Mac Pro to Mac Mini - drives question

Question

Level 1

29 points

Mac Pro to Mac Mini - drives question

I am upgrading to a new mac mini (2.8GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5/16GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM/2TB Fusion Drive).

I currently have two older Mac Pro's one in my work office the other at home.

The one at home is very old and is a mac pro 1,1 – Mid 2006 (can't even run 10.8 or higher) with 2 x 2.66 ghz dual core intel xeon / 10 GB 667 Mhz ddr2 f8-dimm. It does have 4 internal drives (4 x 3TB Western Digital) which have lots of digitized home movies, music and photos, plus work stuff. Important data that won't fit on the new mac mini. It is connected to my home router through Airport Express.

The machine in my office is a(mac pro 3,1) running 10.6.8 / 2 x 2.8 ghz quad core intel xeon / 10 GB with 4 drives = 2 x 1 TB, 1 x 0.3, 1 x 0.15 TB). It just has work stuff on it.

The machine I need to use at home needs to be able to run latest version of Mac OS (not currently possible, since mac pro 1,1).

I have two options. Which is best?

Option 1: one is to use the new mac mini at home and then somehow retain the existing drives. Is this easily doable by connection to a mac mini - can I just connect (best method?) the older machine and have the drives/data from the 4 x 3TB Western Digital drives be visible and easy to work with on the new mac Mini? Or does it require getting a new enclosure (non Mac) that has all four drives connected to the new Mac Mini? Is this latter option easily done?

Option 2: is to swap the existing four drives from the mac pro 1,1 – Mid 2006 to the mac pro 3,1 and then use this machine at home (while using Mac Mini at work). I assume that this is possible, but I don't know whether this will be fast enough to handle 10.10 and future Mac OS's? Advice?

Apologies for long question, but i hope is clear. Thanks in advance for responses.

Posted on Sep 8, 2015 11:53 AM

Reply

Answer 1

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Sep 8, 2015 12:47 PM in response to Robert Batey

There is hack to allow running the latest OSX on yur old Mac Pro

http://oemden.com/sixty-four-on-thirty-two-sfott/

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2006-2007-mac-pro-1-1-2-1-and-os-x-yosemite. 1740775/

Yo have to reinstall the hack after each OSX update. I would not use it for a production machine.

You can use the drive on the old Mac by connecting the two Macs via FireWire. You will need a Thunderbolt>FireWire adopter on the new Mac. Boot the old Mac in Target Disk Mode and then you can access the internal drives on the old Mac from the new Mac

How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode - Apple Support

You can also connect both Macs to the same network and use file sharing. Wifi is a little slow so an Ethernet connection is best

Reply

Answer 2

Sep 9, 2015 3:29 AM in response to Robert Batey

It would depend on what the destiny is of your oldest MacPro.

If it is destined for "computer heaven", you could swap out the

drives and install them into something like this:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/M3QX2KIT0GB

or something similar.

With USB 3.0, transfer speeds will pretty much match what a spinning

hard drive is capable of. A simple switch setting will allow access of all the

drives as independent.

Reply

Answer 3

Robert Batey Author

Level 1

29 points

Sep 10, 2015 8:43 AM in response to lllaass

Ill's - thanks.

q1) For your second suggestion, if I use the drive on the old Mac by connecting the two Macs via FireWire, will all of the 4 drives be visible using the target disk mode simultaneously or does one have to switch the target disks?

q2) For your third suggestion I assume I would have to get another box (router?) so that both could be hard wire connected to each other. (My main wireless router is in another room and it is not possible to move, so right now all I have in my basement is the old MacPro connected to an airport express. Would this work?

Thanks

Rob

Reply

Answer 4

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Sep 10, 2015 8:48 AM in response to Robert Batey

All the internal drives will show in Finder at the same time and you can access them without rebooting or anything.

If in the last part you mean the MP will be connected via wifi that will work but is slower than a wired connection, Not Macs have to be connected to the same network.

Reply

Answer 5

Robert Batey Author

Level 1

29 points

Sep 10, 2015 11:47 AM in response to woodmeister50

woodmeister - thanks.

"computer heaven" is a possibility. the approach you suggest doesn't seem cost prohibitive.

A couple of I'm sure naive questions though ...

How would the switch setting work - is this a physical switch or software?

Would all the drives be visible at the same time, so that for example files could be transferred from one external drive to the other in the same enclosure?

Thanks

Rob

Reply

Answer 6

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Sep 10, 2015 12:39 PM in response to Robert Batey

That OWC enclosure allows you to select via switch various RAID configurations as well as independent disk.

Thanks to a front panel selector switch, the Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 enables easy configuration of the hardware RAID settings to Span, 0, 1, 5, 10, and JBOD/Independent drive modes – so you can select the best combination of speed, capacity, redundancy.

If you set them up as independent disks/drive mode than each disk will appear in finder at the same time and yo can move/copy stuff from one to another.

If you select a RAID mode then the disks get erased and that RAID mode gets setup. Undoing RAID breaks the disk set and eventually erases the disks unless your used the RAID 1 (mirroring)

Reply