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G4 Mini Hard Drive

Buhtwheat

Buhtwheat

macrumors member
Original poster
May 6, 2014
83
36
Zanesville, Ohio
Is it possible to buy a new hard drive for a 2005 G4 Mac Mini? I use the computer for graphic design work, and am getting tired of buying another Mini every time the drive goes bad. I also need more storage than the standard 40 gig supplies. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
 
You could just get an mSATA to 2.5" 44 pin IDE adapter or M.2 NGFF to 2.5" 44 pin IDE adapter. Then make use of an SSD with the appropriate interface.

As the G4 Mini uses ATA/100. I assume it has a capacity limit of 120GB for the internal drive. I couldn't say if you can go larger.
 
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Buhtwheat said:
Is it possible to buy a new hard drive for a 2005 G4 Mac Mini? I use the computer for graphic design work, and am getting tired of buying another Mini every time the drive goes bad. I also need more storage than the standard 40 gig supplies. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
My understanding is that the G4 Minis use a laptop IDE (PATA) interface. There is no 'new' stock of IDE drives, laptop or desktop. Manufacturers stopped making drives with the IDE interface a long time ago.

You can find plenty of used IDE laptop drives on eBay. But again, they won't be 'new' drives. But many of them will be larger than 40GB.
 
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Buhtwheat said:
Is it possible to buy a new hard drive for a 2005 G4 Mac Mini? I use the computer for graphic design work, and am getting tired of buying another Mini every time the drive goes bad. I also need more storage than the standard 40 gig supplies. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
I picked up some new-old-stock Western Digital WD3200BEVE drives (320GB 5400RPM PATA 2.5") a couple of years ago. They work fine in G4 Minis and later PowerBooks. Lots available on eBay… big range of prices.
 
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Amethyst1 said:
Nope. :) It does 48-bit LBA so that limit doesn’t apply.
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I am surprised they did not know that.. Any apple computer after 2002 under Jaguar can make use of LBA-48 for larger hard drive support, starting with the Quicksilver 2002 model.. even my 2002 titanium 1ghz G4 supports over 128gb OS X only, still 128GB under OS 9, but I may find a way to alter that as I am reading how this can be done over at os9lives.org
 
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Thank you for the replies. If a SSD will fit, I would like to use that, rather than another disc drive that will fail eventually. Now, where can I buy this stuff? Any brand names to look for? It's been a few years since I performed any surgery on a Mac.
 
Buhtwheat said:
Thank you for the replies. If a SSD will fit, I would like to use that, rather than another disc drive that will fail eventually. Now, where can I buy this stuff? Any brand names to look for? It's been a few years since I performed any surgery on a Mac.
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You can go two ways. You can either purchase a SATA SSD (laptop size) and get a SATA/IDE converter, or you can get a mSATA3 SSD with a SATA/IDE converter case (same size as a laptop drive).

I imagine you're probably going to want to go the mSATA route as there probably isn't room for a SATA drive and a converter.

As for SSDs, I'm partial to Zheino, but others here like Kingston and Samsung.
 
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Just spent a little time testing SSD bridge adapters for the G4 Mac Mini for use with SSDs stripped out of their cases. (Actually installed a 1TB SSD in a Mini / among other sizes.)

Anyway, tried to post this info before but MODS here struck it (thinking I was selling something I guess).

So here’s a link and if you read the entire thread you might understand it all clearly (hopefully).

And no, I’m not trying to sell anything and I have no financial interest(s) in any of the items discussed. It’s all basically a how-to and covers what various items were used AND for informational purposes only. I did go the mSATA + sled route originally... but it is less expensive to go SSD+adapter bridge and possibly just as fast, performance wise.

The whole thread actually begins here: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,5955.msg44360.html#msg44360
 
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After doing a little research, I'm leaning towards the mSATA with the drive-size case. Is it really as simple as sticking a drive in a case, unplug old drive, plug in new drive, and I'm ready to rock?
 
Buhtwheat said:
After doing a little research, I'm leaning towards the mSATA with the drive-size case. Is it really as simple as sticking a drive in a case, unplug old drive, plug in new drive, and I'm ready to rock?
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The connections are simple.

Whether it becomes difficult or not depends. It is possible that the drive you buy may not be recognized. That could be for a number of reasons - usually down to what brand will work best, or a bad adapter case. That's why when we find a brand we like, we stick with it.

You'll need to either clone your old drive or install a new OS. So, that's the step after that.

But yeah, pretty simple.

Try and find one of the adapter cases that uses a red logicboard. The green ones tend to be hit and miss.
 
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eyoungren said:
As for SSDs, I'm partial to Zheino, but others here like Kingston and Samsung.
Click to expand...

I've also used Zheino and some of the other low cost Chinese brands. Sunbow's products have given me good results on several PPC Macs - they offer a pleasantly surprising quality at a fairly a cheap price. :)

Buhtwheat said:
After doing a little research, I'm leaning towards the mSATA with the drive-size case. Is it really as simple as sticking a drive in a case, unplug old drive, plug in new drive, and I'm ready to rock?
Click to expand...

To concur with @eyoungren it really is that simple. For reassurance, have a look through this thread where I set up an SSD on my Mac Mini G4 using this very method. I immediately noticed a considerable boost in performance with the SSD versus the stock HDD - which even back then was a mediocre drive. The biggest difficulty is removing the casing but with patience and practice it becomes easy: make sure that you have a putty knife at the ready and take your time gently working around the edges of the casing with it. ;)
 
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TheShortTimer said:
I've also used Zheino and some of the other low cost Chinese brands. Sunbow's products have given me good results on several PPC Macs - they offer a pleasantly surprising quality at a fairly a cheap price. :)
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Yeah, I've found Zheino to be a really good price point for me. My MacPro has one of their 1TB SSDs and I've got a 512GB in my 2008 MBP. My 17" PB has a 128GB m3 SATA.

Might look into Sunbow though. Thanks for the suggestion.

Sillicon Power is also decent.
 
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It sounds like you might have multiple Mini's, so you could put the new drive in one Mini, boot it in target disk mode, and then connect it with a firewire cable to a working Mini and clone the new drive.
 
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Yes, I've got Minis. 4 to be exact. I just received the latest one yesterday, a 1.42 gHz model with an 80 gig drive. I'm going to make this one my #1

My main problem is my dead Mini had a 64 gig HD in it, which I had backed up. All the Minis I've bought since only had the std. 40 gig drives in them, which meant I couldn't do a full restore of the drive. Much consternation and swearing ensued. I don't know why I didn't ask on here sooner, but I wish I would have.

So I'm looking at adaptors. They all seem to have green boards and are shipped from China. I'm not too excited about ordering stuff from there. Can someone point me to a site, or supply pictures of exactly what I need? I need to swap out the memory in my latest acquisition, and put a fresh battery in it, so it would be nice if I could swap the HDs while I had it open.
 
Buhtwheat said:
Yes, I've got Minis. 4 to be exact. I just received the latest one yesterday, a 1.42 gHz model with an 80 gig drive. I'm going to make this one my #1

My main problem is my dead Mini had a 64 gig HD in it, which I had backed up. All the Minis I've bought since only had the std. 40 gig drives in them, which meant I couldn't do a full restore of the drive. Much consternation and swearing ensued. I don't know why I didn't ask on here sooner, but I wish I would have.

So I'm looking at adaptors. They all seem to have green boards and are shipped from China. I'm not too excited about ordering stuff from there. Can someone point me to a site, or supply pictures of exactly what I need? I need to swap out the memory in my latest acquisition, and put a fresh battery in it, so it would be nice if I could swap the HDs while I had it open.
Click to expand...
I use the Addonics adms25ide. Unfortunately, they do not seem to offer it anymore. I searched eBay and there isn't anything there either, although there seems to be an Australian site.

You may have to go with one of the green boards. Perhaps someone can suggest something.
 
Amethyst1 said:
The Delock 62495 also uses a red board but I don't know how easy it's to get ahold of in the US.
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www.ebay.com

62495 Delock Konverter IDE 44 Pin > mSATA mit 2.5? Rahmen Speicher-Controlle ~D~ 4043619624959 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 62495 Delock Konverter IDE 44 Pin > mSATA mit 2.5? Rahmen Speicher-Controlle ~D~ at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com

International shipping - which would be United States.

MODS! Not my auction!!!!
 
Buhtwheat said:
I found this: https://www.microsatacables.com/msata-ssd-to-44-pin-ide-adapter-with-case-msata-936-ide

Is this what I'm looking for? It says it supports Intel, Samsung PM800 and Toshiba SSDs.
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If the green PCB types are what is within your budget then take a chance. They are cheap enough to get another one if the first one does not work.

However, if you can afford to have one shipped (say the one I linked above) then I'd go that route. This is one of those times where paying a bit more is worth it in the long run.
 
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Amethyst1 said:
The Delock 62495 also uses a red board but I don't know how easy it's to get ahold of in the US.
Click to expand...
Ran across a thread on a Thinkpad forum. It would appear that the Delock is just another brand name for the same adapter. Addonics being one (the one I have), Lindy (Lycom ST-173-7) and a couple others.
 
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That red one IS nice, but shipping to me is $44!!! That's a bit steep. I can buy 4 of the green board ones for the cost of shipping the red one.

And what about the SSD itself? It will be on a board that plugs in to a socket, like a memory stick, correct?
 
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