Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

You’ve already seen the unboxing of my new Big Mac. You hopefully watched how easy and beautiful it was to install more memory. Now, let’s put it to the test… and install a third hard drive into it.

The Mac Pro came with two drives. I removed the third one from my old Windows machine, to install into the Mac Pro. If you’ve ever been inside a pc case, you know how many wires are hanging around everywhere. The new Mac Pro is just gorgeous inside. There are no cables. It’s insane. You know what that means… better air flow.

As I was saying all this… you saw me quickly install the third drive. All I had to do was pop out the bracket, seat the hard drive into the bracket… and pop it in. That’s literally all I had to do. In order to use the eSata, it would be much more difficult. I would have to take several things apart in order to get to the right spot on the Motherboard. Is it really worth it? I’ve used eSata on several machines now, and never really USED it, ya know? I just don’t think it’s worth the trouble.

Oh no! There is some dust in the case! I had to put the anti-static strap back on, and get out the canned air. We can’t have the new machine be dirty already. That’s just not cool.

Getting a precision screwdriver kit is highly recommended. The one I have comes with 17 different pieces. No matter what kind of screw may be in a machine, I will have the right size screwdriver to do the job.

As I was preparing to slide the drive into the machine, a very loud scratch sounded over the stream…. along with a loud continuous popping noise. No one was sure what had happened, including me. I had kicked the keyboard on the floor accidentally. Thank you for staying with me, and not giving up. So… let’s commence shoving this thing back in place…

Wait. That’s it? I’m done? Are you sure?! I guarantee that after watching this video, you will wish you had a new Mac Pro the next time you have to open your PC case.

FirstRSS ERROR: "http://shop.tagjag.com/products/apple" NOT FOUND!

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vtpNMia6Rxk"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vtpNMia6Rxk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a>

How to Install a Hard Drive in an Apple Mac Pro

Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

http://live.pirillo.com/ – The round table got into a pretty deep discussion about SATA drives, and different ways of getting more storage on your computer.

Four of my friends joined me for this discussion: Kat, SC_Thor, Wirelesspacket, and last but certainly not least… Datalore.

An eSATA port is built into most newer motherboards. This is a port built right into the back of your computer that allows you to plug in an external hard drive directly, allowing it to run at much faster speeds.

Drobo is the world’s first storage robot. It keeps your data safe by automatically monitoring and repairing problems that could put your data at risk.

ZFS is a new kind of file system that provides simple administration, transactional semantics, end-to-end data integrity, and immense scalability. ZFS is not an incremental improvement to existing technology; it is a fundamentally new approach to data management.

Want to embed this Dealing with Hard Drives, NAS, eSATA and ZFS video in your blog? Use this code:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/G9yavRvoL2g"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/G9yavRvoL2g" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a>

Formats Available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4) Flash Video (.flv) MP3 Audio (.mp3)

Dealing with Hard Drives NAS, eSATA, and ZFS

In response to the general question (which is faster, FireWire or USB), jorowi posts a follow-up video explaining that there, indeed, are FireWire 800 devices – specifically, in external hard drives of the high capacity variety. I’ve opted for an eSATA external drive, which should be fine for the time being. Still, if I had a choice between USB or FireWire for devices (generally speaking), I’d go with USB – with the exceptions to the rule being hard drives and video cameras (camcorders).

USB is seriously Universal. FireWire is… likely going to die at some point in the future. That my Sony HDR-SR1 doesn’t even come with a FireWire port is quite telling. Investing in FireWire devices isn’t advised, 400 or 800. You’d be better off getting cross-compatibility with USB connectivity on the same device (or at least thinking in the eSATA direction).

My original video:

Jorowi, showing off the LaCie Big Disk Extreme (1 Terabyte) external hard drive – which does support USB 2.0 as well as FireWire 400 and 800:

I’m really digging this YouTube video response thing.

Which is Faster: USB or FireWire?