ata/66 question

gsfmarkgsfmark
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Ok, i have a Power Mac G4 single processor 867 (quicksilver).



I know that it has an ATA/66 bus, and just last night, one of my hard drives went bad. So, i need a new one, and instead of getting another piddly (ha) 60 gb drive, i'd like to get a larger one, but I think i read once upon a time that the most storage an ATA/66 bus can handle is 120.



I have one working 60 gb drive, and one dead one. Is it true that any drive over 60 gb that I add won't work?



Consequently, where would anyone recommend a cheap ata/100 or ata/whatever-the-next-higher-number-would-be PCI card?



Thanks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    kennethkenneth Posts: 832member
    Well.. you can always check the Drive Compatibilty (HD/DVD/CDRW/Tape) from xlr8yourmac.com



    I would stick with those internal ATA/66 bus.. adding an extra PCI card = cable mess inside the G4.



    However, some ATA PCI cards don't support deep-sleep mode.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    gsfmarkgsfmark Posts: 210member
    i still can't find any conclusive evidence, so there is no 120 gb limit in my computer?
  • Reply 3 of 6
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    Some Macs, I forgot the exact reason why, have a 137gb barrier on HD size. Stay sub 137 and you'll be fine. Your 120gb will do just fine in there.



    Edit:

    How did the HD go bad? Motor burnout? If it wasn't a physical problem with the drive you may be able to wipe it and start over, avoiding the purchase of a new HD.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    altivec_2.0altivec_2.0 Posts: 995member
    YOu can get a ATA controller card, then you can stick 250GB HD's in.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    gsfmarkgsfmark Posts: 210member
    i opened disk utility, and in red at the bottom, it said in red letters "S.M.A.R.T. Status: FAILING



    and then it stopped being recognized by my computer, I was in the process of copying all the important files from Hobbes (bad drive) to Calvin (good drive) when the finder hung bad, so i restarted, and from then on, it would only recognize and boot from Calvin, Hobbes was still connected and everything, and nothing will recognize it...



    sucks.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    kwondokwondo Posts: 217member
    My beloved CUBE started to act up last week so I did a CCC, then started messing around with the Repair permissions and Repair disk. I have to admit, I removed some key parts of the system permissions (not knowing the grave outcome of not being able to mount ANYTHING). Anyway, I installed, reinstalled OS X.2.8 seven time and then tried OS X.3. All throughout the process I kept gettig really loud "CCCCreach CCCreah CCCreach" noise and then just hangs.



    Well, I finally gave up on my internal IBM 42 GB 7200 rpm drive that I put in @ the time of original purchase. With my laptop I did a quick search on XLR8YOURMAC.COM and went with the Seagate Barracuda 120 GB 7200 rpm ATA/100 w/ 8meg Cache for $139 w/ $30 mail-in rebate. This drive is an Ultra ATA 100 but will work fine with and ATA 66 (as my CUBE is ATA 66 as well). There is an info in the knowledgebase that says the ATA 66 will only recognize below 130-ish GB HD space.



    I have to say, the drive has been runnig under OS X.3.1 and it is FVCKING silent! It is like BUTTA BABY! Now my Cube is dead silent and fast (though I don't know what is making it fast- OS X.3 vs OS X.2.8 or 8 meg cache vs 2 meg cache or just the fact that the drive has been "disk optimized").



    My only peeve are that though it is 8 meg cache drive, in the Seagate brochure it is only 8 meg cache if it's connected to an ATA 100, otherwise ATA 66 is @ 2 meg cache. The other thing is that I missed out on this drives $70 rebate offer from Circuit City buy couple weeks back. Dell still had the offer till Sunday evening but I would not have received the drive until Dec 2 due to holidays so Hell with Dell.



    Overall, the drive is incredible!
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