Installing a 4th ATA HD in my mac

[mitsos]

Is it possible to install a 4th internal ATA HD in my Power Mac G4? It is a 400 MHZ AGP Power Mac with a 1.4 Ghz G4 upgrade. I currently have the original 20BG HD it shipped with, and a 60 and 120 GB HD as well inside. I just bought a 200GB HD for $99 and want them all in there. I currently have a DVD rom drive and an internal Zip Drive. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.


Dimitri S.

[jonapete2001]

buy an ata pci add on card. i know there are mac ones available. You may run into an issue as to where to mount the hard drive. You could probably make a cheap metal bracket(just to keep the drive off the floor of the case). This would solve your problem I think(if you mounted it). I dont think there is room for another drive in including mounting brackets.

[Dreadnought]

You may encounter heat problems. You already have a G4 1.4 cpu update. This also produces a lot more heat then the 400 G4. The three other drives also produce a lot of heat. Putting in a fourth, may cause the airflow in your mac to change and provide too little cooling for the other drives/components. So if you have any kernel panics or something, it could be that your mac doesn't have enough cooling!

[MoparShaha]

Yeah, I agree with Dreadnought, heat might be a problem. Get one (or a few) of those PCI exhaust vent things. You can find them on eBay and at Fry's. As for mounting it, just lay it at the bottom of the case. I have a friend with the same Power Mac, and he just puts the extras at the bottom of the case, with no ill effects.

[crazzyeddie]

I would say get rid of the internal 20GB, or get an external Firewire case for the 200GB. Firewire will be faster than your internal ATA anyway.

[AdamR01]

Yeah I have friends who lay them on the bottom of the case too, but they also use duct tape so it cant move when the computer is moved :D .

[FuzzyBallz]

Originally posted by crazzyeddie Firewire will be faster than your internal ATA anyway.

Firewire's transfer rate (eg, FW400 = 400MB/sec) by itself or when used with capable equipment (ie, MiniDV recorder) is faster than ATA's transfer rate (ATA133 = 133MB/sec), I'll give you that. But when you're using an external firewire HD, which is nothing more than an ATA100 or ATA133 (Maxtor) HD in an enclosure with firewire connection, your HD transfer rate's not gonna jump from 133MB/sec (which is not possible even if you had it hook up in RAID 0) to 400MB/sec. Your ATA100/133 HD is going to stay at the 100MB/133MB per second transfer rate, whether you put it in a Firewire 800 or USB 2.0 enclosure.

Back on topic. I'd transfer all the stuff you have in the 20GB and 60GB to the 120GB HD and use it as the secondary HD, then do a clean instal on the new 200GB and use it as the OS HD. Space problem solved.l

[thehuncamunca]

FW400 is 400 megabits per sec which is 50 megabytes per sec
so ATA133 is faster than FW400
keep in mind those are the fastest theoretical speeds, a hard drive won't use the entire 133 MB/s
if you used a FW800 there should be little difference between that and the ATA 133, a FW 400 drive will be much slower than an ATA 133 and USB2.0 even slower

[mitsos]

Wow! Thanks for all the great info. What I did (for now at least) was removed the zip drive (wasn't using it) and slid the HD in, replacing it under the DVD drive. I put it there because I had no other power sources inside except the one being used by the Zip drive. As far as heat...I am keeping an eye on it. My G4 upgrade has a fan with it, but so far it seems in control temperature wise. What are my options as far as cooling the HD should it become too warm? I am looking for the cheapest cooling solution. Thanks again for the help!

Dimitri