SATA hard drive in eMac?

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SATA hard drive in eMac?

I'm planning to install a larger HD in eMac G4. From what I read, cables are different, whether for EIDE as present or SATA, newer type. Is there a way to install a SATA HD, or should I forget that path?

eMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11), Mac user since "Mac Plus" days.

Posted on Jul 4, 2008 3:47 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 4, 2008 9:23 PM in response to ChasLeon

Unless the motherboard in your computer will accept the new drive and has the right connection and the drivers it won't work.

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Answer 2

ChasLeon Author

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Jul 5, 2008 7:41 AM in response to Donald Morgan

I understand abt the need for compatibility, requiring an adapter as described by the HD folks. Has anyone actually used an adapter in an eMac to use successfully a SATA hard drive? Several outfits advertise adapters for that purpose, but will one fit, and if so, which style is suitable? One style fits at the HD and another fits on the mother board.

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Answer 3

Allan Jones

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78,350 points

Jul 5, 2008 9:43 AM in response to ChasLeon

For computers fitted with PATA drives like the eMac, the typical way to get internal SATA capabilities is to add an SATA controller card to one of the PCI slots. In addition to adapting for the different cable style, the card also does the required conversion of signals, so it's not just the cable.

Unfortunately, the eMac does not have the required slots to add such an adaptor card.

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Answer 4

Jul 6, 2008 7:01 PM in response to ChasLeon

Since portability is not an issue with an eMac I suggest that you will do much better to get a large external drive, perhaps with multi-interface options. Use Firewire with the eMac and you will be able to cope with all that the eMac processor can without any appreciable slowness. While this is not at SATA speeds for every function it is very good.

An external drive can of course be used on any other Mac you might get. It can also be used as a startup drive with the firewire connection on PPC or Intel Macs.

Your eMac will cope with Leopard quite well if you want but you wouldn't be able to use any Classic programs with Leopard. You could leave 10.4.11 on the internal drive and have Leopard on the external - best of both worlds.

Neville

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Answer 5

PT

Level 7

20,894 points

Jul 8, 2008 1:41 PM in response to ChasLeon

As someone pointed out, there are adapters out there to convert an IDE/PATA drive to an SATA you are still limited to the slowest link in the chain, that being the IDE interface, so you won't get SATA speeds out of an SATA drive when patched into a Parallel interface. And right now PATA drives in large capacities are available so why not just get the PATA. Unless of course the idea was you already have SATA drives that you wanted to take advantage of.
If that is the case, then two things. One, it MIGHT work if the drive with adapter will fit inside the eMac's tight mounting location for the drive. And second, it MIGHT not work if there is any sort of incompatibility between the adapter and the eMac's bus. It might not be worth the risk of glitches and problems with your primary drive. For hooking up a second drive or for a backup drive, perhaps ok.
Patrick

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