Adding optical drive to Mac Pro

I have added RAM & hard drives to my Mac Desktops, including the Mac Pro, but have never messed with the optical drive.
Recently, I decided that I would like to have a second CD/DVD RW drive in the Mac Pro. I have two questions:
1 - can someone recommend a good internal CD/DVD RW drive for the Mac Pro? I mainly do audio CDs, occasionally DVDs, do not need Blu-Ray as of yet.
2 - is there a visual guide for installing an optical drive? If it's as easy as inserting hard drives, it should be a piece of cake.
thanks!
w

Be sure to get a drive that uses ATA, such as the Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-115D, not SATA. You need to remove the tray lip.
<http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=removedrivedoor.html>
Apple provides the mounting screws. They are on the back of the metal drive holder. Set the drive jumper to CS (Cable Select). Be careful when putting the drive holder back into the Mac Pro, so you don't nick or pinch any cables.
Eject will open the upper drive. Option-Eject will open the lower drive.

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Adding 2nd Optical Drive into Mac Pro (first gen) makes both unusable!

Hey all,
I recently purchased a second DVD drive to go into my first gen Mac Pro 2.66Ghz.
The installation went a little rough, although OK in the end. The IDE cable seemed reluctant to want to stay in a safe place.
Upon booting however, and now had no optical drives installed!
Even System Profiler reported no disc burning capabilities except my external USB CD Burner.
I've taken the second Optical Drive out, which by the way was one of these: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Samsung/SHS202NBLS/
My original Sony (Disguised NEC drive) drive is now working again, although what on earth happened?
Should I try swapping the drives around? E.g the Sony on the bottom and Samsung on top?
Any thoughts would be appreciated,
Thanks,

I have an idea,
Perhaps the newer DVD Drive I have here is "better" than the currently installed one, and therefore doesn't like being connected as the slave (bottom) to the "weaker" master (top) drive?
Could it be something like that?

Adding non mac drives to Mac Pro

Please forgive me if this has been answered somewhere already. I've tried searching and I can't seem to find the answer. I am trying to help my nephew order a new Mac Pro on a budget. As I understand it, the Apple branded drives for Mac Pro come with some sort of holder which allows the drive to slide into the bay. Is this holder included in the case or is there any way to buy one for use with a third party drive?

There are trays for four drives, you don't need to purchase any (unless you want spares for more than four drives).
Any SATA drive will work.
I'm not even sure if there is such a thing as Apple-branded which usually would mean specialized firmware only. Physically all drives are just standard drives.
Do make sure though that your nephew is prepared to have a couple (2) of backup drives and maybe a data drive. Having an emergency boot drive plus a bootable backup of the system should never be ignored or skipped.
TransIntl sells extra trays for $29 or 2 for $49, though I don't think you'll need any. For now
300 and 500GB drives go for $68-168 looking at Maxtor Maxline III 300 to WD RE2 500. With MaxLine Pro 500 in-between or WD RE 320, both around $110-120.

Installing three SSD drives on Mac Pro

Hello,
I followed the advice given here and bought 3 Samsung 840 SSD drives for my Mac Pro. Two of them are 120GB and one is 250GB.
I also purchased a Tempo SSD Pro 6GB/s SATA PCIe Drive. Only one of them (that holds two SSDs.)
I plan on using:
     • one SSD for the OS and APPS
     • one SSD for a PS scratch disc
     • one SSD for the photoshop, premiere pro, and after effects files I'm currently working on.
I figured I'd keep the 1TB HDD currently used in the computer to store all my other files.
I also have a 1TB seagate extrenal HDD that I would like to set up as a back up or time machine.
Does this sound good?
If so, which SSD do I install in my regular sliding drawer bay? I have 2.5" - 3.5" adapter.
Which two do I install on the PCIe card?
Which on do I use for what?
As you can see I'm clueless. Lol
Here are my specs before adding the SSDs.
Mac Pro
Mid 2012
Processor 3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 48 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB
Software OS X 10.8.4 (12E55)
Storage 1TB Sata disc (423.26GB free),
               1TB External USB Disk freeAgent GoFlex Drive (988.58 free)
P.S. I'm unsure about being able to install my current O.S. on the new SSD. When I bought the Mac Pro it had an older version of OS on it with a free download of the new OS. So the disc will only have the older version. Will I have to pay for the newer one or can I somehow copy it from the current HDD drive it's installed on?
Thank you so much. You have already been a HUGE help in the past posts and look forward to your wisdom. 8 )
Matt

Clone the system to the SSD you plan to use for system.
How much disk space is your system using now? w/o incl. anything in /Users, so just system.
If your system uses 60GB you want to use the 240GB SSD.
I think 120GB is on small side for scratch alone.
move projects to scratch array when you want to work on them: "Work disk + scratch" is fast. Then move them off the array, erase the array, and start a new project.
I would try the 2 x 120 SSDs on PCIe 6G as scratch and see how it feels and works.Try and test. No harm. I think that is what most people do, they experiement and try out different setups to find the one that works best for them.
Important: Have a clone of the system and be ready to restore or move it around as needed.
Install TRIM Enabler of course.
SSD Maintenance
Samsung recommends setting aside 10% for over-provisioning.
Their Windows utility, shame there isn't a Mac version.
#2: Try system on 120GB in drive bay with an adapter
With that then use the other two on the Tempo.
Those could be one large 360GB volume JBOD.
You will have to see how much your scratch space gets used.
I would have argued for 3 x 240GB SSDs. More flexible. Better SSD design - slightly. Adds $140 to the price, even if you had to wait to get 3rd one;
#3 get 2 x 240GB for scratch and projects and 1 x 120GB for system (if your system is less than 50GB)
I doubt you will find the difference of the system on the Sonnet Tempo a deciding factor.
The Sonnet Tempo Pro is for higher I/O RAID, both Tempo cards support 2 x SSDs (I have the cheaper one)
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-120GB-internal-MZ-7TD120BW/dp/B009NHAF06/
PS: You have Mountain Lion. Buy Carbon Copy Cloner and it will clone the system and create the recovery volume also so you should not need to redownload 10.8.x - and you do not need the DVD with 10.6.4 again.

How do I put windows on a seperate internal drive in mac pro

how do I put windows on an internal drive in mac pro (not the OSX drive)

Take out all your other drives.
Boot Windows installer DVD like Windows 8 or 7 64-bit Pro.
Install.
Not so hard.
In fact installing on another drive w/o taking out others is much much more complicated and you have to jump through a hoop. And is not even documented! And there is a forum for Boot Camp aka Windows on Mac.
Mac 101: Using Windows on your Mac via Boot Camp
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1461
Boot Camp, Windows 8
General installation questions
What is Boot Camp 5?
Boot Camp 5 is not a release of OS X software. Rather, it is a release of the Windows Support Software (drivers). You will need to use this software on your Mac with Windows 8 or Windows 7. For more information on Boot Camp 5, see this article.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5639
Which Macs support Windows 8?
Mac Pro (Early 2009 or newer)
For more information, see this article.
What are the System Requirements for Windows 8?
Please see this article.
How can I install Windows 8 on an eligible computer?
Use the Boot Camp Assistant. The assistant will partition your internal hard drives and install Windows 8. For more information on Windows 8 installation, see the Boot Camp Installation & Setup Guide.

Upgrade boot drive in MAC PRO Early 2008 to SSD

Looking to upgrade my boot drive on Mac Pro Early 2008.
Possibly with SSD, but wasnt sure of compatibility. Also, is it a huge sacrafice in storage?
I'd appreciate any assistance.
Thank you!!!
Lyle

Establish a Boot Drive on the fast SSD, and move all User files off to other drives. These articles may help:
Japamac's Blog: Make space for performance -- Moving the Home Folder
http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-move-the-home-folder-in-os-x-and-why/
OSX Tips: Setting-up a new Mac from an old one or its Backups
Transferring Home Folders not on a Startup volume
be sure to heed Pondini's warning:
If you do put home folders on a separate volume, it's strongly recommended that an Admin account and its home folder remain on the Startup volume. If there isn't one, and you have a problem with the separate home folder volume, you cannot log on to your Mac! And in some cases it will greatly complicatetransferring to a new Mac.
So if you're transferring from an available Mac that doesn't have an Admin account on its Startup volume, create one via System Preferences > Accounts before starting.
I have created a new User Tip with this information in it:
User Tip: Creating a lean, fast Boot Drive

Is it OK to use USB 2.0 connection for Glyph external drive and Mac Pro as project drive?

Is it OK to use a USB 2.0 connection for Glyph external drive and Mac Pro as project drive? I was told by Sweetwater tech support to use Firewire, but both the FW400 and FW800 connections crash my audio interface software mixer (Presonus' "Universal Control" software).
Both Firewire connections also create a 10 second hang for each Command-Save that I do.
USB 2.0 for the external drive seems to be working so far, but is there some reason I should be wary of using this as my go-to project drive? In other words, I am imagining that there was probably some definite reason that the tech support guy mentioned not to use it. But maybe not. It's a brand new Glyph. In any event, it's nice to have the 10 second hang eliminated, and I was just looking for some advice, since digging into the Presonus software issue could take some time.

If you have a mac pro, why not stick the external HDD inside via one of your many SATA cables & have it run 9 times faster than your USB?
Or stick a HDD CADDY in your mac pro, so you can slot in a full sized 3TB HDD for recording, and when you are done, pull it out & slip it in an external enclosure if you need to take it places?

Retrieve data from a Hard Disk That was connected to the optical Drive of Mac Book pro

Hi Experts
I have been using a Mac Book pro from 2011 (Early 2011 Model), In the mid of 2012 I have planned to upgrade, and bought a 240 GB SSD and 16 GB ram from OWC, Installed successfully and bought another 750 GB WD Sata Disk and connected it to the Optical Drive Bay of the Laptop, using the optical drive as an external device now
I was using the SSD as the main disk for all the applications and OS itself, and tranferred all the user library (iTunes Library, iPhoto Library, Documents etc..) to the additinal 750 SATA Disk,
Last week the Mag Safe cable has been worn out and seperated completely from the adapter, I tried soldering the cable again and it was working for two days, third day The machine stopped charging and it was working until the battery run out of charge,
Now I have bought a new Mag Safe Charger for 108 Singapore Dollars and it wont charge, read in iFixit Forums to change the Mag Safe DC in Board, so found a new part in singapore and replaced DC in Board myself, after doing this when I connected the new mag safe adapter, it fired the cpu fan for two second, I was able to see the green light the adapter and it stopped again and the green light wont lit up now
Removed the logic board from Laptop completely and tried connecting the Mag Safe Adapter I can see the green light,
So with all the above details, Iam confused whether its the Logic Board or the Battery that is giving me issue, I can find out the problem by contacting a Authorised service centre, but Iam thinking whether its is worth to repair it or buy a New Mac Book Pro ?, Because if I need to change the logic Board need to spend 900 Dollars + 100 dollar service charge
So I was trying to remove the 750 GB WD Sata Disk to see if I can get the data back so I can buy a new Laptop without worrying,
The real issue now is when I connect the 750 WD Disk using a sata to usb converter cable to my official macbook, it says the connected USB device is drawing more power than expected and it wont even detect the hard disk, Iam wondering why it cannot detect the hard disk even in the disk utility, is there any way to get the data back from the 750 GB WD Sata disk (which was connected to the Optical Drive Bay)
Your expert advice is much appreciated
Regards
Vinodh

Welcome to the discussions!
It sounds as if your disk was not correctly formatted to work with the Mac operating system. I suspect it was formatted in FAT32, which is primarily a Windows format. This type of format will not allow the disk to accept any files larger than 4GB. That's probably why you are seeing the crashes.
Connect the drive to your Mac and open Applications > Utilities > Airport Utility.
Click your disk on the left and click the erase tab on the right. You need to format the drive in +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+. Formatting will erase everything on the disk.
Then you could try the drive again attached to your AirPort Extreme to see if that will do what you want.

Use macbook pro optical drive with mac mini

Just received my new mac mini. Wonderful.
I would like to keep my old 2006 Macbook Pro 2,2 and use it as a DVD drive. It is running 10.7.5.
Would you please give me some advice and pointers?
Also, I have a few files on the old MBpro I would like to transfer to the Mac Mini. What's the best way?
Finally, what else could I do with the old machine? It was a fine computer, and it feels sad being underused.
Thanks,
K.

Amazing.
It took just a few minutes to find answers to my questions. Congratulations for such a user friendly OS.
I just had to connect everything and open the finder on my mac mini.
So, here is what I found:
- "Remote Disc" is the name of the feature to share the optical drive
- not every type of disc is supported though. Why? How can I watch a DVD on my 27'' display?
- the MBP files show up in the finder, i can transfer them
- using "share c=screen" I can see my MBP screen. Should I use that feature to watch a DVD on the 27'' display?

Adding 1TB or 1.5TB SATA drives to Mac Pro?

When I ordered my Mac Pro the largest hard drive that could be ordered from Apple when configuring was 500GB. Up to 4 of them.
I was wondering if I were to pick up a 1TB or 1.5TB SATA internal 3.5" drive, would it work with my Mac Pro?
I know that "back in the days" of IDE drives, that a motherboards and IDE controllers had a limit to how big of a harddrive they could handle. For example, my old Dual G4 MDD model could only hand 120GB drives, anything over that wouldn't work.
Thanks in advance!
Phil

When I bought my Mac Pro the largest drive I could order was 750G. I've swapped them out and now use 2TB WD Caviar Green SATA 3Gb s Internal Hard Drives. I've had no problems whatsoever and have never had a problem with an internal drive. OTOH, I won't buy Lacie external drives for they've proven to be just bad hardware and stay away from MyBook hard drives. For external hard drives then, BAM, go with the Drobo External Hard Drive Bundle (an external enclosure). It offer four drive bays just like the Mac Pro. Drobo utilizes a revolutionary storage technology that makes it simple for anyone to use, yet is powerful enough for business. Once you experience the power of Drobo, the idea of keeping multiple external drives or a RAID 5 array will seem as antiquated as that 28.8Kbps modem in the back of your closet.
You can load it up with 8 - 2TB WD Caviar Green SATA 3Gb s Internal Hard Drives for a total of 16TB ( 8 internal, 8 external) and not have to worry about backups or space for a few years. The Drobo monitors the external drives and should anyone begin to show a problem or signs of failure, will quickly warn you and shift the data to empty space on any of the other drives allowing you to replace the failed drive.

Adding new hard drive to Mac Pro (quad core)

I've just ordered a new Mac Pro quad core (2.66 GHz) with one GB HD. Since Apple is charging £240 for a second drive I decided to get it from somewhere else. I found a 1GB Western Digital Caviar Green but I also noticed 1GB WD Caviar Black. I wonder if anybody has any experience of those drives and would they work with the latest Mac Pro ?
Does anybody knows what make of drive is Apple using in their latest Mac Pros ?
Tom

*WD Caviar Black 640GB*
HD Tune: WDC WD6401AALS-00L3B2 Benchmark
Transfer Rate Minimum : 59.1 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 118.1 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 96.4 MB/sec
Access Time : 11.8 ms
Burst Rate : 125.3 MB/sec
*Black Caviar 1TB:*
HD Tune: WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B Benchmark
Transfer Rate Minimum : 53.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 108.7 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 86.1 MB/sec
Access Time : 12.9 ms
Burst Rate : 111.5 MB/sec
+(note the slower average to the smaller 640GB model)+
*Green Power 1TB*
HD Tune: WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1 Benchmark
12-23-2008
Transfer Rate Minimum : 41.6 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 95.6 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 74.3 MB/sec
Access Time : 14.0 ms
Burst Rate : 117.2 MB/sec
*WD Caviar Blue 640GB*
HD Tune: WDC WD6400AAKS-00A7B Benchmark
Transfer Rate Minimum : 55.6 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 113.3 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 90.2 MB/sec
Access Time : 11.8 ms
Burst Rate : 112.9 MB/sec
the 32MB cache did not make a real or noticeable difference in benchmarks
http://www.barefeats.com/hard112.html

Adding Optical Drive

So I'm sitting here, waiting on my Mac Pro to ship, and the more I think about it, the more I feel I should have gotten the 2nd optical drive.
Of course, I don't want to do anything to slow down the shipping of my Mac if I don't have to. So I was wondering if anyone knew if this can be added at a later time (I'm still fairly new to Apple hardware)? Will Apple sell these drives seperately?

If/when I decide to get a MacPro I will probably just get the one drive and get the second one later. Maybe wait a bit for Blu-ray to come down. I believe the current stock optical drive is a Sony model. Say I don't go Blu-ray and instead get another "super drive" type of drive - would the latest Pioneer drive work with say iDVD?

Using G5 HD and DVD Drive in Mac Pro

I just ordered a Mac Pro to replace my G5/Paperweight.
G5 is the Dual 2.5Ghz model w/ 160G HD and the Superdrive. According to the Apple Store I brought it to when it crashed, the HD from the G5 is fine (the MoBo went though) as is the Superdrive. Are these compatible with the Mac Pro? What about jumper settings?

As long as the hard drive is a SATA drive it is fully compatible with a Mac Pro. The optical drive should work as well. If there already is an optical drive installed then you may need to jumper the drive for CABLE SELECT if it isn't already so configured.

Install 2nd DVD Drive in Mac Pro 1,1 or 3,1

Would anyone have info on installing a 2nd optical drive in either the 1st-Generation or 3rd Generation Mac Pro? Seems ticky to open the optical compartment open. Thanks.

The instructions can be found here: http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/0/MA177/en_US/MacPro_OpticalDrive_DIY.pdf
Edit: Note, you need to remove the bezel off of the drive drawer before installing. And make sure you keep the latch on the back of the computer in the up position, it locks the drive carrier in place when in the down position. It can take some wiggling and effort to get the drive carrier out.

Drive On Mac Pro Won't Open For Firmware Restoration?

Hi--
My Mac Pro (early 2008 model, OS 10.6.8) has recently begun having problems that seem firmware-related. When put in "Sleep" mode overnight, it wakes up on its own after about two hours of sleep and remains awake. Also, from time to time it will display the prompt window ("Do You Want To Shut Down?") for a hard (button) shutdown---without the button having been pressed. Resetting the SMC and the PRAM solves the problem for awhile, but it's becoming necessary to do that more and more frequently---at first, the problem occured about every six months, then weekly, until now I'm getting the shutdown prompt and have to reset the SMC almost every day.
Internet searches of this and other forums have indicated that a possible solution is restoring the firmware. I have made a Firmware Restoration CD but I cannot get the machine to recognize it. That is, when I press and hold the startup button I get the "three long-three short-three-long" beeps; according to Apple's FAQ on ths subject, the optical drive door should then open and allow me to insert the Firmware Restoration disk, but that doesn't happen--the computer just goes right on with the normal startup sequence.
Please advise.

all I can do is tell you what I've learned here-try either one of these-hold down the shift key on startup/hold down the mouse on startup/if not, See if you can boot up in single user mode/reset NVRAM,(command option, o+F)on reboot . Failing that....pull down the optical drive door, and using a straightened extra study paperclip, find the small hole near the optical drive tray. Stick that paperclip in and the tray should open up just enough for you to grab it and put the cd in there. Maybe then, start up holding down the C key......
just a guess though
Good luck to you
John B

Adding optical drive to Mac Pro

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