Replacing OEM Main HD in MacPro

[jcaraballo70]

I have a 2008 Octo Core 2.8 Mac Pro.
Over the years I have just added 1TB HD's into each of the empty bay slots.

My OEM 320GB HD is getting long in the tooth so I decided I would upgrade it to a 1.5 or 2TB HD.

Im a bit nerveous because its my Main HD. I have never done this before so I was wondering if anyone could help me out.

Do I just pop in my OEM DVD that came with the Mac Pro (I also upgraded the OD to Snow Leopard - separate DVD) and then shut down - remove the OEM HD - pop in the New one - and start her up?

Is it that easy or am I missing any steps?

Thank you for your time.

John

 

[Hellhammer]

Or remove one of the current HDs, put the new one in it, use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your current main HD to the new main HD, remove the old HD and put the other HD back in.

 

[jcaraballo70]

Or remove one of the current HDs, put the new one in it, use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your current main HD to the new main HD, remove the old HD and put the other HD back in.

I cant!

All the other drives are Raided as one drive

If I pull one then I break the Raid. I have lots of HD Video on those HD's.

 

[Hellhammer]

I cant!

All the other drives are Raided as one drive

If I pull one then I break the Raid. I have lots of HD Video on those HD's.

Ahh. You could get an HD enclosure and put the new drive in it and then use CCC.

You can do it the way you said in your first post (install OS X) but then you won't have the data from your current main HD. Cloning will keep everything as they are now

 

[shoafdc]

I just went through this over the weekend. I replaced my OS drive with a new 1 TB drive. What I did was to pull the old HD out of the bay and connect it via an external USB enclosure I had. Put the new HD in its place and boot using the install DVD. Once the install DVD loaded, I selected Disk Utility and selected the Restore tab on the new HD. I chose the USB HD as the source and the new HD as the destination. Took a few hours over USB, but at the end the new HD was a complete restore and I have not noticed any issues. I am supporting multiple users on the same Mac too.

 

[Transporteur]

I cant!

All the other drives are Raided as one drive

If I pull one then I break the Raid. I have lots of HD Video on those HD's.

Actually, you don't break the RAID (if we're talking software RAID).

Pulling the RAID members and installing another system is no problem at all. I've done this several times and it appears as if the RAID information is stored on the member drives themselves.

Just make sure that you've got a proper backup if anything goes wrong, but then again, you should have a backup anyway.

 

[minifridge1138]

Actually, you don't break the RAID (if we're talking software RAID).

Pulling the RAID members and installing another system is no problem at all. I've done this several times and it appears as if the RAID information is stored on the member drives themselves.

Just make sure that you've got a proper backup if anything goes wrong, but then again, you should have a backup anyway.

That depends on whether it is RAID0 or RAID1.

If you're using a RAID1 (mirrored) then you should be able to pull a drive and install the new disk there.
If you're using RAID0 (striped) then if you pull a drive you will break the array.

Another option: put the new disk in your spare optical drive. Boot normally. Carbon Copy Clone the content from the boot drive (really several raided disks) to the new drive. Then go to system preferences, startup disk, select the new drive and reboot. Using the new drive, test the system to make sure everything is working to your satisfaction, then you can shutdown and move the drive from the optical drive to a drive tray. Then decide what to do with the old disks that were raided.

 

[goMac]

Why not pull all the RAID drives, do the copy, and then put them all back in when you're done?

 

[mBox]

Why not pull all the RAID drives, do the copy, and then put them all back in when you're done?

Thats what I usually do. I dont add the system drive to the RAID mix

 

[Transporteur]

That depends on whether it is RAID0 or RAID1.

If you're using a RAID1 (mirrored) then you should be able to pull a drive and install the new disk there.
If you're using RAID0 (striped) then if you pull a drive you will break the array.

I did that with a RAID0 and as I said, pulling the drives (both for a 2 disc array) did NOT break the array.

 

[philipma1957]

Why not pull all the RAID drives, do the copy, and then put them all back in when you're done?

that works but honestly he should own one of these


http://www.thermaltakestore.com/blacx-n0020028.html


in fact every member on site with a mac pro should own it or this


http://www.thermaltakestore.com/st00014.html

low cost problem solvers the second one can be used to make an external raid0 with 4 drives and a low cost pci card
like this

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/MXPCIE6GRS/

you can run a 4 drive raid0 via software raid0 and an internal 3 drive raid0 via software raid0 dirt cheap.