mdsalemi
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Can I move an SSD Boot Drive from a Mac Pro 1,1 to a newer 5,1?

I have a MacPro 1,1 (2 x dual core Xeon, 3.0 GHZ) with 8GB RAM and updated with an ATI 5770 video card, driving a 27" Cinema display; I'm running OSX 10.7.5. There's an SSD boot/OS/App drive, and the data is on a secondary hard drive with backup to the data on an identical third drive. Because it's time to update (I've had this flawless machine for nearly 4 years but need one with 64-bit capability) I've arranged to buy a 2010 Mac Pro 5,1, also with a 5770 card. I don't need the hard drives that are in that "new" one. I would like to just swap the three drives I have in the old one, and put them in the new box. Will I encounter any problems?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Oct 6, 2014 8:10 AM

by The hatter,Solvedanswer
The hatter The hatter
Level 9 (60,935 points)
A:

You should be fine. I would be worried about carry any extra baggage in your system even now.

 

Grab etrecheck and see what it points to and brings up.

 

An old trick was to just run the full combo update again.

 

Setup Assistant / Migration Assistant make transferring a system easier, and CCC 4 is now Mavericks and requires 10.8.5+ There are changes in 10.10 Yosemite that affect CCC and other programs and need more testing.

 

As long as everything works now on Lion that means you are not using anything that required Rosetta so should be fine.

 

The 5,1 is not just 64-bit kernel support, it has much better PCIe support 2.1+ and supports more PCIe cards as well as booting an SSD - which you might want to play with when you can afford to, as well as more memory.

Posted on Oct 6, 2014 8:41 AM

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mdsalemi

Q: Can I move an SSD Boot Drive from a Mac Pro 1,1 to a newer 5,1?

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  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Oct 8, 2014 9:52 AM in response to mdsalemi
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Oct 8, 2014 9:52 AM in response to mdsalemi

    I am just talking the setting in that control panel.

     

    Can't hurt to remove (slide half way out) all the other drives.

     

    Sometimes SSDs are so fast but take little power the system doesn't recognize it.

     

    What make SSD is this again? refresh my memory.

     

    And do boot from an alternate drive, run DU Repair Disk - do that first. Unless you did do that already.

     

    I agree, to knowing why the added time. For me, it was a USB keyboard it seemed

     

    SMC Reset is easy to google and find - unplug and hit power and then reconnect your kb/mouse and power is all.

  • by mdsalemi,

    mdsalemi mdsalemi Oct 8, 2014 12:28 PM in response to The hatter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 8, 2014 12:28 PM in response to The hatter

    The SSD is a 3G OWC Mercury from our friends at MacSales. 240GB.

  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Oct 8, 2014 12:42 PM in response to mdsalemi
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Oct 8, 2014 12:42 PM in response to mdsalemi

    Okay so my choice after 2010 when I was using older 3G models has been to use Samsung 840 and 840 EVO all of which are SATA III and which work much faster and better than older SATA II units. In booting, in opening apps etc.

     

    I would not tell if you were waiting and had a dozen apps set to open and windows - for me that added 10 seconds (20 - 25 seconds total) except for iPhoto which is a dog resources and hogs system so I try to open it manually after everything else is ready (takes 10 seconds all on its lonesome).

     

    Meaning if you are asking of your SSD to do all that - and opening photoshop or something --- it is all in the details -- in making an informed guess.

     

    I use older 'extra' SSDs for data, for iPhoto library (helps to have it on its own device by a huge margin)

     

    With prices on 500GB Samsung lately I have been on a buying spree, too.

     

    Putting a $99 PCIe SSD in for data purposes, and/or upgrade the system SSD down the road....

     

    But I was measuring from the bong to desktop - without opening apps (and what apps like Safari and Chrome and ____ ? and Chrome can play mischief and trouble still with Mac OS X)

  • by mdsalemi,

    mdsalemi mdsalemi Oct 10, 2014 5:24 AM in response to The hatter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 10, 2014 5:24 AM in response to The hatter

    OK, we are back in business. Boot up from cold, power off on the new 5,1 box is back to the 35 seconds precisely, that I had on the 1,1 box. (recall from previous post that it had jumped to 65 seconds)

     

    The puzzle to me was that everything was the same; the same set of three drives simply moved from one box to another.

     

    I wisely took Hatter's advise, and did two things after the 65 second boot up was consistent: first, I re-selected the boot drive as the boot drive. Yes, seems silly and redundant, but I did it anyway. I did this by selecting the Apple; System Preferences; System; Startup Disk. This did a reboot. The second thing I did was to reset the SMC from these Apple Support instructions:

     

    Resetting the SMC for Mac Pro, Intel-based iMac, Intel-based Mac mini, or Intel-based Xserve

    1. Shut down the computer.
    2. Unplug the computer's power cord.
    3. Wait fifteen seconds.
    4. Attach the computer's power cord.
    5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

    Once I did these two tasks, on the next and subsequent reboots, the time had dropped from 66 to 35 seconds.

     

    Anyone contemplating moving a set of disks from one MacPro to another would benefit from the discussion here. I did it successfully. There were no issues per se, everything worked, but a little fine-tuning was required in order to restore the former performance. Also, don't forget that certain software, such as Adobe products, Quark, and other costly, licensed software will require you to re-enter the software's license number. This is a serious warning, as a lot of second-hand "re-homed" MacPros are running with such costly software leftover from a previous owner, and the original install disks and serial number are not available to you. So if you have any costly software that you didn't purchase, but inherited so to speak, and you move your disks to another Mac, you might be in for a surprise.

     

    Very happy that all is well.

  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Oct 10, 2014 7:27 AM in response to mdsalemi
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Oct 10, 2014 7:27 AM in response to mdsalemi

    Step 2B: Hit power button.

     

    Old feature from back G4 MDD days 2011 helps insure

     

    Why does these things help?

     

    Rebuilds a clean list of all the devices and settings, the path to the boot volume.

     

    After doing an SMC or NVRAM reset (zap PRAM - cold boot acted slightly different than from restart btw) - you must go back to the Startup Disk Control Panel again to set the boot device.

     

    Even if a drive is not the boot device, even lacks a system, the system does hunt for all devices for eligible systems - and a corrupt directory on any will have adverse effect.

     

    You are back and smooth sailing.

  • by mdsalemi,

    mdsalemi mdsalemi Oct 10, 2014 7:50 AM in response to The hatter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 10, 2014 7:50 AM in response to The hatter

    When I bought the MacPro 5,1 on Tuesday, the owner kept (thus removing) a fiber-channel network card that he needed and I did not. I wonder if the original SMC was looking for that card during the boot up process? Once I reset the SMC, of course, the OS and SMC realized that there is no fc card…nonetheless good stuff learned here!

  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Oct 10, 2014 8:16 AM in response to mdsalemi
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Oct 10, 2014 8:16 AM in response to mdsalemi

    Any hardware change so yes a FC controller being removed would make sense.

     

    Funny how but threads can often get to why at the end but generally not from initial descriptions of symptoms and behavior.

     

    NVRAM can or at least use to often with the G5s get lost and corrupted. Remove an SATA drive and the entry for the old one was still there even if it was replaced with a new and different SATA drive. Leading people to think, "oh, the new drive is not compatible with PowerMac G5s" It was just IBM's implementation of the OpenFirmware and NVRAM basically.

     

    The Intel mac pro is generally not that fussy  or trouble, but PCIe cards being added and removed - I felt it was good idea to always then clear and reset, having seen side effects so often.

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