MacPro3,1 Adding new Hard Drives?

[Reesche]

I have been having some trouble with my new Seagate LP Green 2TB Hard Drive. As of now I also have a 320gb drive and a 500gb drive in 2 of the other bays.

I got the Seagate 2TB drive initialized and cloned my 500gb drive on to it so I can do something else with my 500gb drive after I know it works correctly. It worked fine for 1/2 a day then when I tried to re-boot to another disk it came up with the chime and the Apple logo and then just kept shutting the computer off. Tried it several times and the same thing. Took the new Seagate 2TB out and left the older hard drives in and the computer is working just fine.... but without my new Hard Drive!

I have been reading that this Seagate LP Green 2TB drive has a "higher start-up draw"....can my MacPro3,1's power supply handle this Hard Drive since it's so hungry for power on start-up?

Another question: I have (4) HD bays in my MacPro.... What is the "Maximum" total amount of HD capacity that this computer can handle? I have read 3TB from Apple and 8TB from another source.

Is it time to send my new Seagate back to Newegg?

Thanks for your consideration!

Reesche

 

[firestarter]

Could be something wrong with your Seagate. The MacPro has a fairly high spec power supply - which is designed to power a fully loaded computer (ie with 4 drives, 4 graphics cards, full amount of memory etc.).

There shouldn't be any particular limit on total disk space. I have 7TB in my MacPro - and that's 3 years old. Practically, you have 4 slots, so you're limited to 12TB if you use the largest drives available today. There are various ways you can add more drives too!

 

[Reesche]

Hard Drive issues cont....

Thanks for your posting!

I just plugged in the Seagate 2TB drive into my MacPro (By itself) and it shut the computer off again. I'll send this drive back to Newegg.

So your saying there should be no limit to the HD capacity on the MacPro? Is there a booting relationship in the "order you put your drives in to the bays"? 1 thru 4 etc.

NOW....the question is, should I try another 2TB drive and if so maybe another brand? I have had good luck with Western Digital. What 2tb drive would you suggest for my MacPro?

The problem with these (large capacity, low price drives) is that a ton of people have sent many of them back because of failure. An article stated that everyone WANTS more storage at a lower price but no one backs them up with support or warranties.

Thanks for you info!
Reesche

 

[ActionableMango]

WD Greens are known for their power efficiency. Maybe the startup draw seems high, but only in relation to their normal power use. In any case, the MP can certainly handle the power requirements of hard drives.

I use two 1.5TB WD Greens myself, they are okay. I just added a 2TB Samsung Spinpoint F4. They are similar to the greens in that they are low RPM and efficient, yet they are speedier than the Greens somehow.

 

[Reesche]

Internal HD cont.....

Hi Mike.... After removing the 2TB Seagate I re-installed my 2 other drives and they are just fine.

No other peripherals or PCI cards are installed internally. I do have a 1TB "external" USB drive hooked up for back up.

And NO difference putting the 2TB Seagate in different bays.

I am sending the Seagate back for a refund to NewEgg today. Can you steer me to a good (not too expensive ) 1 or 2TB drive that you know works? Like I said before I have 2 Western Digital 320 and 500 in my machine now and have never had issues. But they are not TB's. I just want this to be over.... I've lost 3 days of troubleshooting this thing!

Let me know what you think.

Reesche

 

[firestarter]

Reesche - I've had a string of drives in my MacPro over the years - Seagate Barracuda 750, 1TB, 1.5TB, 2TB drives, Hitachi deskstar 1TB drive, 150GB Western Digital Raptor. All have worked fine.

As my space needs increase, I swap out my internal drives, install bigger ones and use the old ones as backups.

My current setup is:
Boot disk - 600GB Western Digital Raptor
Other 3 disks - 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green

Supposedly the caviar green drives are lower power/lower noise when they're not being used. For data storage they've been fine (not the fastest, but for audio/movies that's OK).

The Raptor boot disk is a fast 10000rpm drive. Not as fast as SSD, but it seems to keep things snappy.

 

[Reesche]

Finally taken care of!

Just want to thank you guys for all of your feedback with my HDD delema!

I returned my Baracuda and bought a Western Digital and have had NO problems with this 2TB hard....(to date).... knock on wood!

Thanks again!

Reesche