B&WG3 - Where is my HD?

[rickvanr]

Intially, I had my B&W G3 working, had panther installed, was trying to update, installer crashes in software update, I reopen, it freezes. I restart it, try it again, and I get a kernal panic. Try downloading the update from safari and installing that way, kernal panic. Install 10.3.1, it works. then try the combo update again kernal panic during installation. HD #2 no longer is recognized, sweet. Pull it out, plug in HD#1, now the hard disk is no longer seen, it worked before. Drive Setup doesn't see it. Tried pulling all the ram out(except for one), still doesn't see it. Where did my hard disk go?

EDIT: I've found out that the problem is most likely the Hard Disk Controller Chip, they are flaky with additional drives in the Rev A B&W powermac. Can I work around it at all, or should I just go out and buy a new firewire enclosure and use it with this powermac?

 

[rand()]

Where did my hard disk go?

What speed G3 is it?

I ask because the Rev A G3 had a bad Hard Disk controller chip, which, while it would work perfectly with the Apple-installed original drive, had terrible conflicts with most (read: nearly all) third-party aftermarket added drives.

For more info, check here.

-rand()

 

[rickvanr]

It's a Rev A i was sold as a Rev B...

When I took the hard disk out and put it in my other computer, its not seen in there either... could the B&W killed the drive and made it unusable?

 

[rickvanr]

If I used a PCI card to connect the HD would that work? I have an SCSI card at my apartment I could use. I've all but given up on trying to make the local IDE work, unless anyone knows of a fix?

would the bad Hard Disk controller chip be the reason I was experiencing kernal panics? I was getting both types of kernal panics too, the one where the screen greys out telling u to restart, and the one wherethe screen is littered with code..

 

[rickvanr]

I've got it booted with the 10GB disk that came with the machine

With the hard disk controller chip apperently bad on the Rev A machine's, how would I add a second drive? I would really like to put my 120 GB drive in this machine

 

[Mechcozmo]

Internal PCI card. It can probably even take data faster than the built-in.

You could also get an external enclosure for it, but I think the PCI is cheaper, easier, and overall a better solution for it.

 

[rickvanr]

Internal PCI card. It can probably even take data faster than the built-in.

You could also get an external enclosure for it, but I think the PCI is cheaper, easier, and overall a better solution for it.

From Sonnet, there internal PCI card is $99 USD, while I could get a firewire enclosure for $40-$50 CDN. Are there cheaper PCI IDE cards?

 

[Mechcozmo]

From Sonnet, there internal PCI card is $99 USD, while I could get a firewire enclosure for $40-$50 CDN. Are there cheaper PCI IDE cards?

I picked up a PCI SCSI card for $20 recently... garage sale!

I've only seen FireWire enclosures for ~$80 USD. Either should work.

 

[rickvanr]

I picked up a PCI SCSI card for $20 recently... garage sale!

I've only seen FireWire enclosures for ~$80 USD. Either should work.

I have a SCSI PCI card, the 120 GB HD I have is a IDE drive