Troy The Man
Level 1 (4 points)
Apple TV

Q: Swap Start Up Drive to newer Mac Pro

Last week I installed a nice new Samsung EVO 850 SSD 500GB and successfully cloned my tiered old 320gb Start Up Drive to it.

As you can imagine, for the past week I have been patting myself on the back, bragging to my friends and generally reviling in the lightening speeds by Early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 now operates at.

It is seriously that fast now, that I fear it will soon realise it's very own form of consciousness and perhaps try to destroy the planet or something.

 

A week on however I awake to the news that Apple are releasing their new OS Sierra, so excitedly I rush to find out more.

 

Hhhuuummm, not compatible with Mac Pros older than 2010.

 

Now having been a Mac owner and user since the very first Macintosh, I am acutely aware that when Apple no longer support your machine with an OS, the end is nigh. Pretty devastating after just one week ago it was resurrected to demigod status.

 

So, faced with the imminent demise of my 3,1 and not able to splash out the ridiculous $11,000AUD that Apple want for a new, similarly spec'd Mac Pro, I need to look at perhaps a second hand 2012 model or similar.

 

My questions is this. Can I simply pull the new Samsung SDD and older conventional drives out of my old 3,1 and pop them into the bays of a newer 5,1 and expect it to work?

While I'm fairly confident the old drives will not be a problem, it is the Start Up Disc (with the El Capitan on it) that troubles me. Is the Start Up drive drive inseparably linked to my old 3,1 and not able to start a newer machine unless I format it and start again?

 

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Posted on Sep 8, 2016 6:21 PM

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Troy The Man

Q: Swap Start Up Drive to newer Mac Pro

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  • by Johnb-one,Helpful

    Johnb-one Johnb-one Sep 8, 2016 8:25 PM in response to Troy The Man
    Level 4 (1,879 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 8, 2016 8:25 PM in response to Troy The Man

    You "Da Man" Troy, you "Da Man".. I went through what you went through as well. Had a 2008 Quad core which was okay, but didn't quite measure up, so, went with a used 12 core mac pro, which, although bunged up a bit on the handles (shipping container was lousy) works fine now. First of all, back up your stuff. That's true with any computer-back it up. Hard drives can and do fail, usually without much warning.  Secondly, what you propose should work. The Startup drive is not inseparably and absolutely linked to your old 3,1 at all. I'm sure you've enabled TRIM and done all that. I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work. that's what I did with my replacement hard drive, just popped it into my new(er) Mac pro. The only difference is the drive sleds are slightly longer, and so one won't work in the other. All you need is a Phillips screwdriver, the screws don't come out, so when you're ready, undo the drives from the old machine, attach them to the new drive sleds and slide 'em in (making sure, of course, that they are the correct way around). Assuming that there's a drive of some kind in your new(er) mac pro, you might be able to use Internet recovery* or make some kind of bootable installer and put it on a dvd or a USB stick. Snow Leopard (10.6.8 I think)  will let you at least get to the App store, and from there you can install El Capitan. Having backed up your stuff, you can use Migration Assistant and Time Machine, both of which are built into the OS, to transfer your stuff over, and apart from re-authorizing your new Mac (and de-authorizing the old one) to use the iTunes store and all that, you should be good to go, plus if you want, you can put a blu ray drive in your new mac (you might have to scout around for the software to play those blu-rays though--that feature is not built in)

    hope this helps you- I think I paid about $4,322 canadian with a monitor, and funnily enough, the guy I bought it from second-hand told me it probably came from Australia....

    JB

    ** you'll need to plug an Ethernet Cable into the back of your Mac pro for this...Wi-Fi won't cut it....too slow and finicky

  • by Troy The Man,

    Troy The Man Troy The Man Sep 8, 2016 8:54 PM in response to Johnb-one
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple TV
    Sep 8, 2016 8:54 PM in response to Johnb-one

    Thanks Johnb-One.

    My only issue with Migrating is that the Start up drive will no longer be nice new Samsung, but a crappy old motorised thing that would be standard in the newer 5,1?

    Also, what is this 'Trim' sorcery you speak of?

  • by John Lockwood,Helpful

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Sep 11, 2016 11:51 PM in response to Troy The Man
    Level 6 (9,260 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Sep 11, 2016 11:51 PM in response to Troy The Man

    The Mac Pro 2012 I believe came with Mac OS X 10.7 aka Lion installed, however the Mac Pro 2012 is for all intents and purposes 100% identical to the Mac Pro 2010 which came with Mac OS X 10.6.4.

     

    So the first thing to sort out is what version of OS X you want to use. Your signature suggests you are still using 10.6.7 I would suggest upgrading to 10.6.8.

     

    It is also generally considered that since the 2010 and 2012 are effectively identical the 2010 represents better value for money being that it is usually slightly cheaper but just as good.

     

    If you take your Samsung EVO 650 out of your current Mac Pro and fit it in a 2010 then it should simply boot and run with no extra steps needed. Since the Mac Pro 2012 came originally with Lion there is a small chance it might only work if you first upgrade to Lion. Personally I think the 2012 will also work with Snow Leopard as well i.e. 10.6.8.

     

    Note: The drive sleds for a MacPro3,1 i.e. 2008 and a MacPro5,1 i.e. 2010 or 2012 are different so you will need to take the drive out of the existing sled and fit it to the sled that came with the 2010 or 2012 Mac Pro.

  • by Johnb-one,

    Johnb-one Johnb-one Sep 9, 2016 9:49 AM in response to Troy The Man
    Level 4 (1,879 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 9, 2016 9:49 AM in response to Troy The Man

    thanks for your answer, Troy the Man. I suppose you could make the Samsung the Startup Drive, which for me is in the 1st drive bay. You could probably make any drive the startup drive, but you'd have to make it so in advance. I think you can get fusion drives, part SSD, part HD or if cost is no object, go mostly SSD. I dunno, I can't afford to do that. I do know that I bought a WD green (or was it black) 2TB HD for around $180 and slapped 'er in, and it's done me fine

    as for "Trim" I think you're supposed to enable it for some SSD's, but the why's and wherefore's I'll have to pass it over to someone who can better explain it.