SSD in a G4 Cube

[ttyR2]

I've had a G4 Cube that I rescued from recycling for quite a while now, and even fixed the "kickstand" on the Apple monitor that I assumed was broken when someone tossed the monitor into the recycling tote by machining a replacement out of steel.

It's all working, but I'd like to upgrade to a small SSD drive. I copied the OS using a USB-SATA adapter to an older 128GB Sandisk SSD. Then using a StarTech "red" IDE-to-SSD adapter, plugged it in in place of the hard drive. Letting it attempt to boot normally shows a flashing question mark. Holding down Option doesn't display any bootable media. Plugging the IDE-SSD adapter and SSD in an external Firewire enclosure does boot fine. Likewise, using the USB-SATA adapter and SSD boots fine (just rather slow). I saw some folks claimed success using a different brand of IDE-to-SSD adapter (a "green" one) had the same results.

I tried the master/slave jumper in both positions and completely removed, but that made no difference. I also unplugged the internal CD drive to see if maybe it was conflicting, still no bueno.

I was thinking maybe 128GB was too big as a boot volume, but it works fine when connected externally.

Any other things I should look at?

 

[PipelineMike09]

Your G4 Cube likely isn't recognizing the IDE-to-SSD adapter properly. Since it boots fine via FireWire and USB, the issue is likely with the adapter or how the Mac handles it. Try using a different IDE-to-SSD adapter, as some work better than others. Make sure the SSD is set to Master, check that the IDE cable is properly connected, and consider using an 80-wire version. If the 128GB size is an issue, cloning just the OS to a smaller partition (32GB or less) might help. Also, check if the Cube's firmware is up to date. If nothing works, switching to a different adapter or an IDE-CF solution might be worth trying.

 

[ttyR2]

I've tried two different IDE-SSD adapters that appear to be different designs. I believe the OEM cable is 80pin, it's pretty fine. Checking firmware as well.