Hard Disk limitations on G4

[Emmy]

I heard about a limitation of 128gb HD on my G4 quicksilver 2001 due to controller specs.
A friends of mine told me that , the way to avoid this limitation, is to format a new HD with Mac osx 10.2 or later.
Is it true ?
Just asking cause i'm gonna buy a 250gb 7200 rpm 16mb cache

Thanks in advance

 

[bartelby]

You need a PCI drive controller card to get around the limitation.

More info here

 

[0007776]

You need to get a new Hard Drive controler, or you can buy some drivers but the new controller is the best idea.

 

[gnasher729]

I heard about a limitation of 128gb HD on my G4 quicksilver 2001 due to controller specs.
A friends of mine told me that , the way to avoid this limitation, is to format a new HD with Mac osx 10.2 or later.
Is it true ?
Just asking cause i'm gonna buy a 250gb 7200 rpm 16mb cache

Thanks in advance

Formatting the harddisk on another machine will not help at all. That 128 GB limitation is a hardware limitation that you can only get around with a PCI card that lets you use bigger harddisks.

Today, I wouldn't invest the money in a PCI card anymore. Two choices that I would suggest are: 1. Just put the harddisk into the computer, the Mac will recognise it as 128 GB (actually, that is 128 _real_ GB which is about 137 billion bytes). Go for 160GB instead of 250GB because it is a bit cheaper. All newer Macs use SATA, so the harddisk won't work in the next Mac you buy. Or: Buy an external harddisk. Either Firewire, or buy a cheap USB 2.0 card and a USB harddisk. The advantage is that you can use it with your next Mac without any problems. Note: Your Mac should be able to handle any USB 2.0 PCI card; the only difference between a PC one and one that says "Mac compatible" is that you pay three times as much for "Mac compatible".

 

[Emmy]

Thanks a lot.
I think the best solution will be an external HD cause my next buy will be for shure a MacMini (just waiting for the update models).
I think FW 800 are the best , but i'm not shure my G4 support FW 800.
I dont wanna spend money for an usb controller and an USB HD that is slower than a FW isn't' it ?
Pls could u gimme some models for my needs ?

 

[Kosh66]

Thanks a lot.
I think the best solution will be an external HD cause my next buy will be for shure a MacMini (just waiting for the update models).
I think FW 800 are the best , but i'm not shure my G4 support FW 800.
I dont wanna spend money for an usb controller and an USB HD that is slower than a FW isn't' it ?
Pls could u gimme some models for my needs ?

Forget the Firewire 800 and go with a drive that has Firewire 400, because the Mac Mini doesn't have Firwire 800 and neither does a G4 Quicksilver.

Firewire is better than USB as firewire drives can act as start-up drives.