Second drive not recognized in Power Mac G5

[ww2_1943]

Hello all,

I tried searching on Google without much luck. This thread discusses a similar issue but I did not find a solution in there- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2788572

I am trying to add a second SSD (Lexar NS100 128GB 2.5” SATA III Internal SSD) to my Power Mac 7,3 DP 1.8. It’s only going to be temporary. I want to clone the 60GB boot drive to the new 128GB drive and then make the 128GB the boot drive and use the 60GB in another computer. The G5 is not recognizing the second drive.

Here is what I tried before leaving for work- I removed the 60GB and put the 128GB drive in its place. I did not install the 60GB drive as a second drive. The 128GB drive was recognized and I formatted it using a 10.5 install DVD. All went well. I then put the 60GB drive back as the boot drive and the 128GB as the second drive and it still wasn’t recognized.

Any ideas?

 

[DearthnVader]

Try a new SATA cable, the one's that came with the G5's are known to be cheap and stop working, other than that there isn't much you can do other than assure that the drive is getting power.

 

[ww2_1943]

Try a new SATA cable, the one's that came with the G5's are known to be cheap and stop working, other than that there isn't much you can do other than assure that the drive is getting power.

Good to know!

I thought of a convoluted work around. I'll connect an external FireWire drive. Then use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the boot drive and save that file on the external drive. Shut down the G5 and replace the 60GB drive with the 128GB drive. Start the G5 in target disk mode and connect it to my Pismo. Connect the external drive to the Pismo as well. Then use Carbon Copy Cloner on the Pismo to restore to the 128GB drive in the G5.

I'll probably try replacing the SATA cable at some point. I was planning on running Void Linux on a second drive.

 

[PowerPCFan]

If there's jumpers, set all drives including optical drives to Cable Select. If your SSDs don't have jumpers, they are both most likely set to cable select or master, if they are permanently set to master that's just unlucky

@DearthnVader Correct, those cables are far from being high quality. Everything else about my G5s is great, the only bad things are:

• Broken speaker/static sounds coming from speaker/quiet speaker
• Bad SATA cables
• Optical drive belt is extremely worn out from heavy use, I have to manually open drive bay because it doesn't have the force to open it on its own

I got from talking about not-working SSDs to what things are broken in my G5, but that's just the way I am. I like to talk about my computers

 

[ww2_1943]

If there's jumpers, set all drives including optical drives to Cable Select. If your SSDs don't have jumpers, they are both most likely set to cable select or master, if they are permanently set to master that's just unlucky

@DearthnVader Correct, those cables are far from being high quality. Everything else about my G5s is great, the only bad things are:

• Broken speaker/static sounds coming from speaker/quiet speaker
• Bad SATA cables
• Optical drive belt is extremely worn out from heavy use, I have to manually open drive bay because it doesn't have the force to open it on its own

I got from talking about not-working SSDs to what things are broken in my G5, but that's just the way I am. I like to talk about my computers

We all love talking about them!

No jumpers on the SSD.

I can only find used SATA cables. Which is fine, there is just always the chance one of those are on their way out like the original! I am going to make sure the SATA cable is seated correctly to the logic board first.

 

[eyoungren]

It is possible that the SSD can't/won't step down to SATA 2?

My understanding is that G5s do not support SATA 3 and if a drive won't step down it won't be recognized. I have one drive that was that way, but as it was a stock Apple drive it had no jumpers. It was never recognized by any of my G5s and got stuck in a drive enclosure instead.

 

[ww2_1943]

It is possible that the SSD can't/won't step down to SATA 2?

My understanding is that G5s do not support SATA 3 and if a drive won't step down it won't be recognized. I have one drive that was that way, but as it was a stock Apple drive it had no jumpers. It was never recognized by any of my G5s and got stuck in a drive enclosure instead.

I know this drive will stepdown because I have used this same brand/model drive before with a SATA 1.1 device. This is actually my third one!

My first order of business will be to make sure the SATA and power cable are properly connected to the logic board.

 

[TzunamiOSX]

Try a new SATA cable, the one's that came with the G5's are known to be cheap and stop working, other than that there isn't much you can do other than assure that the drive is getting power.

Never heared about and never had this Problem in over 14 Years on PowerMc G5 using.

I think it is a compatibility problem. Not all SSD are working in a G5. "Sandisk SSD Plus"
is working well for me.

Here are some disk who doesn't work.

SSD – Page 2 – G5 Center

g5center.net

 

[TzunamiOSX]

To test the cable, connect your first drive to the other connector.

 

[Amethyst1]

If there's jumpers, set all drives including optical drives to Cable Select. If your SSDs don't have jumpers, they are both most likely set to cable select or master, if they are permanently set to master that's just unlucky

This doesn’t apply to SATA drives since there can be only one drive per port.

 

[PowerPCFan]

This doesn’t apply to SATA drives since there can be only one drive per port.

Ha ha I was thinking of IDE

 

[PowerPCFan]

To test the cable, connect your first drive to the other connector.

Amazing but simple idea!

 

[Amethyst1]

I thought of a convoluted work around. I'll connect an external FireWire drive. Then use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the boot drive and save that file on the external drive. [...]

If you have a FireWire drive or partition on a drive you don't mind erasing, you can clone the boot drive to that, install the SSD, boot from the external clone and restore the SSD, without needing to create an image or use another Mac.

I think it is a compatibility problem. Not all SSD are working in a G5. [...]

In that case I'd assume the drive wouldn't be recognised on both SATA ports, not just the second. I'd suspect the cable or second SATA port first.