aendy.m
Level 1 (4 points)
Desktops

Q: Ad a new 4Tb-Harddisk on MacPro 3.1 - Possible?

Hello.

 

I have a MacPro 3.1, 2,8Ghz 8-Core Mac with four Slots for Harddisks. Which Harddisks are compatible with my mac? Must it be SATA, right? Who can i look this? And can I ad a 4Tb-Harddisk on my mac? Need I also a cable to connect it?

 

Thank you for your answers!

Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Aug 20, 2016 3:21 PM

by Allan Eckert,Apple recommended
Allan Eckert Allan Eckert
Level 9 (53,378 points)
Desktops
A:

You can find disk drives at https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/hard_drives_and_SSD

 

Internal disk drives in Mac Pros are mounted in a sled that plugs in without any cable.

Posted on Aug 20, 2016 3:24 PM

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aendy.m

Q: Ad a new 4Tb-Harddisk on MacPro 3.1 - Possible?

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  • by Allan Eckert,Apple recommended

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert Aug 20, 2016 3:24 PM in response to aendy.m
    Level 9 (53,378 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 20, 2016 3:24 PM in response to aendy.m

    You can find disk drives at https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/hard_drives_and_SSD

     

    Internal disk drives in Mac Pros are mounted in a sled that plugs in without any cable.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Aug 21, 2016 1:04 AM in response to aendy.m
    Level 10 (187,626 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 21, 2016 1:04 AM in response to aendy.m

    There is a bug is in the ERASE function in Disk Utility, 10.8.4 and later. If you can use PARTITION directly without ERASE, you will also avoid the Bug.

       

    Using a Disk Utility from any older Mac OS X, including the 10.6 DVD (if your Mac can boot from it) or any saved Installer DVD or thumb drive will work.

     

    Another work-around is to move that drive to an external enclosure and Erase it there (provided your enclosure is modern enough to deal with drives over 2.2TB.


     

    •   When you ERASE a drive over 2.2TB in an Internal Drive bay, it is given the Logical Volume stuff in Mac OS X 10.8.3 and later. Many readers here considered that a BUG. Logical Volume Group partitions were not needed, and interfered with re-ERASE and other functions. There are several wildly different work arounds:

     

    • Re-ERASE in an external enclosure, provided your can accommodate drives over 2.2TB (really old ones can not).

    • Re-ERASE using Mac OS X or Recovery_HD or Installer the predates 10.8.3

    • Manually delete the Logical Volume group partitions using Terminal.

     

    You may run into this problem:

    For Internal sled mounting:

    The screw-depth penetration for 'bottom-mounting screws adjacent to the platters' on some drives over 3TB have been shortened. This may mean that the sled screws bottom out before they fit snugly and begin to compress the washers on the sled. If this is the case, your drive will not sit flat on the sled, and will not mate with the backplane connector without additional adjustment.

      OWC also now sells sleds that uses alternate mounting holes in the HD to avoid that problem.

    You can shorten those screws, or put a washer under the heads to ensure they can be made snug in the allowed depth. Also, now OWC/Macsales now sells sleds that use the alternate mounting screw locations to avoid this problem. However, these sleds are only for the 2009 and later Pros