Mac Pro 1.1 problem with hard drive installation

[mokirim]

I just installed a 500gb WD Caviar Blue in SATA bay #4, for purposes of running OS 10.6.3 I currently run 10.4.11 from the original HD.
NO problems the first few days with the new HD. On day 3, when I powered up, all i got was a blank gray screen. I removed the newly installed HD, I was then able to reboot perfectly.
I then installed the drive again and the computer was able to recognize the drive, i then formatted the drive, and installed 10.6 on it, which took quite some time. When i reboot from the new drive, it took forever to start up- with sounds that the drive was going to sleep. When Snow Leopard was finally up and running, everything ran incredibly slow. When i boot from my original HD, everything works perfectly smooth- then it says the new drive can't be read by the computer, even though the icon still pops up.
Could it be a faulty drive? -or maybe a problem with a disabled SATA port, one that maybe not getting enough power? Does anyone have any ideas??
Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[harryb2448]

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Could well be a faulty drive. They come that way pout of the box on occasion - rough handling etc. When you formatted it, did you run Repair Disk over it and if so, what did it say? Suggest you try putting it in bay 1 if it is going to be your boot disk, and trying again.

Then try another drive in bay 4. If this gives problems, run Apple Hardware Test extended mode. The only time have seen a Mac Pro SATA connector fail is when some one has been mucking about inside trying to connect Airport and Bluetooth cards, or connecting dual power leads to the motherboard for a upgraded graphics card.

 

[mokirim]

Thanks for your thoughts HarryB,
When i clicked on repair disk, it said "Error: could not unmount disk" not sure what that means?- It's good to hear it's probably not the SATA connector. I'll try what you suggested by switching out the HD's- btw, is there any special procedure for doing that?

 

[Slydude]

Not really. Though you will probably want to power down first. If the machine has been on for a while you might want to give it a minute or two to cool down. That's more for your comfort than the machine.

The lever at the back of the machine needs to be in the up position if I remember correctly. It's been a while since I had to remove a drive. The drive "sleds" are a tight fit and sometimes need a bit a bit of tug but they should come right out.

 

[harryb2448]

As Sly suggest - just make sure the unlocking lever is right up. When it is still locked there is an orange/red panel showing. Pull 'em out and slide' em in, giving a firm push to make sure the connectors fit snugly together.

 

[chas_m]

Thanks for your thoughts HarryB,
When i clicked on repair disk, it said "Error: could not unmount disk" not sure what that means?

It means you're trying to carry out repairs on the same drive you have booted from. That's not going to work, you have to be booted from some other drive.

 

[mokirim]

thanks everyone for your input, i'm beginning to narrow down my assessment. i switched my brand new and unresponsive drive in bay #4 with the HD in bay #2. when i booted up the same problem persists, the computer reads the drive in #4, not the one in #2- so it's definitely not a SATA port connection problem. I'm going to run a apple hardware test next- I'm pretty sure now that it's a faulty drive. Does anyone have any thoughts?

 

[mokirim]

I'm going to send this drive back and purchase a new one- does anyone know if SSD's are compatible with an intel Mac Pro from 2007?

 

[RavingMac]

I'm going to send this drive back and purchase a new one- does anyone know if SSD's are compatible with an intel Mac Pro from 2007?

Answer is yes, link to source with info on choices and compatibility.
OWC Mercury Pro SSD - Solid State Drives using High Performance SandForce Processor solution

 

[mokirim]

Thanks Razormac!