How Many Hard Drives???

[DeeGee48]

This seems like a simple question....

I have a Power Mac G4 'Digital Audio' tower. From all the documentation I've seen, it's built to hold up to SIX drives. Apple shows them as two optical drives and four hard disks. I have only one optical (the Super Drive) and that will stay that way...Now, my question is:

Can I put FIVE hard disks in it? It looks like the center HD space can physically hold a two drive carrier (like the one at the back/"right side") without interfering with the logic board, etc. That's what I want to do....will the machine support this config, or MUST it be four and two only?? I already have a two channel PCI card installed (and a total of three HD's running). Please advise...

Thanx!!

 

[DeeGee48]

THE Answer!

Well, to keep y'all from scratching your heads further (and as an aid to anyone with a similar question in the future) I've discovered the answer to my question above, and it is:

NO!

You cannot put more than FOUR HD's in a G4 tower such as my 'Digital Audio' model. Apple Tech Support was stumped (because they don't support such a thing, obviously), but no harm in trying they said, so....

I moved the 2-drive carrier to the middle position, and although it LOOKS like it will fit okay, and it does, the fact is you CAN'T CLOSE THE DOOR! It was also obvious that it just won't fit AT ALL in the front (leftmost) position. So there was my answer. Four internal hard drives it is, period.

I'll just use external USB or FireWire drives for my extras!

 

[Tallest Skil]

I'm glad that we could be of assistance.

 

[Roy]

I'm glad that we could be of assistance.

And we thank DeeGee48 for finding the information for us. I knew he could do it!

 

[Consultant]

On certain PowerMac G4s, up to 6 drives is possible, but you need a SATA card or PATA/IDE card, as the internal IDE connector only has 4 channels for 4 drives which is the standard for IDE.

Dual G4 800 has
- 1 CD/DVD drive (can be removed if you have no need for it)
- 1 3.5 bay under optical drive for zip drive? (HD can't seem to be mountable here)
- 1 HD carrier for 1 drive
- 1 HD carrier for 1 drive
- 1 HD carrier for 2 drives