External storage for early 08 mac pro for video storage and editing

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Level 1

4 points

External storage for early 08 mac pro for video storage and editing

Early 08 Mac Pro mod 3.1, 2x Intel 2.8 Quad Core Processors. Bus speed 1.6 Ghz. 10 GB DDR2 FB-Dimm 800 MHz. USB2, Firewire 400, 800. ATI Radeon HD 2600 PCIe 256 mbVRAM. Currently running OS 10.6.8.

I use machine for photo and video storage and editing. I tried using 2x 3TB and 2x1TB HDD internally ( 8 TB total). All are Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200. Experienced constant spinning wheel and lockup requiring manual shutdown. I had upgraded to Lion and to Maverick. Did not help so I did a clean install of primary with Snow Leopard and did not install past 10.6.8. Works now if I don’t exceed 3.5 TB internally. I also discovered that my Disk Permissions experienced voluminous corruption that could not be repaired if I installed Java for Mac OS 10.6 Update 17 as suggested each time I check for software updates.

I need to be able to have a total of about six TBs available in my system for storage and editing of video via Imovie. I don’t know the maximum of HDD storage that can be used in the four internal bays without causing lockup and corruption. If 3.5 TB is about the max, then I would like to have some ability to have external storage via firewire 800 if that would facility fast enough transfer for either video edition and or playback. I don’t know if thunderbolt can be installed via PCI card. I could add a SATA PCI card. However, I assume that would cause the same problem as experienced with 8 TBs installed internally in the four bays.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Posted on Jul 6, 2014 5:53 PM

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Answer 1

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innocentius

Level 4

1,898 points

Jul 7, 2014 8:16 AM in response to olderguy1

Firewire is not good option. USB 3 is not good either External Thunderbolt SSD is much faster. Best option for example is Promise Pegasus. I have Two external drives Lacie Rugged USB 3.0 + Thunderbolt to work with the project and media and Another LaCie d2 Thunderbolt & USB 3.0 to use for backups and videoclips. For me this is excellent combination with FCPX

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Answer 2

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Jul 7, 2014 8:20 AM in response to olderguy1

Thunderbolt can't be backfit in any Mac Pro. The late 2103 is the only Mac Pro to support Thunderbolt. The logic board has to support Thunderbolt, not just an add-on card.

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Answer 3

kahjot

Level 4

2,462 points

Jul 7, 2014 9:03 AM in response to olderguy1

What are your Energy Saver settings? It couldn't hurt to see if they are set to "put hard disks to sleep when possible".

Also, you didn't mention whether you have run any disk utilities to rule out issues with one or more of the drives.

It sounds to me as if the drives are either spinning down when not in active use, and then not waking properly, or one or more of the drives may be malfunctioning.

When you say you have problems with any combined capacity over 3.5 GB, how does that work, given two 3TB disks and two 1TB disks? The possible combinations would give you 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 5TB, 6TB 7TB, or 8TB, wouldn't they?

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Answer 4

RatVega™

Level 4

2,005 points

Jul 7, 2014 10:56 AM in response to olderguy1

I also have an '08 MacPro pretty much the same but mine is 8x 3.2GHz. I'm running 2x 2GB, 2X 3GB on the mother board SATA controller (and a 1TB test disk on my SATA3 controller.) So are a lot of my friends. There is no 3.5GB internal limit if your firmware is up to date. You may want to take your system down to an authorized service center for a check-up.

If you feel you need to go external, Illaass is right: USB3 is iffy and although there may be a Thunderbolt retrofit out there somewhere, it's not going to be the same as a motherboard implementation.

My personal belief is that a SATA3 PCIe card is best for solid performance. I'm working up to a 15TB RAID5 internally but it could be external just as easily. External will cost a bit more for the enclosure but has the advantage of not adding heat to the Mac Pro (everything has a tradeoff...) I'm using a High Point Technologies controller and am very happy with it. It's not bootable, but it's about 1/4 the cost of a bootable controller and I'm going to an SSD for my boot disk anyway.

hope this helps

Edit: Almost forgot - I'd got to the Apple Store LAST for a check-up... it's an iToy store. Find an independent Apple Authorized Service guy, he's going to know more than the kids in the store and will probably be a lot more helpful.

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Answer 5

olderguy1 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 7, 2014 7:28 PM in response to innocentius

Thanks for the info.

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Answer 6

olderguy1 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 7, 2014 7:40 PM in response to kahjot

What are your Energy Saver settings? It couldn't hurt to see if they are set to "put hard disks to sleep when possible". My energy save and screen saver are set to NEVER because the machine will not wake up after it goes to sleep.

Also, you didn't mention whether you have run any disk utilities to rule out issues with one or more of the drives. Only on the primary drive. I will run Verify on the other drives,

It sounds to me as if the drives are either spinning down when not in active use, and then not waking properly, or one or more of the drives may be malfunctioning.

When you say you have problems with any combined capacity over 3.5 GB, how does that work, given two 3TB disks and two 1TB disks? The possible combinations would give you 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 5TB, 6TB 7TB, or 8TB, wouldn't they? Now I am using a 500 GB as primary and alternating between one 3TB for video( 3.5 TB total) or 2 x one TBs for photo (2.5TB total). Thanks for your help.

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Answer 7

olderguy1 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 7, 2014 7:53 PM in response to RatVega™

I also have an '08 MacPro pretty much the same but mine is 8x 3.2GHz. I'm running 2x 2GB, 2X 3GB on the mother board SATA controller (and a 1TB test disk on my SATA3 controller.) So are a lot of my friends. There is no 3.5GB internal limit if your firmware is up to date. You may want to take your system down to an authorized service center for a check-up. Do you mean 2x2TB and 2x3TB for a total internal capacity of 10TBs? Are you running Snow Leopard or something else? Actually, I took it to an authorized repair facility who ran checks and said nothing is wrong with the hardware.

If you feel you need to go external, Illaass is right: USB3 is iffy and although there may be a Thunderbolt retrofit out there somewhere, it's not going to be the same as a motherboard implementation.

My personal belief is that a SATA3 PCIe card is best for solid performance. I'm working up to a 15TB RAID5 internally but it could be external just as easily. External will cost a bit more for the enclosure but has the advantage of not adding heat to the Mac Pro (everything has a tradeoff...) I'm using a High Point Technologies controller and am very happy with it. It's not bootable, but it's about 1/4 the cost of a bootable controller and I'm going to an SSD for my boot disk anyway. Does the High Point Technologies SATA3 PCIe connect to eternal drive enclosures or does it somehow connect to drives in some of your four internal bays?

hope this helps

Edit: Almost forgot - I'd got to the Apple Store LAST for a check-up... it's an iToy store. Find an independent Apple Authorized Service guy, he's going to know more than the kids in the store and will probably be a lot more helpful.

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Answer 8

RatVega™

Level 4

2,005 points

Jul 9, 2014 7:16 AM in response to olderguy1

olderguy1 wrote:

Do you mean 2x2TB and 2x3TB for a total internal capacity of 10TBs? Are you running Snow Leopard or something else? Actually, I took it to an authorized repair facility who ran checks and said nothing is wrong with the hardware.

Yes, I've got a total of to TB and I'm running Snow Leopard. If your hardware checks out, that pretty much makes it a software problem,,, reinstall the OS?

Does the High Point Technologies SATA3 PCIe connect to eternal drive enclosures or does it somehow connect to drives in some of your four internal bays?

Highpoint makes several RocketRAID 2700 series SATA3 controllers for Mac with external mini-SAS connectors, probably the cleanest/least expensive external hook-up. They also offer a combo internal/external board that (for marketing reasons) is listed as not working for internals with Mac Pro. I believe that this is due to pressure from Apple (who apparently does some business with High Point Tech) but to the best of my knowledge it will. Technically, the "not supported" statement is true since all the internal bays are tied to the motherboard SATA 2 controller, but this can be remedied with a special cable. HOWEVER... the boards are not bootable, so your system disk needs to be on the motherboard controller.

In truth, I bought one of their 8-port "internal only" boards designated for PC only and flashed it so the Mac Pro sees it as a 2722 board, so I have 8 internal ports. I'm not recommending you do the same unless you're pretty geeky, but the 2721 would give you half-and-half or the 2722 would give you 8 external with no mods to the board.

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