Kirstin79

Q: External hard drive compatible with my G4 10.4.11?

Hi everyone!

 

I have an old G4 with 10.4.11 and 800MHz.....as you could expect, I am running low on storage space and can really no longer run my old design software on it without it freezing up. I cannot upgrade because of the processor. I thought that an external hard drive would be the answer to my dilemma, however, I can't find one that doesn't require Snow Leopard or higher...any suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance....

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Sep 5, 2014 6:05 PM

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Q: External hard drive compatible with my G4 10.4.11?

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Sep 5, 2014 6:08 PM in response to Kirstin79
    Level 10 (271,184 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 5, 2014 6:08 PM in response to Kirstin79

    Why don't you install another internal HDD in the computer?

  • by Kirstin79,

    Kirstin79 Kirstin79 Sep 5, 2014 6:33 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 5, 2014 6:33 PM in response to Kappy

    hmm good question....I have no idea!

  • by Glen Doggett,

    Glen Doggett Glen Doggett Sep 5, 2014 10:12 PM in response to Kirstin79
    Level 4 (1,875 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 5, 2014 10:12 PM in response to Kirstin79

    When considering your options you should research costs, performance, compatibility, and simplicity.  Here are a few things to think about.

     

    Not exactly sure which G4 model you have, but most of them can use an external FW 400 drive where you can install and boot OS X, might be hard to find those now since FW800 are more common, which should also work but you need an adapter, and I am not sure what the size limit is for 10.4.  The read/write speeds for FW400 are in the ballpark of 40MB/sec, which is not too shabby. 

     

    You may have ATA66 or ATA100  interfaces built in to the G4 on the available internal drive interfaces, those are a little bit faster like 60 MB/sec range, but they are the older technology parallel ATA drives, not the current and more common serial ATA or SATA drives that you see in most retail stores.

     

    You can find out what kind of drives are compatible with your particular machine and great tech support from Mac-knowledgeable people at OtherWorldComputing via mail order.  I would just call them up and explore your options for external or internal hard drive expansion.  they have a variety of videos on their support web site that show how to install a hard drive in many different Mac models, probably including yours.  Most G4 Macs came with the cables in place so you could just install the drive and hook up the interface ribbon cable and power supply cable, maybe adjust the jumpers on the drive, and be ready to go.  (I am not affiliated, just a long time customer)

     

    https://www.macsales.com/

     

    internal IDE/ATA drives compatible with the internal hookups in G4s

    http://eshop.macsales.com/search/3.5+Internal+IDE/ATA

     

    I just bought one of these expansion cards so that I can install a faster SATA drive (about 100MB/sec) in my G4 MDD

    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technologies/TSATA/

    it comes with the interface and power adapter cables for installing one drive, but it has two ports so you can install another one later if you get another set of the SATA cables.

     

    and your local Apple store might be helpful or they might have no idea what a G4 is since they have been discontinued for ten years or so.

  • by kahjot,

    kahjot kahjot Sep 6, 2014 8:58 PM in response to Kirstin79
    Level 4 (1,347 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 6, 2014 8:58 PM in response to Kirstin79

    It would help to know what G4 you have. Not sure what kind of drives you are looking at that have a minimum OS requirement.

     

    OWC is the best place to look first. They probably still have some enclosures that have FW 400 as well as FW 800 and USB 2. You can get one of those enclosures and add a 1 or 2 TB SATA drive to it yourself.