Second internal Harddrive - G3 Wallstreet possible?

[Golsow]

I am new on old Mac topic and what I'm searching for is a possibility to build in a second internal HDD for my Powerbook G3 Wallstreet.

Because the System drive - HDD 2 gb size - is a little bit small, but I won't upgrade this drive to bigger HDD.

I'm using PC-Card Slots with CF (16gb HFS+ formated), but this seems not to be a full functional drive... Sometimes i have Data-writing-problems to the CF and also bidirectional Drag and Drop / Copying with CF doesn't work. I dont' know why...

So, the best solution i think could be a HDD module for the 3,5" expansion bay or somethink like that. - Is this kind of device existing??

 

[bunnspecial]

Any particular reason why you don't want to upgrade the stock drive? A newer drive will not only be bigger but probably also faster and quieter. You could even fit an SSD. If you're running OSX, though, just remember the 8gb first partition rule.

You could probably gut an optical drive assembly and put a hard drive in it, but you'd probably be on your own for that.

 

[B S Magnet]

Any particular reason why you don't want to upgrade the stock drive? A newer drive will not only be bigger but probably also faster and quieter. You could even fit an SSD. If you're running OSX, though, just remember the 8gb first partition rule.

You could probably gut an optical drive assembly and put a hard drive in it, but you'd probably be on your own for that.

It will be faster, saturating the upper limit of the ATA bus; it won’t be prone to shock (like bumping the laptop by accident), and if running from any of the vintage batteries, it will consume far less energy (since the ATA/IDE bus won’t be expending power on spinning motors and moving the read/write arm of the HDD).

Fitting a 2.5-inch IDE-to-m.2 SATA SSD adapter, which are cheap and plentiful these days (as are the sub-128GB m.2 SATA SSDs), will be pretty straightforward.

They basically look like this (the piece on the right is just the piece on the left, without the black cover):

 

[Golsow]

Thank you for the fast and interesting answers!

Yes I also think about new drive - SSD or IDE-CF Adapter, these are really good opportunities to upgrade the old box!

But I love this sound (!) and the slowness of the original systemdrive... I never used this computer in a way of productivity. My interest is only emotional, a nostalgic feeling that i have playing with this historic machine.

The OS on the G3 is 9.2.2. For backups of the systemdrive i want to use images with diskcopy/ASR and there a limits too (ASR imagesize 2gb or 4gb, depends on ASR-version).

Maybe there is a kind of adapter for the IDE-connector of the HDD splitting the one port in two (Master/Slave), so i could two HDDs plug on??

 

[Macbookprodude]

I use that exact same adapter in my Titanium and it works great.

 

[galgot]

I am new on old Mac topic and what I'm searching for is a possibility to build in a second internal HDD for my Powerbook G3 Wallstreet.

Because the System drive - HDD 2 gb size - is a little bit small, but I won't upgrade this drive to bigger HDD.

I'm using PC-Card Slots with CF (16gb HFS+ formated), but this seems not to be a full functional drive... Sometimes i have Data-writing-problems to the CF and also bidirectional Drag and Drop / Copying with CF doesn't work. I dont' know why...

So, the best solution i think could be a HDD module for the 3,5" expansion bay or somethink like that. - Is this kind of device existing??

If you find two expansion bay HD modules, you can even have 3 HDs in there .
I have just one , works in either the left or right bay. Name is Xcarét Pro Expansion Bay HD by MCE Tech.
It pops up from time to time on the bay, or some sellers include it in their sale with their Wallstreet...
And of course it's IDE, so can put a SSD aswell in it.
But I do have problem with Wallstreet/PDQ recognizing 2.5-inch IDE-to-m.2 SATA SSD, maybe it's the certain brand I used, or a matter of slave/master setting that I don't know how to solve...

 

[Golsow]

I use that exact same adapter in my Titanium and it works great.

Wow! This sounds good!

Which adapter do you use, do you remember?
Are there special config issues or is it more like 'plug and play'?
How do you managed with the space inside the computercase?

 

[Golsow]

Xcarét Pro Expansion Bay HD by MCE Tech

!!Great!! That's it! That's exactly what i'm looking for!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

If it is very rare - maybe there are similar solutions produced by other companies??

 

[galgot]

!!Great!! That's it! That's exactly what i'm looking for!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

If it is very rare - maybe there are similar solutions produced by other companies??

Yes , VST did one, as they did Zip and SuperDisks module for the Wallstreet.
But I've never seen one, I think they are as rare as the MCE Tech ones...

I wonder how difficult it would be to fit a SSD or IDE to CompactFlash inside a Wallstreet CDrom module... ?
After all the interface is also IDE. But I've never disassembled one.

 

[Macbookprodude]

But, isn't the bus speed of the Wallstreet like 66 mhz or something ? A hard drive running on that bus would be so slow to not worth it. Data transfer would be slow. Thats like, if I wanted to put another drive into my Pismo at 100mhz.

 

[Macbookprodude]

Wow! This sounds good!

Which adapter do you use, do you remember?
Are there special config issues or is it more like 'plug and play'?
How do you managed with the space inside the computercase?

Hi, no ! No special config issues at all.. There is a pic in this thread that shows you what you need. What powerbook do you have ? I have a Titanium G4 1GHZ and Pismo. This is what you need.

 

[Macbookprodude]

The above is what you need. You can find this on ebay - then search 200-500GB M2SATA.

 

[galgot]

Pismo and Titanium are not the same animals as the Wallstreet/PDQ.
These last are much more picky about what SSD adapters you put in them.
I have the one posted above, it was never recognized on mine. Again it may depends on the brand or the Slave/Master settings, some of these adapters don't include a ways to change these setting... And I ended up using IDE to CF adapter.
Better check for one known working specifically on Wallstreet/PDQ .
There are some threads about that in this forum.
Or on other fora , like here :

Powerbook G3 PDQ/Wallstreet SSD

I've been trying to max out my newly acquired PDQ. Most importantly, I wanted to get an SSD installed. I bought an Ableconn mSATA to IDE adapter, along with a SanDisk 16GB mSATA SSD. However, my Mac OS 9.2.2 boot disk doesn't seem to be able to recognize it in disk utility. Just to be sure, I...

68kmla.org

G3 PDQ - Problems with MSATA to ATA and CD-ROM

I have a G3 Walstreet II / PDQ 300, and want to upgrade the hard disk. I picked up a Ableconn IIDE-MSAT mSATA to 2.5-Inch IDE Adapter and Zheino 128GB M3m SATA SSD. The jumper configuration is the same as the Seagate 160g spinny drive I removed (the original 6gb drive was dead when I got the...

68kmla.org

Etc...