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michaelsvx

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 9, 2012
21
0
Scranton, PA
HD space revisited. Again, Powermac G4 Quicksilver 933 2002. Currently has 3 hd's one of which is on the optical bus. It would appear as though I'm exempt from the 128gb cap of earlier models. I would like to replace one of the drives with a 3tb sata drive using an IDE to sata adapter. does this seem like a possibility?
 

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A good option would be an external USB 2 or Firewire drive. They are often on sale at stores like best buy etc. I have seen 2TB WD for 120-130.

If you really prefer it to be internal and would like to add other SATA drives in the future then a PCI SATA controller would be a worthy investment. It also saves you from ever needing interface adapters.
 
A good option would be an external USB 2 or Firewire drive. They are often on sale at stores like best buy etc. I have seen 2TB WD for 120-130.

If you really prefer it to be internal and would like to add other SATA drives in the future then a PCI SATA controller would be a worthy investment. It also saves you from ever needing interface adapters.

I can reiterate this as a very useful investment. I bought one for my Sawtooth last summer when I was using it as my file server. My Sawtooth had the 128GB limit so this was a 'godsend' as one would say.

I bought a PCI SATA card for around $70, bought a 1TB SATA HDD ($64 at the time, before the catastrophe), and I was set with a simple file server. I had my server configured like this:
-80GB 7200rpm HDD for OS
-1TB HDD for files and media
-40GB 5400rpm OS backup via CarbonCopyCloner

When I got my G5, I just unplugged my 1TB HDD from the Sawtooth and put in my new machine, since the G5 is configured for up to two SATA drives by default. I'll probably yank the 160GB HDD from my G5 that I currently have my OS on and put it in my Sawtooth once I get an SSD to replace it.

I wouldn't be able to do that if I hadn't bought a PCI SATA card. :D
 
I think I'm going to try the $2 adapter and if it doesn't work I'll just get the card. Also, Is there any limit to disk size? I saw some of the hhd's mention windows having a 2.2tb cap. Should I play it safe and go with a 2tb, rather than a 3tb. I'm assuming they are referring to a modern windows comp, this is a 10yr old mac.
 
$2.00 adapter < $60 card? 3 hhds = $6.00
Plus who would want 3+ externals

SATA card = internal drives. Some people like 666sheep have found decent interface adapters but trust me when I say that some if not many of them can cause data corruption on Macs as they are all engineered and designed for the x86 wintel world.

You often get what you pay for in life so if your data is only worth $6 to you then by all means only spend that much.
 
Go for a Firmtek SATA PCI card. I wouldn't want to risk all my data by taking the cheap way out. I've been using a Firmtek 1S2 in my MDD for a while now and I haven't had a problem. The only downside is target disk mode only works on the primary ATA bus as I've recently found. There is a certain firmware to use if you get the card, and I'm sure zen.state will fill you in on it as I can't remember off the top of my head.
 
Sorry for pushing this up two days later, but there is something that came to my mind. I once read an article saying the G4 Gigabit's PSU will be destroyed, when using 4 HDDs.
I have 4 SATA Drives installed on a G4 AGP and never had problems so far *knock on wood*, so I wondered what you were experiencing.

Here is the link http://www.mechriki.de/wordpress/?p=8

It sounds right what he is saying about the 12V rail, but on the other hand I never heard of died PSUs because of HDDs.
 
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