iBook G4 HD Upgrade Clone to External (PATA?) Enclosure

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iBook G4 HD Upgrade Clone to External (PATA?) Enclosure

I'm upgrading my original iBook G4 internal drive and will use an external drive enclosure to transfer a clone to the new drive. iFixit has great information on how this is accomplished!
However, I have three external drives enclosures right now. They all hold older (non-iBook) Mac drives I've collected over the years. 1 is FW, the other 2 are USB.
My hope is to use one of those boxes to save buying yet another external drive box. I have no idea if the old external HD are PATA or some other variety. If they are PATA, I think I could simply pull it and use the enclosure for this cloning. Can someone tell me what to look for inside these boxes or how to identify if the drives inside are PATA, SATA or incompatible with my new PATA drive I'm about to order? I imagine I could open the boxes, look up the old model numbers and track down their specs but maybe there is a quicker, more obvious method (i.e. cable types, connectors)?
Thank you kindly

SE to Macbooks, and many in between, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jun 20, 2010 7:20 AM

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Answer 1

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spudnuty

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Jun 20, 2010 9:17 AM in response to crtolson

Hey Mac,
In general your iBook G4 will only boot off an external FireWire drive. It actually doesn't make a difference if it's PATA or SATA but most likely it's PATA.
Here's the difference in the cable configuration:
http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/data/500/SATAvsPATA1.jpg
SATA on top.
The only contraindication to this plan is if your internal fails drastically such that it drags the ATA bus down.
Richard

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Answer 2

crtolson Author

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Jun 20, 2010 2:14 PM in response to spudnuty

The reason I was asking about PATA vs. SATA within my external drive enclosure is because I am planning to place the new iBook drive into it, clone the older drive that is in my iBook to it, then swap them out. My understanding is that I must use a PATA drive in this G4 iBook, therefore the enclosure must accept the new iBook PATA drive I am going to install.

By the way, I have assumed all along that my new PATA drive I'm planning to temporarily place in the external enclosure for cloning will run on the power supply the enclosure has. Is this an additional spec. I should look into?

Does this make sense or am I making this all more complicated than it needs to be? - mactrue

Message was edited by: MacTrue

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Answer 3

crtolson Author

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Jun 20, 2010 2:43 PM in response to crtolson

Since my last question I popped open my external firewire enclosure which is an MicroPlus ME-320x box. Inside I find my older drive is a WD 1200 Caviar that some research shows to be an ATA drive. The connectors appear like those you linked to as ATA. So, it appears I have the connections to place the new iBook ATA temporarily in this enclosure. However, now I am told that the firmware in this older enclosure, although ATA compatible, may not work with the big drive (320Gb) I'm planning to purchase.
So many details. I'm sorry this has become a long diatribe but I really am trying to keep costs down yet upgrade the drive.
Am I still asking the right questions and on the right track? Thank you!!

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