Boot Mac Pro 5,1 (late 2012) from SSD ?

[Grape_Brotherhood]

Hi all,

I hope this is the right place where to ask this. This is my first post on here!

I have this Mac Pro:

Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid 2012) (Silver Tower)
3,33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
OS: High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65)

My Goal:

- Clone the boot drive to a SSD Samsung Evo 860 drive (I have a 2,5'' to 3,5'' adapter to mount the ssd in the mac pro).
- I want to retain all system preferences, all applications and programs, all programs preferences, browser cookies, etc etc....basically, I want to be able to just boot from the new drive to increase speed, but keep working as if nothing happened or changed.

Questions:

- Is it possible to do this? And will it work with the Samsung EVO 860 ?
- Which is the easiest/best way to clone the boot drive?
- Any specific software to use, or can all be done inside the OS ?

Thanks a lot in advance to you all for the help!

 

[ssgbryan]

Yes - pick up a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner. I view this as a mission essential piece of software

I use it all the time when I upgrade my Mac Pro.

 

[Grape_Brotherhood]

Thanks a lot man!

So, do you think a Samsung EVO 860 SSD drive will work with a Mac Pro tower 2012? Or could there be any compatibility issues?

Thanks again

Yes - pick up a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner. I view this as a mission essential piece of software

I use it all the time when I upgrade my Mac Pro.

 

[expede]

Hi!

Be sure to upgrade to Firmware 140.0.0.0.0 where you will have NVMe support. I have the 2012 5,1 12-core booting on an EVO 960 NVMe 512 GB. So it is a nice experience. Fast? Yes!

/Per

 

[Grape_Brotherhood]

Thanks!

But I was thinking to just take a normal SSD, not the M.2 NVMe....
Although they're faster, to have NVMe support I would have to buy also a PCIe Card, right?

What about the normal EVO 860, would also that one require a firmware upgrade?

Thanks again.

Hi!

Be sure to upgrade to Firmware 140.0.0.0.0 where you will have NVMe support. I have the 2012 5,1 12-core booting on an EVO 960 NVMe 512 GB. So it is a nice experience. Fast? Yes!

/Per

 

[bsbeamer]

I'm running seven Samsung EVO SATA SSDs in my machine right now - 840/850/860's. As mentioned above, just use Carbon Copy Cloner and you'll be set. Get a PCIe adapter if you want to increase speed and have a free slot, but ANY SSD will be an improvement over a spinning HDD in speed.

 

[crjackson2134]

Thanks a lot man!

So, do you think a Samsung EVO 860 SSD drive will work with a Mac Pro tower 2012? Or could there be any compatibility issues?

Thanks again

There shouldn't be any problem at all. Lots of people using this drive (myself included). You're fine...

 

[Grape_Brotherhood]

Thanks a lot man! I'm gonna use Carbon Copy as I heard from many people that it's very good.

Do you think I need a usb to sata cable to copy my current boot disk to the new ssd, and then mount the ssd inside the mac, or can i just mount in the ssd as any normal drive, and copy from the current boot disk to ssd to clone it?

Sorry, noob question I'm sure, but I get confused by online tutorials that i found so far.

I hope all I need is the 2,5 to 3,5'' tray adapter and a clone copy....

Thanks a lot!

I'm running seven Samsung EVO SATA SSDs in my machine right now - 840/850/860's. As mentioned above, just use Carbon Copy Cloner and you'll be set. Get a PCIe adapter if you want to increase speed and have a free slot, but ANY SSD will be an improvement over a spinning HDD in speed.

 

[bsbeamer]

If you have a tray adapter (or new 2.5" sled) you can mount SSD internally to a free SATA bay, format SSD (recommend HFS+ for 10.13.X), clone system drive to SSD with Carbon Copy Cloner, shutdown, remove spinning HDD from system, reboot.

Carbon Copy Cloner will clone everything to the new drive as long as there is available capacity.

 

[Grape_Brotherhood]

Thanks a lot, that seems very easy and straightforward now, thank you

If you have a tray adapter (or new 2.5" sled) you can mount SSD internally to a free SATA bay, format SSD (recommend HFS+ for 10.13.X), clone system drive to SSD with Carbon Copy Cloner, shutdown, remove spinning HDD from system, reboot.

Carbon Copy Cloner will clone everything to the new drive as long as there is available capacity.