Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

phil connors
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Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by phil connors » March 25th, 2008, 12:04 am

I'm wondering if anyone has installed an internal hard drive that is larger than 128 GB on their G4 (AGP Graphics) without any problems. Can it in fact be done?

Thanks
madmann
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by madmann » March 25th, 2008, 8:20 pm

the b&w had this problem and also the yikes i belive but think it was fixed by the time of the apg. Worst case you can get a pci ide controller, they are faster and the issue is resolved. I have the sonnet tempo 133 in a b&w
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Turboladdade
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by Turboladdade » March 25th, 2008, 8:41 pm

A better option, of course, is a PCI SATA card and a SATA hard drive, which is much much faster, easier to work with, and is pretty much where the industry standard is going now.
I am now telling the computer exactly what it can do.
phil connors
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by phil connors » March 27th, 2008, 1:38 pm

SO say I do get a PCI SATA card and a 500 GB SATA hard drive.

All 500 GB will be recognized and I will be able to utilize all 500 GB?
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mrkramer
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by mrkramer » March 27th, 2008, 2:00 pm

You will need a PCI hard drive controller, your model can't have a larger HD on the built in HD controller. The first ones to allow larger drives were some of the later quicksilvers.
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Turboladdade
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by Turboladdade » March 27th, 2008, 2:32 pm

phil connors wrote:All 500 GB will be recognized and I will be able to utilize all 500 GB?
Yes, but to be extra sure, get a Mac specific card such as the Sonnet Tempo SATA PCI Card. Some information about that card from the website:
Key Benefits
  • Affordable solution for adding 2 SATA ports to your computer
  • 48-bit LBA support for drives larger than 137GB
  • Supports Mac OS X mirroring and striping
  • Boots from any attached hard drive
Mac Compatibility
  • Power Mac® G3 (Blue & White) and Power Mac G4
  • Power Mac G5 (with PCI or PCI-X slots)
  • Mac OS® X Version 10.5, 10.4, or 10.3
  • Mac OS 9
Of course, the card has no effect on drives attached to the G4's stock PATA bus.
I am now telling the computer exactly what it can do.
davidvh
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by davidvh » April 29th, 2008, 2:21 pm

Pardon me if I do this wrong, I'm new to the Forum:

I just found a Power Mac G4 with dual 533 MHz processors in a recycle bin. I was able to get it running (had a boot disk problem - reformatted and excluded bad tracks, apparently). My confusion is this disk size thing. I can't tell exactly what model mine is (I know it has the dual processors and digital audio), and am confused about the capability of the SATA disk controller. Questions: 1) where do I find the model # (surely easy); 2) How do I determine what the capability of the disk controller is (speed, largest disk...)? I would like to put a large disk in, since they are so cheap... Maybe 250 GB. But if I'm limited to 120 GB, OK - where do I find those cheap? Seems no one is selling "small" disks anymore.
ckilner
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by ckilner » April 29th, 2008, 2:48 pm

You have a "Digital Audio" PowerMac
http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/digital-au ... ac-g4.html

The motherboard IDE controller has the 128 (137) limit.
Any controllers (IDE, SATA, SCSI) that are on the PCI bus (i.e., PCI controller cards) will not have this limit.
As another option, you can purchase a disk driver from Intech (or get it with a disk from OWC) to overcome the large disk limit on the motherboard IDE. There is even an open firmware script that can be used to use large hard drives:
http://themacelite.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=772

OWC ( http://www.macsales.com ) sells 80GB drives for these old Macs for $49 and the Intech driver for $10 with the purchase of a large drive:
http://eshop.macsales.com/Item_Apple2.c ... CSPEEDHCCD
phil connors
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by phil connors » June 9th, 2008, 12:06 pm

So I recently installed a new hard drive in my Powermac G4. I figured everything was cool since I saw the hard drive icon on my desktop and could put data onto it.

However, when I open up programs, such as ProTools, the multi-colored pinwheel icon pops up and stays that way forever. I get the same thing for when I want to shut the computer down. I figure this problem is somehow related to the newly installed hard drive but I don't know how.

Anyone ever have this problem or any insight? Thanks
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Turboladdade
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by Turboladdade » June 16th, 2008, 2:37 am

If you installed a drive larger than 128 GB on the internal IDE bus, and it doesn't work correctly, then it probably has something to do with the 128 GB limit.
I am now telling the computer exactly what it can do.
phil connors
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by phil connors » June 16th, 2008, 11:23 am

I have the PCI hard drive controller for it, which is why I am a bit confused. I thought that was all I needed for it to work properly.
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Turboladdade
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by Turboladdade » June 16th, 2008, 12:00 pm

If your drive is connect to that PCI Controller (which it needs to be), then it isn't a problem specifically related to that 128 GB limit. I'm not sure exactly what is going on there, but I'll see what I can find out.
I am now telling the computer exactly what it can do.
phil connors
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by phil connors » June 16th, 2008, 12:17 pm

Thanks. I appreciate it. Its so frustrating. I just want to be able do some work on my Mac already.
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squiffy
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by squiffy » June 18th, 2008, 3:06 am

When you connected your new drive to the pci card, did you initialize it with Disk Utility? If not, please try this. Some cards don't work well with drives that have been initialized elsewhere. Also, you may need a firmware update on the pci card to properly use larger drives. I have an older Sonnet Tempo that needed a firmware update for larger drives.
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Turboladdade
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by Turboladdade » June 18th, 2008, 12:17 pm

Honestly, I'm of the opinion you really should have went with SATA.
I am now telling the computer exactly what it can do.
phil connors
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by phil connors » August 1st, 2008, 9:26 pm

squiffy wrote:When you connected your new drive to the pci card, did you initialize it with Disk Utility? If not, please try this. Some cards don't work well with drives that have been initialized elsewhere. Also, you may need a firmware update on the pci card to properly use larger drives. I have an older Sonnet Tempo that needed a firmware update for larger drives.
I did in fact initialize it with Disk Utility. I am going to try the firmware update. Thanks
phil connors
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by phil connors » August 1st, 2008, 9:27 pm

D wrote:Honestly, I'm of the opinion you really should have went with SATA.
I did.
phil connors
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by phil connors » January 2nd, 2009, 12:25 am

So I guess I'm going to get rid of the 500 GB. I might not need that much space anyway. Does a hard drive exist that is somewhere between 80GB and 120 GB?

I won't need my PCI card anymore. Right?
rwb
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by rwb » January 5th, 2009, 9:45 pm

davidvh:

System Profiler.

Apple logo / About This Mac / More Info... will get you there.
spectorbassguy
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Re: Installing More Than 128 GB Internal Hard Drive in a G4

Post by spectorbassguy » January 23rd, 2009, 12:21 am

So can I take a 500 GB EIDE HD and format it into (4) 125 GB HD's and use it that way without changing the PCI card? I have a Dual 1 GHz PowerPC G4 running OS10.4 and OS9
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