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Adding a second HDD, Easy as pie or hard as walnuts?

T

tysontabs

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 11, 2007
54
0
Sorry for the lame brain question but, I would like to add a second 320GB SATA drive into my 2008 MP when I get it in March. I plan to install Vista Business onto it. I would like to know what steps are required to install a slave drive into the MP or would 10.5 automatically initialize it when I connect it to the docking port?

I have been using MBP for a couple of years and have had no experience installing a hard disk into an Apple computer.

Thanks!:confused:
 
Installing a second hard drive is only a few steps. :)

1. Pull out drive sled.
2. Screw hard drive into sled.
3. Put drive back in Mac Pro.

And you're done. Then, since you're looking to put Vista on it, just launch Boot Camp and use that to format the drive for Windows, unless it comes pre-formatted that way.

Trust me, it really is easy, I have three internal drives.
 
You're in luck! My six year old nephew would be insulted by how easy adding hard drives to the mac pro is. All you do is pop out one of the trays, slide the drive into the little scooter, then slide the scooter back in! No wires to plug in. Also, since it uses a SATA interface, no need to mess with master or slave settings!

And to reiterate the post above me, setting up a Windows OS with bootcamp is easier than setting up Windows on a PC. (Really, I've been trying to reinstall Vista Ultimate on a PC that I built, and I'm going to have to reformat the drive in another computer. Ridiculous.)
 
Thanks, I will give that a try once the stork delivers the baby next month!

And say, do you know of any way to repair a sliced Cat-5 cable? I have a
100ft cable snaked throughout my home and I need to cut off one foot of it and re-attach the connector. I sliced the cable severely when I closed a closet drawer onto it. I know that they are quite complicated and are filled with many tiny wires. I don't want to re-run the cable if I don't have to, but I think that I may have to!

Thanks!:D
 
I've never done it but you can buy these special things that look like pliers. You put a new connector into them, put the cable in, and press!

It's a little more complicated, but stop by your local Micro Center or Fry's. They should be able to get you everything you need.
 
tysontabs said:
Thanks, I will give that a try once the stork delivers the baby next month!

And say, do you know of any way to repair a sliced Cat-5 cable? I have a
100ft cable snaked throughout my home and I need to cut off one foot of it and re-attach the connector. I sliced the cable severely when I closed a closet drawer onto it. I know that they are quite complicated and are filled with many tiny wires. I don't want to re-run the cable if I don't have to, but I think that I may have to!

Thanks!:D
Click to expand...

It's as easy as pie. A quick trip down to home depot for the network crimper and some connectors and you're done. I purchased a giant spool of cat6 a year or two ago and just make my own cables.
 
Okay, the hardware part is simple.

I have a friend that was picking up some things for me on one of his frequent Fry's run. They had SATA drives on sale and he decided that I really needed another drive for my system. The big question now is how am I going to use this drive.

Is it possible to move /Users to the second drive without introducing problems?
 
I tried an old Maxtor drive install in bay 2. I could not believe how easy it was to install it. It only took a few minutes of very loud noise to remove the thing from my super quiet Mac Pro. I just ordered 2 F1 750s from Newegg.

After switching from a self built PC, I was totally amazing how easy it was to install a drive on the new Mac Pro.

Oh, and I have not experienced one issue with my new Mac. I hesitate to even load windows on it...why deal with the abuse...this is why I left the dark side!
 
I just put in my second 500 gig drive along with the original 320 gig HD. No problems at all. One odd thing, though. Why does Seagate ship their HD's with the jumper installed that throttles it down to 1.5mbps? I've pulled both of them out and I'm not sure if there is one installed in the original stock WD 320 drive. Anybody else pull the jumper out of their Seagates? Any problems?
 
Amazing how many different ways there are to answer the same question. I guess people just want to get their post count higher.
 
it's easier than pie...it's as easy as breathing, which you do unconsciously. Though I wouldn't recommend installing an new HDD without using conscious thought :D
 
Hello everyone, quick question on the topic of installing new hard drives: I just got my new MP this past weekend, plugged in a 500GB WD in the second drive bay and OSX is showing the HD icon on the desktop just below the "Macintoch HD" icon. My question is how come I can't change the new hard drive name from "Untitled" to anything else and is it supposed to show up on the desktop? I had assumed it would only be visible in the left column of the finder. Sorry for the newbie questions, thanks.
 
AdiosVista said:
Hello everyone, quick question on the topic of installing new hard drives: I just got my new MP this past weekend, plugged in a 500GB WD in the second drive bay and OSX is showing the HD icon on the desktop just below the "Macintoch HD" icon. My question is how come I can't change the new hard drive name from "Untitled" to anything else and is it supposed to show up on the desktop? I had assumed it would only be visible in the left column of the finder. Sorry for the newbie questions, thanks.
Click to expand...

Its probably best to start your own thread for a question for better response and the original poster can get his dedicated replies...though theyre all pretty alike.

At any rate, if the drive isnt formatted you can goto disk utility and format and select the name to format it to.

otherwise if it is formatted, just click on and hold a moment on the text below the disk icon and you can change it and then id recommened doing a verify disk/repair permissions just to be safe it sees the new name and all is well.
 
If you don't want it showing up on your desktop, go to Finder | Preferences and in the Sidebar tab uncheck External Disks.
 
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