATA II etc. I'd be looking at the Samsung 860 Evo. But lots of other good choices, and some probably bad ones as well, out there as well.

I bought the Samsung 860 EVO.



Best,

mightduck

[Darryl Ramm]

Yep. Those upgrades are not an option if you want to keep running HD/TDM rigs.

What OS X are you running? ... for enabling trim on that SSD.

[mightyduck]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Yep. Those upgrades are not an option if you want to keep running HD/TDM rigs.

What OS X are you running? ... for enabling trim on that SSD.

The OS on the install disk is 10.4.7, and the drive that crapped out had 10.4.9 on it. Not quite sure how I’m going to get it back to 10.4.9 since the Internet where I have the computer is unbelievably slow. I’m also pretty clueless as to where in storage the original install discs for the ProTools app are(I think it’s 7.3.) So I hope that the ones on the back up will work if I just copy them back onto the drive. One way to find out, I guess.
ou
Not sure I understand about enabling trim on SSD.

Best,

mightyduck

[mightyduck]

Originally Posted by JFreak

You should do a clean install of the operating system, install all applications and plugins, and only copy the files you are missing. DO NOT use migration assassin in any circumstance!

Good advice, I'm sure. So, I’m gonna do a clean install of the OS obviously. Then I think I’m just gonna copy stuff back over in and hope stuff works. I might get lucky.. If not, then I’ll Have to hunt down all the install discs for the gazillion apps I have on there. Oh. boy.


Best,

mightyduck

[mightyduck]

Well I mounted the little SSD disk into the little tray they sold me with it at Best Buy. And I removed the much larger tray from bay 1 of the computer.

I am clueless as to how to install the little SSD tray into the computer bay. There are also a whole bunch more connections on the mechanical drive than on the SSD. Not sure how all this works.

Anyone?

I think they sold me the wrong adapter. Its an Insignia that they salesman said would work for the model computer I have, but he appears to have been mistaken.

https://www.insigniaproducts.com/pdp/NS-PCSSDM7/5516000


Best,

mightyduck

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by mightyduck

Well I mounted the little SSD disk into the little tray they sold me with it at Best Buy. And I removed the much larger tray from bay 1 of the computer.

I am clueless as to how to install the little SSD tray into the computer bay. There are also a whole bunch more connections on the mechanical drive than on the SSD. Not sure how all this works.

Anyone?

I think they sold me the wrong adapter. Its an Insignia that they salesman said would work for the model computer I have, but he appears to have been mistaken.

https://www.insigniaproducts.com/pdp/NS-PCSSDM7/5516000


Best,

mightyduck

You need the correct adapter for the old Mac Pro. The clueless twits at Best Buy sold you a genetic 3.5" to 2.5" adapter tray that will not work, not designed to make any connectors line up, designed for a PC with a connector cable. Don't shop at Best Buy for this stuff. Here is a good choice: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MMP35T25

The connectors that matter are all standard SATA, the correct drive tray will line them up.

[Darryl Ramm]

For stuff as old as Tiger. No need to worry about trying to enable TRIM, just connect up the SSD and install OS X on it and get going.

I would spend some time trying to find old install media instead of hoping you can just overwrite stuff. Maybe look on EBay, etc.

And once you have everything working again get backups/clones going so you don't have to do this again.