MP 1,1-5,1 Weird Drive Issue

[AmbroseM]

This is a little weird.

I have an ancient Mac Pro 4.1 on OSX 10.11.6. Recently there have been a number of 'refurbished' 6Tb hard disks on the market.

I bought a particular model and found that it mounts and works fine on power-up, but does not mount on restart. This issue only occurs when this model (HGST HUH728060ALE600) is installed internally. It works fine as an external drive on the USB bus (albeit a lot slower).
A different drive, same brand, same size, but different model (HGST HUS726060ALA640) works fine internally and externally.
The main difference between the specifications of these two is the one that works has a 64Mb cache and the one that doesn't mount on restart has a 128Mb cache.

My first thought was I had a bad drive. I returned it and several weeks later I got a second drive from a different retailer - and it does the same thing.

Anybody else seen anything like this?

Anybody know why?

My guess is it's a firmware bug on that particular model drive - but that's a guess with only negative evidence. I know it isn't the size and I know the drive works - I don't have a way to review the firmware. Is there an error log somewhere that would show something?

 

[h9826790]

Join this thread.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macpro-5-1-high-capacity-hard-drives.1971809/

Possible fix at post #43

 

[AmbroseM]

Join this thread.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macpro-5-1-high-capacity-hard-drives.1971809/

Possible fix at post #43

I think the guy at post #17 had the original discovery of the pin 3 fix. But I've got the other problem - the no mount on warm-start issue.

Thanks for the link - theres a lot of information there and confirmation I'm seeing a common issue, even though theres no fix for it.

 

[h9826790]

I think the guy at post #17 had the original discovery of the pin 3 fix. But I've got the other problem - the no mount on warm-start issue.

Thanks for the link - theres a lot of information there and confirmation I'm seeing a common issue, even though theres no fix for it.

It's the same problem, still pin 3 related.

My understand, cold boot and warm boot power the pin 3 at slightly different timing, which seems lead to this difference result. In fact, you may try another slot, which may also helps.

 

[AmbroseM]

It's the same problem, still pin 3 related.

My understand, cold boot and warm boot power the pin 3 at slightly different timing, which seems lead to this difference result. In fact, you may try another slot, which may also helps.

That's a nice theory but nope, not in my case. I tried it just to be sure. The design of my drives is old enough they don't have the hardware shutdown on pin 3, so taping it makes no difference - same as several others reported on the other thread. No mount on restart with or without tape.

 

[h9826790]

That's a nice theory but nope, not in my case. I tried it just to be sure. The design of my drives is old enough they don't have the hardware shutdown on pin 3, so taping it makes no difference - same as several others reported on the other thread. No mount on restart with or without tape.

Then may be easier to keep the HDD in an external enclosure.

As long as it's USB 3.0, that shouldn't slow down anything.

 

[AmbroseM]

Then may be easier to keep the HDD in an external enclosure.

As long as it's USB 3.0, that shouldn't slow down anything.

Go back and read the original post.

Most mac-savy dudes know USB 2.0 was the hot tech when my mac was built.

What is easier is to use the 64M cache drive that functions fine in an internal bay and find some other use for the 128M cache drive.

A.M.

 

[h9826790]

Go back and read the original post.

Most mac-savy dudes know USB 2.0 was the hot tech when my mac was built.

What is easier is to use the 64M cache drive that functions fine in an internal bay and find some other use for the 128M cache drive.

A.M.

You just said that your drive work a lot slower via USB in the original post. Didn't mention that's USB 2.0. That's why I emphasis "USB 3.0" in my last post. Most mac-savy dudes knows USB 3.0 is one of the most popular low cost upgrade for cMP today.