Apparently to install an SSD into my Mac Pro 2010 all I need is a sled and an SSD drive.
I'm looking at OWC's Mount Pro 2.5" Drive Sled and a Crucial 2TB Drive https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YD5F561/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
Am I leaving anything out or is this a simple swap?
Mac Pro, macOS 10.14
That is actually more complicated. You can put a bare drive in bay 1 and put a block of wood on top of the PCI fan, and that will work with no sled.
The MountPro is a good solution for any bay for 2010-2012, but NOT for 2006 - 2008. It has the screws placed for the 2.5-in form factor SSD-in-a-can drives.
NOT a simple swap. You need the Recovery_HD on the old drive to help you get a fresh MacOS on the new Drive. Or a running MacOS on the old drive to clone it or restore from a backup Drive.
That is actually more complicated. You can put a bare drive in bay 1 and put a block of wood on top of the PCI fan, and that will work with no sled.
The MountPro is a good solution for any bay for 2010-2012, but NOT for 2006 - 2008. It has the screws placed for the 2.5-in form factor SSD-in-a-can drives.
NOT a simple swap. You need the Recovery_HD on the old drive to help you get a fresh MacOS on the new Drive. Or a running MacOS on the old drive to clone it or restore from a backup Drive.
Very helpful. I have all my drive bays filled. I'm a bit compulsive about backups so I have 2 clones in there as well as my main drive. From your post it seems like i can merely swap out one of the drives and clone the SSD using, say SuperDuper, and then be on my way. Does this sound reasonable?
Especially in more recent versions of MacOS, I am always fearful that cloning will fail to reproduce some of the wrapper-files and fru-fru needed for proper disk structure. This fear is not based on bad experiences, it's just the way I approach it.
So I always install MacOS from scratch, and add my files to it. Since this is a common debugging technique in case of mysterious issues with MacOS, it seems like a good thing to do in general. It gives an uncluttered environment at first run.
It's great that you are serious about backups. But with all drives inside the MacPro chassis, you are sharing one component that could take out everything -- The Mac Pro power supply. Next time you upgrade a drive, consider making one of your backup drives a stand-alone external drive.
I do have an external drive that also does backups which is used for Time machine. Having once almost lost everything I realized that not having a backup is the equivalent of having a fire destroy your office, your correspondence, books, memories, photos, financial info and more.
I'm going to go ahead with your advice and thank you for your help.
SSD for Mac Pro 2010
