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Mac Pro 2.8 (2008), problem with new 2TB drive

darkpaw

darkpaw

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2007
810
1,621
London, England
Hi all. I wonder if you guys could help me out here?

First, the Mac Pro's specs:
- 2x2.8GHz Early 2008
- 4 SATA-II HDD drive bays containing:
+ Bay 1: OS X, 500GB Western Digital WD5000AAKS (Apple-supplied)
+ Bay 2: Data, 500GB Western Digital WD5000AAKS (Sep 2007)
+ Bay 3: Stuff, 1.5TB Seagate ST31500341AS
+ Bay 4: Projects, 750GB Samsung HD753LJ

The problem I'm experiencing is that the Data drive in Bay 2 is no longer mounting on startup. It doesn't even show as a drive in Disk Utility.

I've moved the drive to a different bay and it will mount on bootup about 20% of the time. If I put Projects or Stuff into Bay 2, they work fine, so it's not the bay itself.

I ran the Apple Hardware Test's extended tests and looped them overnight, but it reported "No trouble found". Sometimes, Apple System Profiler reports, "There was an error while scanning for Serial-ATA devices".

Running a disk check on Data when it does mount yields no problems, so the data's fine (and it's backed-up anyway).

I needed a larger drive so got a 2TB Hitachi. The Mac Pro isn't recognising it anywhere. It's not there in Disk Utility. The Finder doesn't tell me I've inserted a disk that OS X can't recognise, etc.

Apple hasn't updated the specs for the Early 2008 to state that it can handle a 2TB drive (as 1TB's were the only ones available in early 2008), which isn't a problem because Google yields lots of results with people using 2TB drives perfectly well.

I've tried the drive in all four bays and it is never recognised.

I'm getting really annoyed with this now, as all my music is on the Data drive and I can't do anything in iTunes anymore. (Not the biggest problem, but one of the main ones...)

I don't want to sound desperate, but please help!
 
Cindori said:
it simply sounds broken. try it in windows to eliminate osx issues.
Click to expand...
I'll try Windows. Thanks for the suggestion!

Which part of the setup do you think might be broken? The SATA bay, the logic board, the drive itself, the new drive as well? Or the Apple Hardware Test for not reporting that the SATA bay is borked?

Cheers.
 
bearcatrp said:
I have a 2TB hitachi drive in bay 2 holding my iTunes. No problems. Try reseating it. Should get a prompt to initialize the drive.
Click to expand...
Nope, it just sits there and clicks, which is usually the sign of a borked drive. I guess I'll send it back and get a replacement :(

Thanks for the ideas!
 
I just got my second DOA 2TB Hitachi drive from Newegg, the replacement drive does the same as the original, it just never gets recognized. I tried the first one in 2 mac pro's. I also have a working drive in there, same model, HDS722020ALA330.
 
pablogott said:
I just got my second DOA 2TB Hitachi drive from Newegg, the replacement drive does the same as the original, it just never gets recognized. I tried the first one in 2 mac pro's. I also have a working drive in there, same model, HDS722020ALA330.
Click to expand...

Anybody else having issues with 2TB drives, especially on older MPs? I'm on a MP 1,1 and I'm itching to replace one or two of my 1 TB WD Blacks.
 
I got a Hitachi HDS722020ALA330 from a local retailer today, installed it in the 2nd optical drive bay of my '08 MP, and connected it to one of the spare SATA headers. It also gave me an excuse to clean all the dust out of my machine.

So far, so good. I ran X Bench on it, and it is not the fastest drive in the world, but it should be good enough for my purposes (Time Machine).

Code: 
Results	59.85	
	System Info		
		Xbench Version		1.3
		System Version		10.6.2 (10C540)
		Physical RAM		13312 MB
		Model		MacPro3,1
		Drive Type		Hitachi HDS722020ALA330
	Disk Test	59.85	
		Sequential	137.52	
			Uncached Write	210.13	129.02 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	208.72	118.10 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	66.15	19.36 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	226.20	113.69 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Random	38.25	
			Uncached Write	12.15	1.29 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	137.74	44.10 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	106.45	0.75 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	177.85	33.00 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Build date is Dec 2009. Firmware is 28A.

I've read some reviews on Newegg saying this drive is loud. To me, it isn't any louder than my 1.5TB Seagate drives. I don't find it annoying by any means. I can barely hear it.
 
Any news on the 2TB Hitachi in 06/08 Mac Pros?

I'll have to upgrade my internal HDs in the next few days and the 2TB drives would be most sensible cost/performance-ratio-wise...
 
I have a Western Digital 2GB RE-4GP 7200/64mb cache drive coming this week for an 08 MP, and I'm hoping I don't see any of these issues that the Hitachi is possibly showing.
 
flatfoot said:
Any news on the 2TB Hitachi in 06/08 Mac Pros?

I'll have to upgrade my internal HDs in the next few days and the 2TB drives would be most sensible cost/performance-ratio-wise...
Click to expand...

My 2TB Hitachi works great. Using it for my iTunes drive. Faster than my 1TB Hitachi drives. Ordering another next month for my backup iTunes drive.
 
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