jerrila
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: trying to replace secondary hdd with 3 tb hdd. computer will not boot.

One of the secondary hard drives in my early 2008 Mac Pro was filled, so I tried to install a new, larger hard drive. I installled the new hard drive in an empty bay, and tried to start. All I get is beeps. The computer will not boot, although I have not touched the primary hard drive with the system on board. As soon as I remove the new drive, all is well. Do I need special software? I know that Windows has trouble with such large drives, but I didn't know that Mountain Lion did.

Posted on Apr 9, 2013 6:08 AM

by jerrila,Solvedanswer
jerrila jerrila
Level 1 (0 points)
A:

>.......So I called MacMall. Over the years, I have purchased similar items from them or their alter ego PC Mall. Never had a problem before. Told them of my experience, and they forwarded me to "Service." What a misnomer. I am not an expert, but I have been playing with personal computers before this young man was born, before there were hard drives, before there was a mouse (except in my basement), before -oh, you get the idea. How I hate to be talked down to by some Acne carrier fresh out of high school who thinks he knows it all.

 

He tell me that my computer will only read a maximum of 3 TB from internal Hard Drives. All of my research says that Windows can't read a hard drive over 2 TB, and offers solutions; but Macs don't have that problem - or do they? I think that he looked at the MAC instructions that said "YOUR mac Pro can accommodate up t four SATA or SAS 3 Gb/s hard drives..." That refers to 3 GB/Second I/O, not 3 TB total.

 

As it turns out, this Mac Pro is so easy to do such things. By removing all of the drives and trying to clean install on the 3 TB drive, I finally convinced them that the drive is defective. Somewhere deep in the marble halls of MacMall there is an executive with a heart. He is going to send me my new drive and accept the old one back.

 

Now, is there anyone out there who knows definitively whether my late 2008 Mac Pro can read more than 3 TB of internal hard drives? By the way, he told me that external drives don't count. I can find no reference to the limit except as it applies to Windows and PC's.

 

Thanks to all you guys so willing to help. It's really appreciated. It's a shame you people don't design the computers; we would have less problems to discuss. This solved my problem, and I consider the case closed.

Posted on Apr 9, 2013 12:16 PM

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jerrila

Q: trying to replace secondary hdd with 3 tb hdd. computer will not boot.

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  • Helpful answers

  • by The hatter,Helpful

    The hatter The hatter Apr 9, 2013 6:17 AM in response to jerrila
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Apr 9, 2013 6:17 AM in response to jerrila

    have you ever inserted or removed a drive while the system is running?

     

    can you boot using Option key and select Recovery? you can use DU from there.

     

    What if you remove the other non system drives and try?

     

    which drive bay is this?

     

    Where was it bought? some are damaged in shipping even from handling.

     

    Some, rarely, are pre formatted.

     

    4TB drives are fine and even Windows is fine with 3TB  and drive is not system drive and Windows can format as GPT as well. So really Windows is not prevented from, except as 3TB boot volume.

     

    How full is full for the drive you are replacing? full is 80% used in most cases. Did you remove that drive as well?

  • by jerrila,

    jerrila jerrila Apr 9, 2013 6:53 AM in response to The hatter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2013 6:53 AM in response to The hatter

    I was able to poer up the drive as an external and bring up DU. It shows as only 4.14 GB. It says it is not formatted, but I cannot format, erase, partition or anyhting. It keeps telling me that it can't write to the last part of the drive. I strongly suspect a damaged drive.  Since it came from MacMall, I will get with them and go from there.

     

    Thanks for your help.

  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Apr 9, 2013 7:03 AM in response to jerrila
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Apr 9, 2013 7:03 AM in response to jerrila

    You never mentioned, many 3TB drives are not your 7.2K variety. Many are Green. Nor did you include the make/model of this drive. Those for others and reference and to help you, also are "of interest."

     

    Some external cases - depending on age etc were not ready for drives larger than 2.2TB. So they may have a firmware update for  the case. One reason I use OtherWorld cases and avoid the likes of others. (WD has 4TB external but guess what, it is two drives in JBOD or RAID0)

     

    I suspect you want WD Black (they do have $300 enterprise 5 yr 7.2K 4TB) Some or most cheaper 3TB are 5900 or 5400 rpm and have constant need to spin up from their self imposed spin down behavior.

     

    I would still try Recovery Mode, sounds like you didn't try that with just the boot drive. Or even your 10.6.x DVD

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Apr 9, 2013 8:13 AM in response to jerrila
    Level 9 (61,390 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 9, 2013 8:13 AM in response to jerrila

    A drive that does not report BOTH its Make&Model and a reasonable size/capacity to System Profiler and Disk Utility cannot be repaired or initialized by any software.

     

    If its cabling is intact, it has died.

  • by jerrila,Solvedanswer

    jerrila jerrila Apr 9, 2013 12:16 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2013 12:16 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    >.......So I called MacMall. Over the years, I have purchased similar items from them or their alter ego PC Mall. Never had a problem before. Told them of my experience, and they forwarded me to "Service." What a misnomer. I am not an expert, but I have been playing with personal computers before this young man was born, before there were hard drives, before there was a mouse (except in my basement), before -oh, you get the idea. How I hate to be talked down to by some Acne carrier fresh out of high school who thinks he knows it all.

     

    He tell me that my computer will only read a maximum of 3 TB from internal Hard Drives. All of my research says that Windows can't read a hard drive over 2 TB, and offers solutions; but Macs don't have that problem - or do they? I think that he looked at the MAC instructions that said "YOUR mac Pro can accommodate up t four SATA or SAS 3 Gb/s hard drives..." That refers to 3 GB/Second I/O, not 3 TB total.

     

    As it turns out, this Mac Pro is so easy to do such things. By removing all of the drives and trying to clean install on the 3 TB drive, I finally convinced them that the drive is defective. Somewhere deep in the marble halls of MacMall there is an executive with a heart. He is going to send me my new drive and accept the old one back.

     

    Now, is there anyone out there who knows definitively whether my late 2008 Mac Pro can read more than 3 TB of internal hard drives? By the way, he told me that external drives don't count. I can find no reference to the limit except as it applies to Windows and PC's.

     

    Thanks to all you guys so willing to help. It's really appreciated. It's a shame you people don't design the computers; we would have less problems to discuss. This solved my problem, and I consider the case closed.

  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Apr 9, 2013 12:26 PM in response to jerrila
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Apr 9, 2013 12:26 PM in response to jerrila

    Yes,

     

    Apple fails to update their docs and specs when there are new drives and changes.

     

    All such then are to be taken with grain of salt or just ignored.

     

    GPT has been part of Mac since 10.4.6 (earlier but with Intel Macs it got more real world use and testing).

     

    There ain't no size limit. Not on my 1,1 2006. Not on yours.

     

    Did I fail to say that 4TB drives are being used?

     

    Apple's POS "Pro RAID" hardware controller is the ONLY device that limits drives to 2.2TB.

    You don't have that $799 or $999 unprofessional excuse for a RAID card.

    And even when you use it you get 800GB.

     

    And did you get a less than 7.2k drive? was this one green WD or such? 

     

    Oxford firewire + USB + eSATA 'bridge" used in external drives did have trouble. Go look at Sept 2009 with the rollout of 10.6 and issues with "my external drive no longer works" type threads.

     

    If we went by Apple specs my mac is limited to 4x500GB but ONLY because 500GB was the largest drive at the time. And was never updated to take into account new drives.

     

    The same with how much RAM can be used and upgraded. Spec: 16GB, reality: 32GB (2006)

     

    I would switch to OWC and Sonnet Tech and others, and I now buy on Amazon first if they have it (free shipping for 2nd day).

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Apr 9, 2013 12:54 PM in response to jerrila
    Level 9 (61,390 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 9, 2013 12:54 PM in response to jerrila

    According to this article, the maximum size of an Internal Hard Drive in MacOS X 10.4 and later is...

     

    ... just over 8 Million Terabytes:

     

    HT2422- Mac OS X: Mac OS Extended format (HFS Plus) volume and file limits