Mac Pro 5.1 2010 High Sierra

[MSastre]

Thanks!! Makes me feel a little better about doing the firmware update, but I will still wait until FCP X is optimized for High Sierra before trying to install it on a separate drive.

 

[Jamoir]

I read that link, and I am 100% sure that guy don't know what's happening. The software may not work properly, but the firmware upgrade didn't prevent a Mac Pro 5,1 to boot from 10.6.4 or later. His backup drive doesn't work is NOT equals to (or imply) the new firmware can't boot older OSX.

If he pull out the original Mac Pro 5,1 recovery disk. The Mac Pro 5,1 can (and will) boot from it. Allow him to install Snow Leopard, and let him upgrade to any later OS.

Even if he doesn't have the DVD. Just create a Sierra installation USB boot drive (or burn a disk) will also allow him to install Sierra on any hard drive. Running an older MacOS installer inside a newer MacOS of course won't work.

P.S. Hard fact, I did the firmware upgrade BEFORE High Sierra offical launch, and I did boot Sierra from it many times (many of us did that).
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Firmware cannot roll back (without any hack) is correct. But that's totally independent to prevent boot from older OSX.

What I suggest you to do is install High Sierra to another separate hard drive, do NOT mix it with any other OS. The firmware upgrade won't prevent you to boot from Snow Leopard or El Capitan. But a corrupted drive, damaged partition table etc can.

And the firmware won't affect your legacy apps. The OS can, but not the firmware.

[doublepost=1511491438][/doublepost]Thank you all so very much for sharing your thoughts and advice. I will take h9826790's advice and install High Sierra on a third drive to preserve Snow Leopard and El Capitan on their own SSD partitions. It does not seem like it should, but does it matter whether the third High Sierra drive is internal or external? Does it matter whether it is solid state or spinning metal?

 

[h9826790]

[doublepost=1511491438][/doublepost]Thank you all so very much for sharing your thoughts and advice. I will take h9826790's advice and install High Sierra on a third drive to preserve Snow Leopard and El Capitan on their own SSD partitions. It does not seem like it should, but does it matter whether the third High Sierra drive is internal or external? Does it matter whether it is solid state or spinning metal?

For other OS, it doesn't really matter, but for High Sierra, it does matter.

If the installer detected it is a SSD, it will convert the partition into APFS. For HDD, no auto conversion exist.

However, I am not sure what will happen if the SSD is connected via USB 3.0. AFAIK, there is also no conversion in this case, but I really not 100% sure about this. I did this kind of installation once. I installed HS onto a USB SSD for my friend, and then give it him. I didn't check the partition type before I return the SSD to him. However, since I did the OS installation on my cMP for him, that means his 2011 Mac mini never run the installer, and never do the firmware upgrade. Since he can still boot from the USB SSD, that should means the SSD still in HFS+.

So, it depends if you want to "try" this APFS, you have to carefully choose the destination hard drive type and connection. Up to this moment, IMO, HFS+ is more reliable and less trouble than APFS. e.g. Your Snow Leopard and El Capitan won't able to read the APFS partition. So, you will not able to choose it for next boot in system preferences as well.

Therefore, if you want a High Sierra that can compatible to the older OSX, you better install it onto an internal HDD. After installation, you can clone it to a SATA / PCIe HFS+ SSD (if you want to).

 

[Jamoir]

For other OS, it doesn't really matter, but for High Sierra, it does matter.

If the installer detected it is a SSD, it will convert the partition into APFS. For HDD, no auto conversion exist.

However, I am not sure what will happen if the SSD is connected via USB 3.0. AFAIK, there is also no conversion in this case, but I really not 100% sure about this. I did this kind of installation once. I installed HS onto a USB SSD for my friend, and then give it him. I didn't check the partition type before I return the SSD to him. However, since I did the OS installation on my cMP for him, that means his 2011 Mac mini never run the installer, and never do the firmware upgrade. Since he can still boot from the USB SSD, that should means the SSD still in HFS+.

So, it depends if you want to "try" this APFS, you have to carefully choose the destination hard drive type and connection. Up to this moment, IMO, HFS+ is more reliable and less trouble than APFS. e.g. Your Snow Leopard and El Capitan won't able to read the APFS partition. So, you will not able to choose it for next boot in system preferences as well.

Therefore, if you want a High Sierra that can compatible to the older OSX, you better install it onto an internal HDD. After installation, you can clone it to a SATA / PCIe HFS+ SSD (if you want to).

[doublepost=1511528682][/doublepost]

For other OS, it doesn't really matter, but for High Sierra, it does matter.

If the installer detected it is a SSD, it will convert the partition into APFS. For HDD, no auto conversion exist.

However, I am not sure what will happen if the SSD is connected via USB 3.0. AFAIK, there is also no conversion in this case, but I really not 100% sure about this. I did this kind of installation once. I installed HS onto a USB SSD for my friend, and then give it him. I didn't check the partition type before I return the SSD to him. However, since I did the OS installation on my cMP for him, that means his 2011 Mac mini never run the installer, and never do the firmware upgrade. Since he can still boot from the USB SSD, that should means the SSD still in HFS+.

So, it depends if you want to "try" this APFS, you have to carefully choose the destination hard drive type and connection. Up to this moment, IMO, HFS+ is more reliable and less trouble than APFS. e.g. Your Snow Leopard and El Capitan won't able to read the APFS partition. So, you will not able to choose it for next boot in system preferences as well.

Therefore, if you want a High Sierra that can compatible to the older OSX, you better install it onto an internal HDD. After installation, you can clone it to a SATA / PCIe HFS+ SSD (if you want to).

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[doublepost=1511528682][/doublepost]

Thank you for the additional insights, which explain a seeming anomaly. My Samsumg 850 SSD is divided into El Capitan and Snow Leopard partitions. While that Snow Leopard partition wildly outperforms Snow Leopard on the HDD or the SSD is unable to recognize the El Capitan partition on the SSD, requiring the Startup Manager to reboot.

So, my surest option would be to install High Sierra over the existing El Capitan partition (SSD) and boot from the HDD when I need Snow Leopard, except that I would then lose the El Capitan recovery partition because it would be replaced by a High Sierra recovery partition.

If I choose to install High Sierra on one SSD partition, would it install a High Sierra recovery partition, leaving me with recovery partitions for both High Sierra and El Capitan (on the other SSD partition)?

 

[HighMacGuy]

I updated my 5,1 firmware, and I can still boot into OS X 10.9 and Windows 10. While I don’t run photoshop, I do run illustrator and indesign with no issues.

I also have an APFS (non boot) volume coexisting peacefully on an ssd with 2 hfs volumes (one of which is my 10.9 boot partition)

 

[Jamoir]

I updated my 5,1 firmware, and I can still boot into OS X 10.9 and Windows 10. While I don’t run photoshop, I do run illustrator and indesign with no issues.

I also have an APFS (non boot) volume coexisting peacefully on an ssd with 2 hfs volumes (one of which is my 10.9 boot partition)

 

[chet.d]

Any recent thoughts on 10.13.4 & 5.1 Mac Pro's in general ?

I'm running a recording studio with Cubase/Nuendo SW, need to do an OS update and torn between doing Sierra or High Sierra.

Appreciate current impressions.

 

[bsbeamer]

If you're using OLDER audio equipment connected via Firewire, be careful with 10.13.

My personal suggestion, clone your current drive with Carbon Copy Cloner and have both options available for a few weeks. The beauty of the Mac Pro is that you can dual boot or swap system drives as needed. You could run both 10.12 and 10.13 and use either as needed.