ATA drives okay in Mac Pro?

[netdog]

I have some ATA drives that I would like to mount in a Mac Pro. I know that they would be slow, but will they work at all?

 

[TBi]

Well seeing as the MP doesn't actually have an ATA controller you are a bit out of luck.

You'll have to find yourself a PCI-E based ata interface card... if they exist.

EDIT: Seems i'm wrong and the MP does have an ATA controller for the DVD-Drive. I had thought they went all SATA.

 

[netdog]

I guess that I'll just keep them as AirDrives.

 

[ab2650]

I guess that I'll just keep them as AirDrives.

Or toss them unto a USB/Firewire enclosure.

 

[netdog]

Or toss them unto a USB/Firewire enclosure.

They are in a USB/Firewire enclosures now. I just don't want a desk piled in drives.

 

[l33r0y]

They are in a USB/Firewire enclosures now. I just don't want a desk piled in drives.

Why not buy a new large SATA drive to go in the Mac Pro to *replace* the PATA drives? You can buy a 500Gb SATAII for £65 nowdays...

 

[chas0001]

I have some ATA drives that I would like to mount in a Mac Pro. I know that they would be slow, but will they work at all?

I have an ATA drive installed under the DVD drive in my MAC PRO using the connections for the second DVD. Got some mounting brackets off ebay in order to install it properly. Works like a charm. 🙂

 

[Pressure]

The optical drive in the Mac Pro still uses P-ATA, so you could use that cable (slave), which otherwise would be used for a second SuperDrive.

 

[absolution]

You could use these mounting brackets to mount one of your ATA drives in the DVD-ROM bay:

http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2704&RequestTimeOut=500

 

[SDAVE]

Yep, the Superdrives still use IDE (Unfortunately). So if you have 1 superdrive, you can mount an iDE drive underneath it.