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MP 1,1-5,1 Drive mounting screws?

L

LookToWindward

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 5, 2015
288
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Hi,

Could someone point to me the correct screw type to use to attach a Hard Drive to the Drive Bay Caddies on a Mac Pro 3,1/5,1?

All the Best
Dave
 
LookToWindward said:
Hi,

Could someone point to me the correct screw type to use to attach a Hard Drive to the Drive Bay Caddies on a Mac Pro 3,1/5,1?

All the Best
Dave
Click to expand...

The 4,1 & 5,1 use a different sled from the 3,1, so be careful abut that.

You have sleds missing screws? It's the standard thread for any 3.5" hard drive, but they have a rubber grommet on them to suppress vibration. What that will also do is fractionally set the height of the drive, so that when you insert the sled, the connector lines up with the backplane connector. It's probably easier to buy sleds, than to try to replicate the screws.

(pic stolen from eBay)

s-l1600.jpg
 
The sleds on the 3,1 are different from the 4,1 and 5,1 but do they use the same mounting screws?

Yes, I have missing screws and I want to replace them but I can't seem to find the part anywhere? If you know somewhere that sells them, please let me know.

All the Best
Dave
 
The mounting sleds are expensive for what they are, I found a job lot of 10 for the 3,1 in Canada for around £100 delivered. This is half the price I paid for the Mac Pro 3,1! I wonder if anyone has tried to 3D print them?

I'd really love to find somewhere that sells the screws separately too!
 
I looked on US Ebay but couldn't see the screws in question? Are they the same as the ones pictured above? Could you post a link?
 
They don't look the same but they might fit. I can't believe that these screws so hard are to find, are they unique to Apple? I would have thought that you'd get a box of 100 for around £20...
 
If original ones are hard to come by, you can use any a PC HDD screw as long as it does not hinder the sled from sliding in.
Something like this but with the grommet trimmed to match the original height:
apple.fractal.gromments.jpg
3,1_screws.jpg

The first is from a 5,1 and the third is from a 3,1 off eBay (I can't see any difference to the 5,1).

These look like they could fit:
www.ebay.com

Hard Drive Mounting Screws with Anti Vibration UV Red Rubber Grommets 4 Pieces | eBay

Just use these for regular hard drive installations.
www.ebay.com
 
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LookToWindward said:
I'm wondering if these would work, they look as if they would:

www.ebay.es

100pcs Screws 3.5 HDD compaq blue hard drive isolation mounting | eBay

Las mejores ofertas para 100pcs Screws 3.5 HDD compaq blue hard drive isolation mounting están en eBay ✓ Compara precios y características de productos nuevos y usados ✓ Muchos artículos con envío gratis!
www.ebay.es
Click to expand...
No.
These are from a.e. HP workstations and are directly mounted onto the HDD. The case has special rails where the HDDs slide into.
You won't be able to install the screws on the Mac Pro's sleds.

edit: added picture
 

Attachments

  • HP.HDD.Screw.jpg
    HP.HDD.Screw.jpg
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Last edited:
arw said:
No.
These are from a.e. HP workstations and are directly mounted onto the HDD. The case has special rails where the HDDs slide into.
You won't be able to install the screws on the Mac Pro's sleds.
Click to expand...

So the mac is counter sunk?

1703527301130.jpeg
1703527301130.jpeg

Take the existing screw to a good hardware store, worse case the man can tell you the thread pitch size and head of it and you can find them on Amazon or something, more than likely they have something that will work the same


If it’s a SSD you don’t really even need the rubber dampers as it’s a SOLID state drive

I blame the lack of shop class for this…. thread 😂
 
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InvertedGoldfish said:
So the mac is counter sunk?

View attachment 2328938View attachment 2328938
Take the existing screw to a good hardware store, worse case the man can tell you the thread pitch size and head of it and you can find them on Amazon or something, more than likely they have something that will work the same


If it’s a SSD you don’t really even need the rubber dampers as it’s a SOLID state drive

I blame the lack of shop class for this…. thread 😂
Click to expand...
No this is for real HDDs. They are not counter sunk, they have a large head, the same height as the indentations in the drive sled and have a single + shaped groove in the top.
 
Picture of the top side of the sled with screws in place. I actually looked in another 3,1 that I have and there doesn't appear to be any gromits.....
 
I have loads of spare HDDs and decided to use them. I intend to replace the PATA (DVD) drives with SSDs at some point, then use the HDDs as backup and long-term storage. It's not worth storing movies on SDDs so I use the HDDs
 
InvertedGoldfish said:
That’s not remotely exotic, I’d wager a good hardware store could get ya sorted out
Click to expand...

Well I can't seem to find them anywhere online and I live in a small town and the nearest shop that might sell them is over 1.5 hours away. The other side has the gromits/washers as in the first picture in this thread
 
LookToWindward said:
I looked on US Ebay but couldn't see the screws in question? Are they the same as the ones pictured above? Could you post a link?
Click to expand...
Here's one which includes 3 sleds although one appears to be missing two of the screws. Still cheap enough. It includes free shipping. If you scroll down the page you will see other listings at the bottom from other sellers.
tinyurl.com

LOT of 3 Hard Drive Caddy Sled & Screws For Apple Mac Pro A1186 2006-2008 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for LOT of 3 Hard Drive Caddy Sled & Screws For Apple Mac Pro A1186 2006-2008 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
tinyurl.com
 
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majus said:
Here's one which includes 3 sleds although one appears to be missing two of the screws. Still cheap enough. It includes free shipping. If you scroll down the page you will see other listings at the bottom from other sellers.
tinyurl.com

LOT of 3 Hard Drive Caddy Sled & Screws For Apple Mac Pro A1186 2006-2008 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for LOT of 3 Hard Drive Caddy Sled & Screws For Apple Mac Pro A1186 2006-2008 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
tinyurl.com
Click to expand...
I decided to get x10 job lot from Canada, they are all new. I'm located in Spain and getting things like this is a pain...

I'd like to get the screws since they are obviously lighter and therefore cheaper....
 
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Using “normal“ screws is a gamble, the head is too thick and this blocks the sled.

MP3,1 4,1 and 5,1 are the same screws. The sled of the 3,1 is shorter.

Mounting the screws works best using a hard drive to press against the rubber and turn the screw in. Maybe a nut, too, but we european have none as the inch screws are not used in our location.
 
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Hi,

I'm in 3,1 Sled Heaven! I had some things shipped recently from my old office. Included were 4 x 3,1 Mac Pro's. Of these 2 are up and running after 5 years storage. The other 2 were minus all they drive sleds and RAM. I've slowly being working my way through the boxes and I've found a box full of HDD some SATA and IDE drives and some of the missing sleds!

I ordered 10 new ones so now I"m in Sled Heaven! I still have some 5 or 6 with missing screws and still haven't been able to source then separately.

Cheers
Dave
 
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