MP 1,1-5,1 DriveDX boot and storage health

[bjolester]

I have checked the health of my 2010 Mac Pro 2.4Ghz eight core running OS Sierra, with DriveDX. The Mac Pro is original/unaltered and still uses the original Apple/Toshiba SSD as the boot drive. My main storage disk is a HGST 7K4000 Deskstar 4TB HDD purchased new from eMacsales in 2017.

Two questions:

1. How serious are the health indicators on the boot drive? Do I need to replace it immediately?

2. Why is the overall health percentage on my HGST Deskstar as low as 96.2%?

 

[Bigwaff]

The DriveDx documentation should help you understand the metrics and indicators in the report.

DriveDx - Online Help

Everything you always wanted to know about SSD and HDD health diagnostic but were afraid to ask.

binaryfruit.com

 

[tsialex]

SMART 170/171/172 errors are extremely serious, you probably already have data loss and don't know it.

I have the exact same SSD and the same SMART errors, later I've found that some of my files were corrupted.

 

[bjolester]

SMART 170/171/172 errors are extremely serious, you probably already have data loss and don't know it.

View attachment 2313040

I have the exact same SSD and the same SMART errors, later I've found that some of my files were corrupted.

Thank you for commenting and for warning me! I am about to format and install osSierra on a lightly used Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD and use this as a replacement Boot drive. Hopefully this will function well.

I use my Mac Pro mostly for photo editing but also some work in Logic Pro. All my raw files are stored on a third "Master" volum/drive which is newish and in 100% condition.

My main concern is the status of my Aperture 3.6 app on the Boot drive, which contains all the photo edits. Well, I will probably become aware of corrupted image files (edited files) if indeed there are any.

 

[mattspace]

Thank you for commenting and for warning me! I am about to format and install osSierra on a lightly used Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD and use this as a replacement Boot drive. Hopefully this will function well.

I use my Mac Pro mostly for photo editing but also some work in Logic Pro. All my raw files are stored on a third "Master" volum/drive which is newish and in 100% condition.

My main concern is the status of my Aperture 3.6 app on the Boot drive, which contains all the photo edits. Well, I will probably become aware of corrupted image files (edited files) if indeed there are any.

The Aperture app, and the catalogue package file, which will contain your master images (if Managed library) and the metadata for the edit versions, are separate things.

by default the catalogue is stored in ~/pictures, though it can be on any connected volume.

 

[bjolester]

The Aperture app, and the catalogue package file, which will contain your master images (if Managed library) and the metadata for the edit versions, are separate things.

by default the catalogue is stored in ~/pictures, though it can be on any connected volume.

The Aperture library containing my master images is placed on a separate "Master" SSD drive.

How should I best move the Aperture 3.6 app metadata (edits) from the failing Apple/Toshiba SSD to my replacement Samsung 850 PRO Boot SSD drive? Simply innstall the Aperture 3.6 app on the Samsung 850 PRO and manually replace the app with the one containing all my work (edits)?

 

[bjolester]

My Samsung 850 PRO 256GB that I will use to replace my failing Apple/Toshiba boot SSD drive is currently on firmware EXM02B6Q.

Would updating to the most recent firmware (EXM04B6Q) help with compatability with my 2010 Mac Pro? Or should I just install the 850 PRO with the EXM02B6Q firmware?

 

[mattspace]

The Aperture library containing my master images is placed on a separate "Master" SSD drive.

How should I best move the Aperture 3.6 app metadata (edits) from the failing Apple/Toshiba SSD to my replacement Samsung 850 PRO Boot SSD drive? Simply innstall the Aperture 3.6 app on the Samsung 850 PRO and manually replace the app with the one containing all my work (edits)?

OK, so you're using a Managed library, where your photos are copied into the Aperture Library, rather than being Referenced, is that correct? You don't have a separate folder / drive with all your images in Y/M/D subfolders, or similar?

The edits etc are kept in the catalogue, not the application. So you can simply drag the Aperture Library (whatever it's named - "Aperture Library" is the default) to the good hard drive.

Then if you reinstall Aperture on your new boot system, open that library file, and it will be back as it was before. You may need to do a manual export of Keywords from your old copy, when you can then import to the new copy.

Then the Application's preferences file is in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Aperture.plist - copy that to the appropriate place in the new OS install.

Of course, if you use Migration Assistant to set up the new drive and OS install, a lot of that may be done for you.

BTW do you have Time Machine backing up your system? It's clever with the Aperture library, in that it looks inside it, and only backs up incremental changes within, rather than the whole thing.

 

[tsialex]

My Samsung 850 PRO 256GB that I will use to replace my failing Apple/Toshiba boot SSD drive is currently on firmware EXM02B6Q.

Would updating to the most recent firmware (EXM04B6Q) help with compatability with my 2010 Mac Pro? Or should I just install the 850 PRO with the EXM02B6Q firmware?

Always update first with a PC, if you have access to one, but now Magician is also avaliable for macOS.

Btw, I still update the SSD with a PC, it's the first release for macOS and it's a very weird port.

 

[bjolester]

Always update first with a PC, if you have access to one, but now Magician is also avaliable for macOS.

Btw, I still update the SSD with a PC, it's the first release for macOS and it's a very weird port.

Thank you! I was planning to update via the firmware ISO burned to a CD, and install the 850 pro inside my MBP mid-2012 (with optical drive).

I do not have a PC.

 

[tsialex]

Thank you! I was planning to update via the firmware ISO burned to a CD, and install the 850 pro inside my MBP mid-2012 (with optical drive).

I do not have a PC.

Works fine too.

 

[bjolester]

OK, so you're using a Managed library, where your photos are copied into the Aperture Library, rather than being Referenced, is that correct? You don't have a separate folder / drive with all your images in Y/M/D subfolders, or similar?

The edits etc are kept in the catalogue, not the application. So you can simply drag the Aperture Library (whatever it's named - "Aperture Library" is the default) to the good hard drive.

Then if you reinstall Aperture on your new boot system, open that library file, and it will be back as it was before. You may need to do a manual export of Keywords from your old copy, when you can then import to the new copy.

Then the Application's preferences file is in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Aperture.plist - copy that to the appropriate place in the new OS install.

Of course, if you use Migration Assistant to set up the new drive and OS install, a lot of that may be done for you.

BTW do you have Time Machine backing up your system? It's clever with the Aperture library, in that it looks inside it, and only backs up incremental changes within, rather than the whole thing.

View attachment 2313247

Inspired by "diglloyd" (Lloyd Chambers) I have configurated my Mac Pro with three separate drives: Boot - Master - Backup
The Aperture Library and my master image files are on the "Master" SSD (the master images in folders and Y/M/D subfolders). I guess this is called a Referenced library? I cannot remember now how I set up the Aperture Library so that the Aperture app would connect to it - maybe I made an Alias and put inside the Photos folder on the Boot drive? Anyway, the Aperture Library on the 100% healthy "Master" SSD is roughly 30GB in size and contains almost exclusively photo edits - hundreds of hours of work. I understand now that this work (hopefully) is not full of corrupted files.

I have been considering using Time Machine backup, but have read conflicting views about TM and usefulness with the Aperture Library, so I am still backing up manually, after every Aperture session.

 

[bjolester]

Works fine too.

Would it work equally well to update the firmware via ISO burned to a CD with the 850 PRO installed inside the 2010 Mac Pro?

 

[mattspace]

Inspired by "diglloyd" (Lloyd Chambers) I have configurated my Mac Pro with three separate drives: Boot - Master - Backup
The Aperture Library and my master image files are on the "Master" SSD (the master images in folders and Y/M/D subfolders). I guess this is called a Referenced library? I cannot remember now how I set up the Aperture Library so that the Aperture app would connect to it - maybe I made an Alias and put inside the Photos folder on the Boot drive? Anyway, the Aperture Library on the 100% healthy "Master" SSD is roughly 30GB in size and contains almost exclusively photo edits - hundreds of hours of work. I understand now that this work (hopefully) is not full of corrupted files.

I have been considering using Time Machine backup, but have read conflicting views about TM and usefulness with the Aperture Library, so I am still backing up manually, after every Aperture session.

If your images in Aperture have a little curled arrow in the corner, and when you import you import to a place in the filesystem, rather than "in the Aperture Library", then you're using a Referenced library. A lot of the size in your library will be the previews which are generated to enable you to sync images over to iOS devices via iTunes.

The Outcome is still the same, however - your edit metadata (the vesioning, the edits themselves etc) are stored in the Library, which exists independently of the Application.

Time Machine should work fine for the Aperture library - because it sees bundle files as directories and can therefore back up only the incremental changes within the Library every time it runs, then the whole thing can be recovered if necessary. Aperture also runs its own internal library backup function. It is good to also have a whole disk backup, using SuperDuper!, Carbon Copy Cloner, or Chronosync. That way you have both the most recent thing as a failsafe, and a versioned backup in case damage to a file has crept in over time.

If / When you eventually retire Aperture or move to a new system, you have a difficult choice in terms of finding a tool to do everything it does. Currently there is nothing on the Mac which can import from device to a Referenced Y/M/D file structure, AND add those files to a Referenced catalogue DAM, AND sync those files back to iOS device (if you're using iOS devices as part of your Aperture library).

Photos.app Pre-Ventura can import the Aperture Library, and use a Referenced library, but can't import from device to a referenced library. Image Capture can import from device to disk, but can't import to a Y/M/D folder structure. Hazel, (an automation tool) can take imported files and generate a Y/M/D folder structure from them, it can also aotomatically add images to Photos' library structure, though I haven't checked if it does referenced import yet.

Peakto is an interesting app, which acts like a Meta-DAM and can see inside the Aperture library (and petty much any other DAM library format). You can also use saved spotlight searches (smart folders) to do a lot of DAM-ish stuff in Finder directly.

Here's the workflow I'm building, so that I'm not reliant on any one tool - everything is redundantly replaceable:

 

[bjolester]

If your images in Aperture have a little curled arrow in the corner, and when you import you import to a place in the filesystem, rather than "in the Aperture Library", then you're using a Referenced library. A lot of the size in your library will be the previews which are generated to enable you to sync images over to iOS devices via iTunes.

The Outcome is still the same, however - your edit metadata (the vesioning, the edits themselves etc) are stored in the Library, which exists independently of the Application.

Time Machine should work fine for the Aperture library - because it sees bundle files as directories and can therefore back up only the incremental changes within the Library every time it runs, then the whole thing can be recovered if necessary. Aperture also runs its own internal library backup function. It is good to also have a whole disk backup, using SuperDuper!, Carbon Copy Cloner, or Chronosync. That way you have both the most recent thing as a failsafe, and a versioned backup in case damage to a file has crept in over time.

If / When you eventually retire Aperture or move to a new system, you have a difficult choice in terms of finding a tool to do everything it does. Currently there is nothing on the Mac which can import from device to a Referenced Y/M/D file structure, AND add those files to a Referenced catalogue DAM, AND sync those files back to iOS device (if you're using iOS devices as part of your Aperture library).

Photos.app Pre-Ventura can import the Aperture Library, and use a Referenced library, but can't import from device to a referenced library. Image Capture can import from device to disk, but can't import to a Y/M/D folder structure. Hazel, (an automation tool) can take imported files and generate a Y/M/D folder structure from them, it can also aotomatically add images to Photos' library structure, though I haven't checked if it does referenced import yet.

Peakto is an interesting app, which acts like a Meta-DAM and can see inside the Aperture library (and petty much any other DAM library format). You can also use saved spotlight searches (smart folders) to do a lot of DAM-ish stuff in Finder directly.

Here's the workflow I'm building, so that I'm not reliant on any one tool - everything is redundantly replaceable:

View attachment 2313317

Thank you for your help and interesting information about Aperture!

Well, I have been planning to add a fourth drive (HDD) to my Mac Pro and format as a TimeMachine backup of my Boot + Master volumes. I will look into this ASAP, I have never experienced an SSD drive failing on me before, consequently "backups" will be my new mantra.

Hopefully I will be able to stay with Aperture 3.6 + OS Sierra + Mac Pro 5.1 for a long time. In addition to Aperture I often use Affinity Photo. I will never commit myself to a subscription based solution like Adobe Lightroom, for instance. Most of my photography is with film, both 35mm and medium format. My "outdated" set-up is perfectly fine for dealing with scanned film and digital photography with, amongst others, Pentax K-5iis and Ricoh GRii (that still have RAW support in osSierra).

Your new workflow seems very flexible and interesting. I adhere to the idea of "not being reliant on any one tool - everything is redundantly replaceable." Great!

 

[bjolester]

Is there a clever way of fitting a Samsung SSD 2.5" into the original Apple SSD tray of the Mac Pro 5.1?

 

[h9826790]

I don't know how to fit that into the tray, but fit a SATA SSD into the cMP is easy. Just remove the case and plug it in.

 

[bjolester]

I don't know hot to fit that into the tray, but fit a SATA SSD into the cMP is easy. Just remove the case and plug it in.
View attachment 2313576

Simple and low cost solution. I never though of this. Thanks!

OWC will have a hard time selling their blue "Mount Pro" trays if this method becomes widely known😁

 

[mattspace]

Simple and low cost solution. I never though of this. Thanks!

OWC will have a hard time selling their blue "Mount Pro" trays if this method becomes widely known😁

the easiest solution is to get NewerTech AdaptaDrive brackets, then you can adapt your sata SSD to any 3.5" mount.

 

[tvv]

Simple and low cost solution. I never though of this. Thanks!

OWC will have a hard time selling their blue "Mount Pro" trays if this method becomes widely known😁

Some people want a drive that is screwed in place/ more secure than just floating by the SATA connector. Plus, often the housing of an SSD is used as a heatsink to help dissipate heat. Removing that housing opens the door for SSDs to get hot (which may hurt the drive/lead to premature failing).

 

[h9826790]

Some people want a drive that is screwed in place/ more secure than just floating by the SATA connector. Plus, often the housing of an SSD is used as a heatsink to help dissipate heat. Removing that housing opens the door for SSDs to get hot (which may hurt the drive/lead to premature failing).

SATA SSD rarely need the case to serve as heatsink. It’s usually the other way around. There is no thermal pad between the case and the chip. The space inside the case act as insulator, which reduce the cooling efficiency.

At least, so far, I opened five different model’s SATA SSD, non of them use the case as heatsink. And all of them cool better without the case.

But of course, the user can prefer to have the drive screwed into position. I respect that.