Other Mac Pro 2.1 and I can't seem to get it to boot.

[psycho78]

Picked up a nice 2.1 Mac Pro (model A1186 EMC 2138) from FB Marketplace cheap this weekend to play around with. Mac looks like it's been upgraded previously and has:
3.0ghz quad core Xeon X5365 processor (x2)
32gb RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB video card

Mac had a 256gb SSD but when I would boot it up, it would get to the Apple logo with loading bar for a moment then Mac would reset and just kept cycling.
Pulled the HDD, erased it completely and made an install USB for Yosemite. Held Option and then chose the flash drive and it then gets to the apple again and loading bar fills up completely then just freezes there. I left it sitting there for a couple hours and no change. Tried a different erased HDD, same thing.

Im kinda stumped on how to get this thing to boot atp. Any ideas?

 

[DeltaMac]

Use a bootable installer that the Mac Pro2,1 supports natively. Yosemite is too new.
Newest supported with your Mac Pro is Lion

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Picked up a nice 2.1 Mac Pro (model A1186 EMC 2138) from FB Marketplace cheap this weekend to play around with. Mac looks like it's been upgraded previously and has:
3.0ghz quad core Xeon X5365 processor (x2)
32gb RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB video card

Mac had a 256gb SSD but when I would boot it up, it would get to the Apple logo with loading bar for a moment then Mac would reset and just kept cycling.
Pulled the HDD, erased it completely and made an install USB for Yosemite. Held Option and then chose the flash drive and it then gets to the apple again and loading bar fills up completely then just freezes there. I left it sitting there for a couple hours and no change. Tried a different erased HDD, same thing.

Im kinda stumped on how to get this thing to boot atp. Any ideas?

In the link below there is a disk image of El Capitan modified to boot on Mac Pro 2,1.
1. Download it
2. On a working Mac, restore it to a blank HDD or SSD.
3. Transfer the HDD/SSD you've just restored to the Mac Pro 2,1, slot 1 (on the left)
4. Now boot the MP2,1 with the HDD/SSD as the only disk installed.

El Capitan.dmg

drive.google.com

The link I got from the below video, worked like a charm on my MP1,1.

 

[psycho78]

In the link below there is a disk image of El Capitan modified to boot on Mac Pro 2,1.
1. Download it
2. On a working Mac, restore it to a blank HDD or SSD.
3. Transfer the HDD/SSD you've just restored to the Mac Pro 2,1, slot 1 (on the left)
4. Now boot the MP2,1 with the HDD/SSD as the only disk installed.

El Capitan.dmg

drive.google.com

The link I got from the below video, worked like a charm on my MP1,1.

Thanks! Will try it this week!
Quick question—when you say “restore the image to a blank had/sdd”—how exactly do you restore it to a blank harddrive?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Thanks! Will try it this week!
Quick question—when you say “restore the image to a blank had/sdd”—how exactly do you restore it to a blank harddrive?

It's quite a long time ago.

Below is a tutorial video for your reference. You can boot from Recovery partition, or from a bootable USB installer, the purpose is to access and use Disk Utility.
I remember the last time I used Disk Utility within Mac OS Lion booting from my Mac Pro 1,1.
If you use Windows, I read somewhere that you can use Transmac app to restore the disk image file to a blank disk.

 

[psycho78]

Worked like a charm. Thanks yall!