I just took a screenshot with the updated Grab app in MacOS Mojave and my 4-finger swipe to switch Spaces desktops stopped working. I found this post which talks about something similar with multitouch gestures which sounds like it’s a randomly occurring issue with multitouch gestures. A reboot fixed it for me, but it was surprising how much I rely on gestures to switch desktops/apps, and when it’s not working how to you switch?! (Ctrl-Left/Right is also works as a keyboard shortcut).
Adding a cheap SSD to my 2008 Mac Pro
Windows 10 on my 2008 Mac Pro maxes out the disk i/o while booting, checking for updates and doing whatever it does after startup, plus add Steam and Origin to launch at boot and disk i/o sits at 100% for several minutes after boot. My Windows 10 disk up until now has been a cheap Hitachi/HGST 7200rpm 500GB HDD.
I boot Windows 10 on my Mac Pro only for occasional gaming, so I haven’t been overly eager to install an SSD. It wasn’t until these recent SSD deals with 480GB for as low as $65 that I decided to pick one up.
I’m aware that the 2008 Mac Pro only has a SATA2 disk controller by default so won’t be able to take advantage of the maximum SATA3 SSD speeds (max 600MB/s), but even at SATA2 bandwidth (max 300MB/s) the i/o will still be multiple times faster than what’s capable by a 7200rpm magnetic disk.
For the last couple of magnetic 2.5″ disks I added, I used a cheap $5 2.5 to 3.5″ 3d printed bracket from Amazon. While it works and holds the disks in place, it’s not sturdy enough to get the drives inserted into the SATA slots when you push the drive sled into the machine. You need to reach under to find the back of the drive and give it a push, then it seats into the slot. I decided to try a Sabrent metal bracket for the SSD. When it arrived I realized I had already used one of these in the past when installing an SSD into a 2012 MacBook Pro. These are pretty sturdy and work well:
A few notes as reminders to myself on the install:
- Windows 10 will not install from the ISO burnt to a USB flash drive, no matter whether you set it up from Windows 10, MacOS, or Linux. I tried multiple times, and it will not boot. Strangely, MacOS will boot and install from a USB flash drive just fine.
- Windows 10 will not install to a fresh, blank HD or SSD if there are other disks already in the Mac Pro. Remove all the other disks, leaving just the target disk for Windows 10. Boot from DVD, complete the install, then insert all the other disks back after completing the install
Burning ISOs to disk on MacOS El Cap and later
Prior to El Cap, the Disk Utility on MacOS had an icon to burn an ISO to disk when you mounted the iso. For whatever reason this was removed in El Cap and after, but the ability to burn isos has always bee provided from the Finder.
Right-click an iso file in the Finder and you’ll see a burn option. More info in this article here.
Adding a 2.5″ drive to a Mac Pro 2008
I have a couple of spare 500GB 2.5″ drives that were going to go into my HP DL380 rack server, but for the reasons described here, I ended up replacing with some WD drives instead. So I wanted to install these in my Mac Pro instead to at least get some use from them.
The pre ‘trash can’ Mac Pro towers 
have 4 slide out drive trays (see here across the center of the case) that allow you to easily install or remove 3.5″ drives without messing with any cables. Attach a drive into a drive sled, screw in the 4 screws on the sled and then push it in.
For 2.5″ drives however, they obviously won’t fit into the drive sled. There’s a number of adapter options if you just Google for “mac pro 2.5 drive adapter” or similar, and the prices are all over from $5 to $30 or more.
I went for a cheaper $5 option on Amazon. 
When the adapter arrived, what’s interesting is it looks like the adapter was 3D printed:
The kit came with easy to follow instructions and needed screws.
Following the instructions and attaching the drive, here’s what it looks like with the adapter fitted into one of the drive sleds:
On booting up, the top drive is the original disk that came in this used Mac Pro, it has an HFS+ partition installed with El Cap, and a partition installed with Windows 10. The 2nd is the newly added 2.5″ 500GB disk. Great!