Mac Pro not reading Snow Leopard to install

[eyeangle]

I just bought a second hand mac pro 5,1 (mid 2010) with no hard drives and no installation CDs.

I bought a 120GB Samsung EVO SSD. I am waiting on an IcyDock to connect the SSD to hard drive bay 1.

In the meantime I'm using an extention sata cable to connect the SSD to the motherboard (HDD bay 1) and powering it via a power adapter to sata power.

I've formatted the SSD using my 2008 iMac to extended (journaled).

I've inserted my Snow Leopard disc (that I bought years ago) into the optical drive restarted the mac holding c to boot from CD.

I hear the disc spinning, the white background with gray apple logo appear but nothing happens. The disc stops spinning. Background stays.

???

Am I doing anything wrong?

Does the macpro side door have to be closed?

I've contacted apple about needing the original installer discs and they said I could just buy Snow Leopard and use that. I already own it.

Another symptom: If I unattach the SSD and restart the mac holding the mouse button on, the DVD drive doesn't open. It only opens with the SSD attached.

 

[flowrider]

Snow Leopard won't install on a 5,1 Mac Pro unless it's 10.6.4 or higher. I believe the last installation discs that Apple shipped were 10.6.3, a No Go on the 5,1 Mac Pro.

BTW, I also have a 2010 5,1 Mac Pro. I bought it new, and no installation discs were included. It originally shipped with Lion, 10.7.

Lou

 

[eyeangle]

Hi Lou, that's a huge help. I wish I had have know before hand, I've tried everything.

How do you suggest getting mavericks onto a new hard drive without making a bootable thumb drive, or cloning my 2008 iMac? Will I have to buy Snow Leopard from apple again hoping that it's higher than my Snow Leopard 10.6.3 disc? Do you know if it is? Apple.com just says it's 10.6

 

[eyeangle]

I just called Apple and they said they could send me a free Snow Leopard 10.6.4 install disc for the mac pro. It will be one of the gray ones but that's ok for me. Cheers, guys!

 

[JQuick]

Hi Lou, that's a huge help. I wish I had have know before hand, I've tried everything.

How do you suggest getting mavericks onto a new hard drive without making a bootable thumb drive, or cloning my 2008 iMac? Will I have to buy Snow Leopard from apple again hoping that it's higher than my Snow Leopard 10.6.3 disc? Do you know if it is? Apple.com just says it's 10.6

I cannot tell you that the following will work, but it is what I would try.

Apple suggested that snow leopard is supported on this machine, but you are unable to boot to the old version you have on DVD. This might mean that some critical drivers for your machine were not added until a later version of 10.6.

If this is the case, you might try:
1. Boot an older mac from that installer DVD while it is connected to the 5,1 in target disk mode via firewire.
2. After the install install finishes boot back onto the helper system and then install the combo updater to the drive to get it up to the latest 10.6.x release.

It would help to download the combo updates from the website before trying this out, rather than creating an account on the fresh install, and running software update.

After that is complete, unmount and eject the 5,1 drive from the helper, and disconnect the firewire cable.

Now power down the 5,1 to leave target disk mode, and try to boot.
If the problem with the older 10.6 disk was that it lacked drivers found only in later 10.6 releases, this should work around that.

re: your issue with the DVD drive when you disconnect the SSD. Have you jumpered both of the drives to cable select mode?

 

[eyeangle]

Hi JQuick, my SSD isn't showing up on anything now. I tried what you said too using firewire target disk mode, but SSD doesn't show up on the iMac. If i just plug it into my iMac via USB it doesn't show up, if I plug it into my PC via USB it doesn't show up. And if I plug it into my PC via sata it doesn't show up in Windows Explorer or bios...

It was working earlier today when when I formatted it connected to my iMac but now it's no show on anything.

I think it may have been short-circuited or something when I was switching the mac pro on and off when it was stuck on the white installer screen. I can't think of anything else to do other than return it. Any ideas what may have happened?

 

[Macman45]

Snow Leopard won't install on a 5,1 Mac Pro unless it's 10.6.4 or higher. I believe the last installation discs that Apple shipped were 10.6.3, a No Go on the 5,1 Mac Pro.

BTW, I also have a 2010 5,1 Mac Pro. I bought it new, and no installation discs were included. It originally shipped with Lion, 10.7.

Lou

^^

This. You've probably got the wrong version of SL there. I think Apple still sell them and they are your best bet...buying from Ebay or similar doesn't guarantee that you'll get the right disks.

 

[eyeangle]

^^

This. You've probably got the wrong version of SL there. I think Apple still sell them and they are your best bet...buying from Ebay or similar doesn't guarantee that you'll get the right disks.

Yes I know I called Apple and they're sending me the gray installer disc, 10.6.4

But now I have a separate issue, a hard drive not showing up on anything. Might be worth a new topic...

 

[kennyman]

Yes I know I called Apple and they're sending me the gray installer disc, 10.6.4

But now I have a separate issue, a hard drive not showing up on anything. Might be worth a new topic...

You can still install OSX 10.6 on your SSD using you iMac and update it. Do this;

1. Power down your iMac.
2. Connect your SSD using USB, but connect it to a different port (not the same USB port).
3. Then open Disk Utility on iMac, do the formatting for OSX (Journaled extended).
4. Boot in OSX Installation mode on your iMac using the SL disc (or via USB)
5. Then install OSX on your SSD and update it.

One thing that you should be aware of, if the previous owner was using Mountain Lion on the same machine, you would not be able to load Snow Leopard on it even with a new HDD/SDD.

Please post your results, there are so many options available.

 

[eyeangle]

One thing that you should be aware of, if the previous owner was using Mountain Lion on the same machine, you would not be able to load Snow Leopard on it even with a new HDD/SDD.

Mountain Lion and above, or just Mountain Lion? Why is this?

I've tried your options but can only get to step 2. No hard drive showing up in disk utility even after shutting down and trying all USB ports. I think the SSD is well and truly dead. I have MacDrive running on the PC and that doesn't even pick it up.

Would be happy to try other suggestions if there are any.

 

[kennyman]

@eyeangle

Could you please try safe boot?

To start up into Safe Mode (to Safe Boot), follow these steps.

1.Please shut down iMac.
2. Press the power button.
3. Immediately after you hear the startup sound, press and hold the Shift key. (The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone).
4. Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple logo and the progress indicator.

After the logo appears, you will see a progress bar during startup. This indicates that your computer is booting in Safe Mode. You will have to login as admin (depending on your login setting). Afterwards, please use terminal and type

diskutil list

Let us know whether you can see your SSD on the listed partition

Sorry for asking this question - why would you like to install SL instead of new OSX releases (such as 10.9 or Mavericks)?

 

[Marty62]

Mountain Lion and above, or just Mountain Lion? Why is this?

I've tried your options but can only get to step 2. No hard drive showing up in disk utility even after shutting down and trying all USB ports. I think the SSD is well and truly dead. I have MacDrive running on the PC and that doesn't even pick it up.

Would be happy to try other suggestions if there are any.

I just had my old Crucial M4 NOT showing up on 2 x ML systems, it had an SL
10.6.8 system on it.
I gave it 10 minutes and it finally came up on the desktop and I could
format it.
Try waiting a little longer / reboot and see if it shows up?
M.

 

[JQuick]

Hi JQuick, my SSD isn't showing up on anything now. I tried what you said too using firewire target disk mode, but SSD doesn't show up on the iMac. If i just plug it into my iMac via USB it doesn't show up, if I plug it into my PC via USB it doesn't show up. And if I plug it into my PC via sata it doesn't show up in Windows Explorer or bios...

It was working earlier today when when I formatted it connected to my iMac but now it's no show on anything.

I think it may have been short-circuited or something when I was switching the mac pro on and off when it was stuck on the white installer screen. I can't think of anything else to do other than return it. Any ideas what may have happened?

If you ever learned anything about electrical circuits you may recall that a voltage will take the past of least resistance to ground. As devices have gotten smaller, other laws of physics come into play. Instead of only relying on Ohm's law to migrate to a lower potential, electrons are influence by other factors: electrons will choose to flow through the most expensive and most critical components and they will preferentially flow though devices which are too small for you to solder. (True story, dude..)

Seriously though, you handled the drive a lot. Mechanical stress, or a static voltage did it's nasty. It's moot, though, the drive sounds fried.

 

[JQuick]

Since your target disk is fried it might be helpful to take a step back and look at your goals.

Your proximate goal is to install a working Snow Leopard SSD in a Mac Pro 5,1. But is this your end goal?

Have you chosen 10.6.x because you have legacy software which requires this version or is this a mere stepping stone to ML or Mavericks?

If you have ML or Mavericks on this system will you also keep a legacy Snow Leopard boot drive around?

The SSD you have chosen is rather small. Do you plan to have one or more spinning platters for your data and/or to mount as a /User partition?

How have you planned to back up the system?

Do you have 4 empty drive sleds for this Mac or did you choose the icy dock instead of a 2.5"->3.5" mounting bracket because you have none?

Why ask all these question?

If you plan to boot more recent OS versions you may want to manually lay out an EFI rescue partition before installing SL, since you will need one later in the life of the drive.

Even though you may wish to have an SSD boot partition, if you will later have a backup boot part ion on a spinning disk, it might be worth your while to go with that route for initial installation, and then migrate to SSD after you have that working. This might save time, since you are currently blocked by returning and getting a replacement for the SSD.

 

[xcodeSyn]

I've formatted the SSD using my 2008 iMac to extended (journaled).

I guess I'm a little late to the discussion, but the OP having a 2008 iMac really makes the whole thing easy to solve. Too bad an SSD was probably fried in the process. You could have used the iMac to download Mavericks (or (Mountain) Lion for $20) and make a bootable USB installer following this link. The OP has a copy of Snow Leopard so there is no legality issue, besides Macs are sold with both hardware and software bundled, Apple sending a free copy of 10.6.4 disc to OP is proof enough.

Since the SSD seems dead, OP could wait for the 10.6.4 DVD and new SSD's arrival before a straight installation or prepare a USB Mavericks installer to bypass Snow Leopard.

 

[JQuick]

You can still install OSX 10.6 on your SSD using you iMac and update it. Do this;

1. Power down your iMac.
2. Connect your SSD using USB, but connect it to a different port (not the same USB port).
3. Then open Disk Utility on iMac, do the formatting for OSX (Journaled extended).
4. Boot in OSX Installation mode on your iMac using the SL disc (or via USB)
5. Then install OSX on your SSD and update it.

One thing that you should be aware of, if the previous owner was using Mountain Lion on the same machine, you would not be able to load Snow Leopard on it even with a new HDD/SDD.

Please post your results, there are so many options available.

Your advice to the OP is mostly correct, but I am unsure about your caveat regarding Mountain Lion. Unless there was a specific set of firmware updates for Mountain Lion on this hardware which is incompatible with 10.6, I don't know why this would fail.

I bought a used 5,3 mini which had originally shipped with Lion, and was later upgraded to Mountain Lion. It currently has boot partitions for both Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard on it.

My advice on this topic is based on my experience with the 2012 Mini Server, not a 2010 Mac Pro. If there is a specific reason it would fail for the Mac Pro then my advice would be worthless.

I am assuming the following:

1. The latest widely available install media is 10.6.3.
2. Mac Pro driver support for the Mac Pro 5,3 was not complete until at least 10.6.4.
3. The failures of people running Lion or Mountain Lion to install were not related to their current release level but by 1 and 2 above.

Macman45 and flowrider, were thinking along the right lines here - getting bootable environment >=10.6.4 is the right approach. However, Apple never sold retail DVDs more recent than 10.6.3 so eBay will be a dead end.

If you have any specify information about how or why running Lion or above could alter the firmware of the 5,1 please share it. This would be critically important. Barring that, there is still a way forward.

----------

I guess I'm a little late to the discussion, but the OP having a 2008 iMac really makes the whole thing easy to solve. Too bad an SSD was probably fried in the process. You could have used the iMac to download Mavericks (or (Mountain) Lion for $20) and make a bootable USB installer following this link. The OP has a copy of Snow Leopard so there is no legality issue, besides Macs are sold with both hardware and software bundled, Apple sending a free copy of 10.6.4 disc to OP is proof enough.

Since the SSD seems dead, OP could wait for the 10.6.4 DVD and new SSD's arrival before a straight installation or prepare a USB Mavericks installer to bypass Snow Leopard.

Thank you for indirectly pointing out that I am being an idiot.

I totally missed the post by OP that Apple is giving him one of the factory install DVDs for this hardware.

My jury rig would have worked, but is more difficult than just using the factory disk.

 

[eyeangle]

@eyeangle

Could you please try safe boot?

To start up into Safe Mode (to Safe Boot), follow these steps.

1.Please shut down iMac.
2. Press the power button.
3. Immediately after you hear the startup sound, press and hold the Shift key. (The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone).
4. Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple logo and the progress indicator.

After the logo appears, you will see a progress bar during startup. This indicates that your computer is booting in Safe Mode. You will have to login as admin (depending on your login setting). Afterwards, please use terminal and type

diskutil list

Let us know whether you can see your SSD on the listed partition

No SSD listed on partition. ...fried it. Which is annoying because it's the first SSD I've ever bought and it died the next day. It was being plugged in and out a lot, but still. C'mon samsung... never had a HDD do this so quickly.

Sorry for asking this question - why would you like to install SL instead of new OSX releases (such as 10.9 or Mavericks)?

I can't find where you asked this question first...

I just had my old Crucial M4 NOT showing up on 2 x ML systems, it had an SL
10.6.8 system on it.
I gave it 10 minutes and it finally came up on the desktop and I could
format it.
Try waiting a little longer / reboot and see if it shows up?

Left it for 30mins. No show...

Since your target disk is fried it might be helpful to take a step back and look at your goals.

Your proximate goal is to install a working Snow Leopard SSD in a Mac Pro 5,1. But is this your end goal?

I want everything that is on my iMac straight across onto the mac pro, without cloning(I know this would be so simple) and without making a mavericks bootable thumbdrive(I don't know if Apple intentionally likes this happening.) I want a clean fresh install of SL cos it's the latest one I can physically insert into the optical drive.

Have you chosen 10.6.x because you have legacy software which requires this version or is this a mere stepping stone to ML or Mavericks?

Stepping stone to Mavericks.

If you have ML or Mavericks on this system will you also keep a legacy Snow Leopard boot drive around?

Not necessarily, I have no need for Snow Leopard other than this, rather important, stepping stone. But yes I will keep the CD installer if I need to do it again..

The SSD you have chosen is rather small. Do you plan to have one or more spinning platters for your data and/or to mount as a /User partition?

I'm just using it for OS and apps. Gonna get spinning HDDs for all the other stuff.

How have you planned to back up the system?

I clone every few months, or time machine depending on my mood.

Do you have 4 empty drive sleds for this Mac or did you choose the icy dock instead of a 2.5"->3.5" mounting bracket because you have none?

I just said IcyDock because I knew people would know what I mean. I'm actually getting this much cheaper version, coming in a week or so.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/310867313423

Why ask all these question?

If you plan to boot more recent OS versions you may want to manually lay out an EFI rescue partition before installing SL, since you will need one later in the life of the drive.

I thought Mavericks makes an EFI when you install it. Carbon Copy Cloner makes one for you if you make a clone to be a bootable HD.

Even though you may wish to have an SSD boot partition, if you will later have a backup boot part ion on a spinning disk, it might be worth your while to go with that route for initial installation, and then migrate to SSD after you have that working. This might save time, since you are currently blocked by returning and getting a replacement for the SSD.

Returning SSD/getting new one tomorrow.

I guess I'm a little late to the discussion, but the OP having a 2008 iMac really makes the whole thing easy to solve. Too bad an SSD was probably fried in the process. You could have used the iMac to download Mavericks (or (Mountain) Lion for $20) and make a bootable USB installer following this link. The OP has a copy of Snow Leopard so there is no legality issue, besides Macs are sold with both hardware and software bundled, Apple sending a free copy of 10.6.4 disc to OP is proof enough.

Since the SSD seems dead, OP could wait for the 10.6.4 DVD and new SSD's arrival before a straight installation or prepare a USB Mavericks installer to bypass Snow Leopard.

Hindsight's 20/20. Although i'm trying to avoid the bootable USB option. When I pick up the SSD tomorrow I'm going to plug it into the iMac, boot into snow leopard install CD and install it onto the SSD after formatting it. Then boot into it using boot disk and upgrade to 10.6.8 then plug it into the mac pro. When the install disc arrives from apple in a few weeks, might do a clean install then with that, most likely will. Then upgrade to Mavericks and migrate everything from iMac.

 

[JQuick]

OK, by doing a clean install of SL first, you will create a partition layout without a recovery partition.

Fresh installs of Lion and above create a recovery partition during installation. However, since this involves repartitioning the boot drive, it will wipe out the previous contents. An upgrade install which preserves data from the earlier boot drive will not repartition the drive.

Instead, if you can purchase and download the Mavericks installer via the iMac, you could follow Apples instructions for creating a bootable installer on a USB thumb drive.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5856

Using the thumb drive to do a fresh install to the SSD in the Mac Pro will lay out a recovery partition, and give you more (and easier) options for diagnosing or recovering from future problems. Eliminating a three phase DVD based recovery involving an intermediate upgrade from 10.6.4-10.6.latest seems like a big enough savings to outweigh the hassle of creating a usb bootstrap.

I suspect that this will save hours of time on the initial installation, and alsi improve future disaster recovery or troubleshooting time.

 

[eyeangle]

Thanks JQuick yes I'll do that instead.

 

[JQuick]

Thanks JQuick yes I'll do that instead.

You are welcome. It is always nice to see these old systems stay in operation.

 

[eyeangle]

I'm being very careful this time round not to ruin my second SSD, I don't think I'll be able to return two Samsung 120GB EVOs. When I exchanged the first one he said, 'These are the best, they never fail.' and gave me a weird look.

Anyway, I tried again plugging the hard drive into the sata port in HDD bay 1 and powering the SSD externally with an adapter. I booted up holding Option and selected run Mavericks installer off USB thumb drive. It booted up the installer and I selected disk utility. No SSD showing up, DOH! So I shut it down 'properly' and removed the sata cable connected to HDD bay 1 and unplugged it from the power. Then I connected it via a USB adapter instead and rebooted into Mavericks installer. This time the SSD showed up in disk utility.

Why wouldn't the SSD show up when connected via sata and powered externally? Does the Mac Pro 5,1 really require the 2.5" to 3.5" adapter to be plugged in and connected to the motherboard power as well as sata from the same port? I'm expecting this adapter http://www.ebay.com/itm/310867313423 very shortly now I just hope the SSD shows up in disk utility when it's connected with this. Otherwise, I have no idea why...

 

[iamMacPerson]

I'm being very careful this time round not to ruin my second SSD, I don't think I'll be able to return two Samsung 120GB EVOs. When I exchanged the first one he said, 'These are the best, they never fail.' and gave me a weird look.

Anyway, I tried again plugging the hard drive into the sata port in HDD bay 1 and powering the SSD externally with an adapter. I booted up holding Option and selected run Mavericks installer off USB thumb drive. It booted up the installer and I selected disk utility. No SSD showing up, DOH! So I shut it down 'properly' and removed the sata cable connected to HDD bay 1 and unplugged it from the power. Then I connected it via a USB adapter instead and rebooted into Mavericks installer. This time the SSD showed up in disk utility.

Why wouldn't the SSD show up when connected via sata and powered externally? Does the Mac Pro 5,1 really require the 2.5" to 3.5" adapter to be plugged in and connected to the motherboard power as well as sata from the same port? I'm expecting this adapter http://www.ebay.com/itm/310867313423 very shortly now I just hope the SSD shows up in disk utility when it's connected with this. Otherwise, I have no idea why...

Yeah, well, even the best have problems.

Question, how and why are you powering it externally?

Also, there aren't any differences between SATA 3.5" and 2.5" TMK. You should just be able to get a drive holder of sorts to screw to the sled and have it line up properly with the SATA connector on the logic board.

 

[eyeangle]

This is how I'm powering the SSD:

But you're right I will try and pick up one of these:

And see if it works.