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6+TB drives do not work/fit in Mac Pro, now what?

ZombiePhysicist

ZombiePhysicist

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Original poster
May 22, 2014
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Here's an article on the problem:

http://www.storagereview.com/6tb_hdds_causing_problems_for_system_vendors_but_not_the_way_you_think

StorageReview-6TB-Screw-Bottom.jpg


But the gist of it is that new 6+TB drives omit center screw holes on the drive, and the Mac Pro (and NAS' like Synology) expect to use those center holes. This is a real problem with the Mac Pro as only the front screws can clip on and the drive would wobble dangling downwards.

I called OWC as they sell 6TB drives for the Mac Pro, but they have no solution.

Does anyone know of some solution. Does anyone sell sleds for the classic Mac Pro to allow you to use these new drives?

Thanks for any help.
 
If it were me, I would just drill a hole in the sled, and possibly countersink it, or get a flat head screw. Might be best to get an extra one to expierment on.

The only other option I see at this time, is to install it in one of the optical drives using 5.35. to 3.5 adapter & one of the the onboard SATA connectors.

They had to move the screw holes to make room for the sixth platter. There should be better options for mounting in the future.
 
Duct tape, if needed, would be my "go to" for a little mount job like that.
As was already mentioned, velcro is a great tool, too.
 
Velcro alone I would be concerned with. Velcro with tape is better. I would worry about vibration, and velcro alone gives a little wiggle room.
 
boodaddyz said:
Velcro alone I would be concerned with. Velcro with tape is better. I would worry about vibration, and velcro alone gives a little wiggle room.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys, the problem with velcro and tape is they rely on glue and with the heat the drives emit, I worry that it will either make a mess, or more importantly give up while the drive is working and when it flops down crash the heads.
 
AidenShaw said:
Cable ties - no glue.
Click to expand...

I guess I'm not visualizing the geometry of it. The sled slides into metal slots so nothing can wrap around the sled as a tie to hold the back end of the drive up, otherwise it won't slot in. But I may be missing what you mean.
 
ZombiePhysicist said:
I guess I'm not visualizing the geometry of it. The sled slides into metal slots so nothing can wrap around the sled as a tie to hold the back end of the drive up, otherwise it won't slot in. But I may be missing what you mean.
Click to expand...

My comment was in general - another way to secure the drive.

If the sled doesn't allow for cable ties, then "never mind".
 
Two screws instead of four and being careful inserting them should suffice, the top screw holes that are closest to the ports match. And there is more than enough room inside any 3-5,1 cMP sled to thread a cable tie through for those that require additional mounting and just remove those two middle screws. Job done.

Compared to counting turns of the heatsinks doing CPU upgrades seems a pretty easy fix - or bodge!
 
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Gav Mack said:
Two screws instead of four and being careful inserting them should suffice, the top screw holes that are closest to the ports match. And there is more than enough room inside any 3-5,1 cMP sled to thread a cable tie through for those that require additional mounting and just remove those two middle screws. Job done.

Compared to counting turns of the heatsinks doing CPU upgrades seems a pretty easy fix - or bodge!
Click to expand...

It doesn't work. The screws that do work are close to the connection port. So everything on that end plugs in ok, the problem is that the rest of the drive's length, like 7/8ths of the length of the drive literally dangles down and away from the sled. There is so much weight that it dangles at a very significant angle. I'd guess around 25 degrees and thats not when the drive is spinning and hot. I worry, beyond operating a drive at such and off angle being a bad idea in and of itself, their is so much weight dangling that the drive seeks could provide enough torque to literally bounce the drive (like a low rider car) while operating and pretty much guaranteeing a head crash.

And while there is plenty of room in the Mac pro, there is no extra room in the sled for a tie. Unless you mean literally tying the bottom of all 4 sleds a monolithic tie. That might work, but would have to torque the hell out of a tie that gigantic, the loop would be over 2ft easy, if that's what you mean.
 
Denis Ahrens said:
I had 4x WD RED 6TB Drives in my MacPro and they simply did fit.
Click to expand...

Denis, that's awesome. So the WD 6tb red drives have the screw holes in the middle, meaning you can successfully screw in all 4 screws into the screw threads in the Mac Pro sled?
 
ZombiePhysicist said:
It doesn't work. The screws that do work are close to the connection port. So everything on that end plugs in ok, the problem is that the rest of the drive's length, like 7/8ths of the length of the drive literally dangles down and away from the sled. There is so much weight that it dangles at a very significant angle. I'd guess around 25 degrees and thats not when the drive is spinning and hot. I worry, beyond operating a drive at such and off angle being a bad idea in and of itself, their is so much weight dangling that the drive seeks could provide enough torque to literally bounce the drive (like a low rider car) while operating and pretty much guaranteeing a head crash.

And while there is plenty of room in the Mac pro, there is no extra room in the sled for a tie. Unless you mean literally tying the bottom of all 4 sleds a monolithic tie. That might work, but would have to torque the hell out of a tie that gigantic, the loop would be over 2ft easy, if that's what you mean.
Click to expand...

Tonight I had a WD green 1tb to go into a sled to run data recovery off bootcamp on my ahci modded windows 7 setup. After reading that reply I did an experiment; using pliers I carefully removed the middle screws and secured it with the SATA port end screws only, and with the Mac Pro on its side I put it in sled 4 and threaded a cable tie through where the raised part where the screw used to be, tightened it and uprighted the tower and fired it up. Seemed pretty secure to me, recovery should be done by the morning and I will let you know if it's fallen off and smacked into my GTX 680 :D
 
Gav Mack said:
Tonight I had a WD green 1tb to go into a sled to run data recovery off bootcamp on my ahci modded windows 7 setup. After reading that reply I did an experiment; using pliers I carefully removed the middle screws and secured it with the SATA port end screws only, and with the Mac Pro on its side I put it in sled 4 and threaded a cable tie through where the raised part where the screw used to be, tightened it and uprighted the tower and fired it up. Seemed pretty secure to me, recovery should be done by the morning and I will let you know if it's fallen off and smacked into my GTX 680 :D
Click to expand...

GAV, that sounds great that you got something to work, but I'm utterly failing to visualize this. Would really appreciate it if you could snap a shot and post what you mean. Would be a great help. Thanks so much!
 
ZombiePhysicist said:
GAV, that sounds great that you got something to work, but I'm utterly failing to visualize this. Would really appreciate it if you could snap a shot and post what you mean. Would be a great help. Thanks so much!
Click to expand...

It locked up very hard with a BSOD overnight this morning so it's out of my system now, in my other Windows rig now which is asking to format it every two mins and I've just read this. Send me a PM with an iMessage account or email, I just noticed I'm now out of my long thin cable ties but with another HDD I've just threaded a much bigger & thicker cable tie to show you the principle - though bear in mind the usual tie is a third the width and less than half as thick so this is impossible to thread it though when its plugged into the sled. Both 18 inches long ish though.
 
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Anyone have any pictures the can share please, of how they installed theirs in a MP 2008 or earlier?
 
Thanks for the reply ZP.
Think those sleds are for 2009 onward?
There's mention of gaffa tape, but I'd like to see it in some pics, as I'm not convinced and if there was another way, that'd be interesting too
 
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