Replacing the main HD on the Mac Pro?

[SHNXX]

I'm looking to replace my old 1TB hdd on my Mac Pro.
I've added hdd before but never replaced the main one.
What are some pitfalls I should be aware of?

 

[Fastsavage]

No dramas really - just take a back up of your old HDD - or use Time Machine and then format and transfer your data over - easy...

 

[Michael73]

I've done this twice, both times increasing the drive size along the way. Each time I inserted the new drive into sled 2, 3 or 4 and formatted it. Once complete, I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the boot drive to the new drive. Depending on how GBs (or TBs) it could take a bit but as Fastsavage said, it's easy.

FWIW, Time Machine works too.

 

[NOTNlCE]

Agreed with all of the above. Pretty straightforward, as long as you run a backup of your existing disk. CCC or SuperDuper are good if you don't have an install disk(c) handy.

 

[DanielCoffey]

Remember that the sleds are set up for a 3.5" drive (either a typical HDD or a 3.5" SSD like the old Vertex2 drives) but you can easily get a 2.5" version of the sled from the likes of OWC if you are planing yo use a SSD of, say, 256Gb or so. They have the OWC Mount Pro.

The current favourite SSDs seem to be the Samsung 840 EVO or Pro.

Pop it in a spare sled and let CCC do its work, pull the old one and you are done.

 

[Phildo]

If you are fitting an SSD, there is also the option of using a PCIe card.

eg
http://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Velo...+Kit+for+Desktop+PCs+and+MacPro+(VEL-SOLO-X2)

http://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Velo...+Kit+for+Desktop+PCs+and+MacPro+(VEL-SOLO-X2)

Do some searching on here for Velocity to learn about how these work and what their benefits are. I fitted an x2 to my 2010 Mac Pro a couple of weeks ago.

 

[flowrider]

Actually, IMHO, the best cloning software is the Restore command in Apples's Disk utility.

Lou