Hard drive problems!

[themacgirl]

I'd be really grateful if someone could help me with this.

After the power supply on my G4 Graphite (466) died, I purchased a G4 Quicksilver 933 running 10.4.11. I decided that I would take the hard drive out of the Graphite and put it into the Quciksilver as I have lots of files that I really need on it. However, on opening up the Graphite, I discovered four, yes four hard drives inside it! (My ex looked after the tech side of things). I was a novice when I first opened the computer up (am still a novice) and I didn't pay attention to which of the four drives were actually connected. Anyhow, I don't know which of the four contains the volume with my work on it.

Two of the four drives mounted successfully in the Quicksliver, the other two didn't. However, of the two that did mount, the volume with my work on it wasn't on either of them! The other two fail to mount although Disk Utility sees them both and their RAID sets? (I don't know what this is). Anyhow, I can't see the volume with my work on ANY of the four drives, which is extremely annoying. I know about the master/slave thing.

To make matters worse, yesterday, the original drive that came with the new Mac (the Quicksilver) seemed to die on me, it now makes chugging noises and the computer fails to boot. As far as I know, of the five drives, this is only one (that works) with an OS on it. And I didn't get the install CD with the Quicksilver (it was cheap - well cheapish).

Can anyone help with any of these issues?

Is there anything I can do with the Quciksilver drive (Maxtor 60GB) to make the computer boot? (remember I don't have the install discs)

If I do get it to boot, how can I find out, which of the four OTHER drives (from the Graphite) contains the volume with my work on it? (I can't ask the ex, we're not on speaking terms )

I really am losing the will to live with this.


Thanks in advance!

 

[velocityg4]

I would assume the two drives that were the RAID set have the files on them. It is likely that these are set in a RAID 0 array for speed.

Since you had four drives was there a controller card installed?

I would put the two drives in the Mac on the same IDE cable and try booting. If that does not work try reversing their positions and booting. Since they were a RAID array and likely RAID 0 they must be installed together in order access any data. A RAID 0 array splits the data between 2 or more hard drives this way when accessing you can get faster data access as parts of the file are accessed by both drives simultaneously.

 

[maccam]

Try swapping the hard drives.

 

[hughvane]

The best way I can try to answer this one is "what would I do in the same situation?" Answer: buy an ATA-USB adaptor kit. They're readily available from computer stores or online tech shops. With one of those you can connect your drives individually to your working G4 to establish which one has the work you want to retrieve. It's a meantime solution, but it's also highly adaptable, ie. you can use the various drives as and when you will as external devices. they don't need to be inside enclosures.

 

[themacgirl]

velocityg4

When I read your post yesterday I thought 'what a fantastic idea! It absolutely makes sense, I'll try that when I get home'. Well when I got home it occured to me that I wasn't sure how the master/slave set up would work with these two drives with the RAID sets on. Although I understand the concept of setting one to master and the second to slave (which I have been able to do in the past) I wasn't sure how this would work with the two drives with RAID sets.

I installed both drives on the same IDE cable with one as master and the other as slave, which didn't work (and I didn't expect it to because common sense tells me this set up won't work). I then switched drives, with the other as master and the other as slave and it still didn't work. I set them both as master - no joy. On all of these set ups they failed to boot.

Can you (or anyone) please explain to this novice how that would work?


I should also say, the volume with my work on it also has the OS on it, so I really do need to get it working to avoid having to go get some install discs immediately, although I know I will need to soon.


Hughvane

I'm liking the sound of that - I didn't know that could be done. If velocityg4 is correct though (which I strongly suspect he/she is) I'm assuming I'll need to hook up the two drives with the RAID sets using this ATA-USB adaptor kit in order to access the data. Will the kit allow me to do this?

Thank you in advance

 

[themacgirl]

Any ideas?

 

[hughvane]

Hughvane
I'm liking the sound of that - I didn't know that could be done. If velocityg4 is correct though (which I strongly suspect he/she is) I'm assuming I'll need to hook up the two drives with the RAID sets using this ATA-USB adaptor kit in order to access the data. Will the kit allow me to do this?

To the best of my knowledge, it doesn't matter whether or not a drive is set to master or slave. The operating computer will simply see the external drive as another device to mount to the desktop via USB, not the internal IDE (ATA) mechanism. I have successfully used three different (old) hard drives to hook up as 'bare' units to my Mac. They were, however, single units and not part of a RAID setup.

The one thing I cannot be absolutely certain about is how the previous RAID setup and the jumper at the back of all your now spare hard drives will affect the connection via the adaptor which, as you see, is both ATA (IDE) and SATA. I guess the answer to that unknown is trial and error.

 

[velocityg4]

velocityg4

When I read your post yesterday I thought 'what a fantastic idea! It absolutely makes sense, I'll try that when I get home'. Well when I got home it occured to me that I wasn't sure how the master/slave set up would work with these two drives with the RAID sets on. Although I understand the concept of setting one to master and the second to slave (which I have been able to do in the past) I wasn't sure how this would work with the two drives with RAID sets.

I installed both drives on the same IDE cable with one as master and the other as slave, which didn't work (and I didn't expect it to because common sense tells me this set up won't work). I then switched drives, with the other as master and the other as slave and it still didn't work. I set them both as master - no joy. On all of these set ups they failed to boot.

Can you (or anyone) please explain to this novice how that would work?


I should also say, the volume with my work on it also has the OS on it, so I really do need to get it working to avoid having to go get some install discs immediately, although I know I will need to soon.

I wish I could be more specific but I have only ever set up RAID arrays with SATA and have never attempted to move the array from one computer to another.

Maybe both drives need to be on seperate IDE cable for RAID. Are both drives on their respective original jumper settings from the old G4? I would not mess with those.

If you do not remember the original jumper settings I would again put them on the same IDE channel and try switching the two about and trying each jumper/position possibility (it will not be slave + slave or master + master on one cable but can be Cable select + cable select). I think there are six choices (as it also would not be Cable Select + Master/Slave).