[UnixMac]

Ok, so the 64GB Raptor is both getting full and long in the teeth as my primary "boot" and OS X drive... wanted to replace it with the latest and greatest... two questions for you hard core hardware geeks.. I wanted to do a RAID 0 set up too..

-Which drive to get in place? I'm leaning toward the Velociraptor x 2.. thoughts?

-HOW do I migrate my OS and apps to this drive without putting my system at too much risk? Is best to format the drives with 10.5 and start fresh then copy over the Applications, Library, and User Folders or something?

thanks as always to those of you who are always helpful!

[mduell]

The Velociraptors won't fit in the Mac Pro drive bays; Apple was a little shortsighted with their connector placement flexibility. I'd suggest a pair of the 150GB Raptors instead.

Insert the new drives, create the array, install OS X on the array, reinstall all your apps (you can copy them, I've had mixed results at best), and copy your user data over.

[UnixMac]

Originally Posted by mduell 

The Velociraptors won't fit in the Mac Pro drive bays; Apple was a little shortsighted with their connector placement flexibility. I'd suggest a pair of the 150GB Raptors instead.

Insert the new drives, create the array, install OS X on the array, reinstall all your apps (you can copy them, I've had mixed results at best), and copy your user data over.

WOW! For real??? I've got to contact the store I ordered them from then and stop the order! This sucks! You're sure though?

[Big Mac]

mduell knows his tech.

[UnixMac]

thanks I found a walk around but I'm wondering if it's worth the trouble! Is the optical bay easy to get into?

MaxUpgrades.com: MaxConnect for Mac Pro Optical Drive Bay Disk Mounting Assembly

[mduell]

Originally Posted by UnixMac 

WOW! For real??? I've got to contact the store I ordered them from then and stop the order! This sucks! You're sure though?

Yes. The drive bays in the Mac Pros are only compatible with 3.5" SATA/SAS drives; the Velociraptors are 2.5" drives with a heatsink attached that allows it to meet some but not all of the 3.5" SATA specs. Other vendors offer alternative backplanes and drive bays so the customer can choose between 2.5" and 3.5" disks. I view the move to 2.5" disks for workstations and servers as a foreseeable development when Apple designed the Mac Pro; their competitors were already offering it.

Originally Posted by UnixMac 

thanks I found a walk around but I'm wondering if it's worth the trouble! Is the optical bay easy to get into?

MaxUpgrades.com: MaxConnect for Mac Pro Optical Drive Bay Disk Mounting Assembly

Yes, that will work. Another option for about 1% of the cost is to buy a set of wings, but that will only let you put one hard drive in each optical bay instead of two.

[UnixMac]

Update for thread readers..

I unscrewed the mounting backetts that apple pre-installed into the slide bays and manually plugged in the drives (took a lot of patience) while sliding them in... they're not PERFECTLY flush. but flush enough to allow the computer case to shut and the latch to lock. I got the idea off another forum.. so far the RAID 0 has been lightning fast, and far quieter than my prior Raptor single disk boot. As a result of RAID 0 being less reliable, I've decided to make my prior Raptor boot my back up plan to boot the computer should one fail.

[mduell]

Can you better explain how you connected them? I don't understand how you overcame the offset in the SATA connector position.

[UnixMac]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Can you better explain how you connected them? I don't understand how you overcame the offset in the SATA connector position.

I unscrewed the mounting brackets from the case (two phillips screws) and then worked patiently to plug them into the back of the drive while sliding it into the case.. once you un attach the brackets there is enough play to adjust the alignment so as to match up with the Velociraptor.

[UnixMac]

above post reported