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Help installing Samsung 840 pro in Mac pro 3.1

N

nicolasmasset

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 25, 2007
135
5
Belgium
Hi there,

So I bought a Samsung 840 pro 256 for my aging mac pro 2x 2.8 Xeon.
After alot of finger fumbling with the sata cable, I finally got it next to the optical bay.

I want to do a fresh install of osx, no cloning or timemachining.

When I turned on the mac, it said it couldn't initalise the disk or something and asked me wether to eject it, ignore or go to diskutilities. I'm in diskutilities now and I can't seem to be able to partition the drive.

What should I do? Do I need a firmware update on the ssd immediately? The samsung don't come with mac software and but the firmware is available on the website as an iso. But maybe my firmware's already up to date?

Should I just try and restart mac with my old installation disk and will it then ask me to format the disk? Or can I start my install disc from my desktop and then follow the steps and choose the drive?

Help from anyone with the samsung would be much appreciated!

Nicolas
 
flowrider

flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,229
2,956
I have a Samsung 840 series 500GB, and have had no such issues. I have it hooked up with an Apricorn Velocity Solo x2 card. But, I've also had it attached by the second SATA cable in the 2nd optical drive bay. The original firmware would have allowed you to "see" the drive. When I first hooked up mine, on restart I got a dialog box recognizing the disc and asking me if I wanted to format it. I did, and it has worked perfectly ever since. The only issue I have had was that to update firmware, you need to have it hooked to an SATA connected to the MOBO. It would not update through the Solo card. No software is needed to make it work on a Macintosh.

Formware updates are here:

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/samsungssd/downloads.html

You just may have gotten a bad disk, if it continues to give you troubles, exchange it.

Lou
 
N

nicolasmasset

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 25, 2007
135
5
Belgium
Thanks flow rider,

Should I update the firmware before I do an OSX install? Is the firmware update really necessary? On the description of the update on the samsung site it says: "Enabling the DAS function is default option."

I can download two files, one zipped folder containing "DSRD.enc" and "DXM05B0Q.enc" files that have a terminal pic to them. Or I can download an image file. Should I just run the two .enc files?

Also, what is all this about trimming? Will the samsung take care of itself or should software like trim enabler http://www.groths.org?

Nicolas
 
flowrider

flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,229
2,956
To Update firmware you need to:

1. Make sure the firmware needs upgrading. Go to "About This Mac" then click More Info, then click System Report. Scroll down to Serial-ATA and once there clock on the Samsung SSD. The third line down in the drive info. will be the firmware revision.

2. To do the Firmware Update you need to make an ISO Bootable CD. All the instructions necessary to do that are in the pdf file you find next to the firmware update.

BTW, I've had my drive about a 3 weeks now, but when I received it, it was two revisions out of date.

Trim needs to be enabled. With genuine Macintosh drives, Apple enables it by default. There is a utility called Trim Enabler that you need to install that enables it on third party drives. And, it needs to be reinstalled every time you update the OS. It's available here:

http://www.cindori.se/en#3

Lou
 
N

nicolasmasset

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 25, 2007
135
5
Belgium
Thanks so much Lou.

In the end I finally was able to make a bootable osx disc and installed 10.8.4, so it's up and running now. I downloaded the trim enabler and turned it on.

And good news, the firmware is up to date, lucky me!

I've been getting read/write speeds on blackmagic of 258/270 over sata2. I guess that's a normal average speed for sata2 right? Do you think it would be worth it to buy a velocity solo x or x2 for day to day use? This is gonna be my osx drive, but I also have logic pro X installed on it, which installed all of it's samples on the same drive.. I also heard the sonnet tempo ssd gave insane speeds as it bypassed some macpro restrictions...

Next I might raid my two 1gb caviar black drives to store my logic songs on...

Kind regards and many thanks for your help!

Nicolas
 
N

nicolasmasset

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 25, 2007
135
5
Belgium
So what's really wierd to me: I'm now running osx off the ssd, and my previous boot drive still shows up in finder. Now the wierd thing is that I can start programs that are installed on the older drive but not on the ssd!

Is this normal??
 
Last edited:
flowrider

flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,229
2,956
^^^^No, I'm using the SSD as my Boot Drive, and I can open drives on it or any of my other six HDDs. I'm not really sure what you mean that your old boot drive still shows up in finder. All seven of my drives show up in finder, as they should.

Lou
 
N

nicolasmasset

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 25, 2007
135
5
Belgium
Oops, typo there, I meant I'm NOW running osx off my ssd. My old boot drive still shows up in finder, like it should cause it's still connected as are my data drives and I haven't wiped osx off it yet. I can browse through it's folders like library, apps, etc.. But I can also launch apps that are installed on that old drive although I'm running osx off the ssd! That's what's weird to me.

Today I also came to a dilemma, I just realized that for the same amount of money the 840 pro cost me, I could've bought the new 840 evo AND a velocity solo card, enabling me to run the ssd off sata 3 instead of sata 2. I'll maybe return it..
 
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