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G4 Mini Hard Drive

Come on, don't rag on me for being frugal. Wait until you're retired, and living on a fixed income!

And I think I know what happened to screw up my backup. When I used the "restore" feature of the software, I forgot that I was trying to cram 58 gigs of data on to a 40 gig HD. It ground away until I got the message "The drive is full." So I have no idea what did or didn't get installed. I know some things were missing, and others did weird things.
 
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Buhtwheat said:
Come on, don't rag on me for being frugal. Wait until you're retired, and living on a fixed income!
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No one is ragging on you. Quite honestly, I wouldn't have paid those prices for the red board adapters either. I'd have done what you did.

Amethyst1 was just commenting in general on the quality of the green board type adapters. They work, it's just that they have a higher failure rate in comparison is all.

It's no one's fault that the manufacturers have ceased building the red board types.
 
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Buhtwheat said:
Come on, don't rag on me for being frugal. Wait until you're retired, and living on a fixed income!
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I hope my comment on the red vs. green PCB adapters didn’t come across as scoffing at your frugality.

If I offended you in any way I apologise.

I agree the red PCB adapters are quite pricey and have become hard to come by unfortunately.
 
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No offense was taken. This was yet another case where something is lost when you can't read the body language. And besides, a lot of my friends would say I'm cheap!:D

I switched the SSD to the other adaptor, and had the same results. So tomorrow, I'm going to try the second SSD, and see if I can install the OS on it. If the OS will run, then I'll start all over with loading everything back in. Has anybody ever had a warranty claim with Zheino? It's supposed to last at least 3 years.
 
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Buhtwheat said:
No offense was taken. This was yet another case where something is lost when you can't read the body language. And besides, a lot of my friends would say I'm cheap!:D

I switched the SSD to the other adaptor, and had the same results. So tomorrow, I'm going to try the second SSD, and see if I can install the OS on it. If the OS will run, then I'll start all over with loading everything back in. Has anybody ever had a warranty claim with Zheino? It's supposed to last at least 3 years.
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No, I've never had trouble with Zheino and I own three of their SSDs. Hopefully they won't give you any hassle.
 
Mac booted with old drive. So I took SSD#2 and installed it in the adaptor. So far so good. I'm running Software Update to get everything reloaded. Again.
 
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I finished updating the Mini today by loading all my User files. As soon as could determine that all the necessary stuff was there, I cloned the drive using Carbon Copy Cloner. I'm hoping I'm good-to-go for awhile.

Thanks again to all who helped and encouraged. This has been quite the learning experience.
 
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I have noticed some start-up irregularities since getting the SSD working. I don't log out of the Mini when I shut it off, so when I start it, I get chime, white screen w/gray apple & spinner, then a blue screen with an OS start-up progress bar graph, then desktop. One time when I started it, it went from chime to blue screen, and another it went from chime to desktop. Have any of you noticed a similar behavior? As far as I can tell, everything still functions correctly.
 
Buhtwheat said:
I have noticed some start-up irregularities since getting the SSD working. I don't log out of the Mini when I shut it off, so when I start it, I get chime, white screen w/gray apple & spinner, then a blue screen with an OS start-up progress bar graph, then desktop. One time when I started it, it went from chime to blue screen, and another it went from chime to desktop. Have any of you noticed a similar behavior? As far as I can tell, everything still functions correctly.
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Similar behavior? Yes…but not on a Mini. My 17" PowerBook G4 has a Zheino 120GB SSD and sometimes it will go to a blue screen then the login screen (I don't have automatic login set). Other times it's quick enough to skip the blue screen.

The blue screen is normal behavior even on older spinning HDs. So, all this to say…no big deal. It's just the boot process.
 
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Thank you for that reply. My old HD never skipped any part of the start-up routine that I can remember, so that's why I was a little concerned.

My replacement SSD is on its way. I tried using Zheino's web site for the return, with no luck. So instead, I went through Amazon. They do have their uses.
 
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ervus said:
I have a 500GB mSata SSD in my mini. It's a pretty simple install with one of the IDE to mSata adapters. I think it was less than $100 total, and the SSD is noticeably quicker than the spinning disk was. Good luck and let us know how you fare...
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Like, how much quicker? (Question of practical relevance, I got a MacMini G4 which is unused at the moment. I am thinking if upgrading anything in it makes sense or not much.)
 
barracuda156 said:
Like, how much quicker? (Question of practical relevance, I got a MacMini G4 which is unused at the moment. I am thinking if upgrading anything in it makes sense or not much.)
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I replaced the HDD in my Mini with an SSD and whilst I can't recall the timed results, the difference in performance was striking. An upgrade to an SSD is definitely worthwhile and it reveals what those older machines are actually capable of. A cheapo 128 GB unit will be more than sufficient. :)
 
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barracuda156 said:
Like, how much quicker? (Question of practical relevance, I got a MacMini G4 which is unused at the moment. I am thinking if upgrading anything in it makes sense or not much.)
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Run QuickBench on your Mini as it is and compare your results with these.
(Sorry, don’t have old conventional drive results handy.)
index.png
These results were from a G4 Mini running OS 9.2.2 with an mSATA sled and also with (2) different adapters with an SSD. See> http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,5955.msg44360.html#msg44360 for more in-depth info.

*Click on thumbnail image above for much clearer view.
 
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Major thread bump! Mini quit working yesterday. I turn it on, I get the chime, it goes to a blank white screen, and stays there. No spinner or logo, just a blank white screen. It will turn off with the power button. I'm thinking of trying an OS reinstall, or should I go for another drive and start over? Ideas & possible solutions welcome!
 
Definitely… if it can boot from the install disk, you could then run Disk Utility (just before the actual install) and check your drive / SSD with that. (If it boots from the install disk.)

SIX months before a (new SSD) failure? That’s a bit quick.

And check all your connections. Especially the monitor.

Have another Mac so you could possibly start the (now) white-screen Mini in Target Disk Mode while attached to the other Mac via Firewire…to possibly retreive files or reinstall software, run Disk Utility, etc.?

And - zap that PRAM too. Cmd+Opt+p+r ;)
 
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I should be able to boot it from my backup drive, according to Carbon Copy Cloner. The key word here is 'should'. We'll see.

I was hoping for a simpler solution.:(
 
Buhtwheat said:
Mini quit working yesterday. I turn it on, I get the chime, it goes to a blank white screen, and stays there. No spinner or logo, just a blank white screen.
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What happens if you boot with [Alt]/[Option] held down? Do you get the boot menu?

A Mac "usually" displays a folder icon with a blinking question mark if it cannot find a drive to boot from. A solid white screen might indicate it doesn't get as far as looking for drives.
 
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Testing has revealed that the Mini will not boot from backup drive or startup disk. I did do a cold start, where I turned off the UPS, counted to 10, and turned it back on. When I turned on the Mini, it emitted a loud BEEEEEEEEEEEP, and then the chime, then the blank screen. I turned it off, then on again, and came upstairs to post this. I just checked it, and it had shut off. I think I have another bad SSD. I do have another drive, but after two failures, I'm thinking maybe I should try another brand of drive.

I'll get out another Mini and my spare drive, and see if I can cobble something together over the weekend.
 
Failed or failing RAM? I've heard that long beep before when I forgot to install RAM after a mini reassembly, but can't recall it also giving a chime. I'll pull one tonight and see if it chimes.

Clean all the RAM contacts and / or swap a different stick in.;)

G'luck.
 
Another thing to look at is if the heat sink has come loose. The retaining clips are plastic and can break over time. It happened to me and I had to get creative to find a replacement.
It could be overheating or maybe it already burned itself to death.
 
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