G5 won't recognize 2nd hard drive

BDAqua wrote:
So, did or did not the 6Gb/s drive step down/work for SATA 1 speeds?

old comm guy wrote:

BDAqua wrote:
So, did or did not the 6Gb/s drive step down/work for SATA 1 speeds?

It appears to be stepping down to SATA-1 just fine. As I say, I have been using this drive for several months and only noticed yesterday that it was a 6 GB/s interface. I figure if it will run in my Generation 1 G5, it should run in any of them. Drive swapping is tomorrow, so I'll see what the off-site drive actually is.

I just acquired an older Power Mac G5 (dual 1.8GHz) and am going to use it as a home server to replace my even older MDD. I am having an issue getting my G5 to play nice with a Hitachi 1TB hard drive I had laying around from a working pull. The model is HDS721010CLA632 and can be found on this page (hover over the "specifictions" tab and information about this family of drives [7K1000.C] will reveal itself). I have confirmed that it is working and "healthy" per Disk Utility's report. I have tried everything I know how to do, but this thing simply cannot and will not be read by my G5. I have also confirmed that it's not the SATA cables themselves, as I've tried the power and data cables in both bays with this drive as well as other known working drives — and the cables definitely work.

Any ideas? I'm asking this of the general congregation, not necessarily for you, old comm guy — although it seems like you have a pretty good idea about this stuff.

What does Disk Utility's "Info" button tell you about the drive? Specifically, what partition map is shown?

The drive is a SATA-3 drive, but I have now run 3 of the SATA-3 Hitachi drives without a problem.

old comm guy wrote:

What does Disk Utility's "Info" button tell you about the drive? Specifically, what partition map is shown?

The drive is a SATA-3 drive, but I have now run 3 of the SATA-3 Hitachi drives without a problem.

Thanks for the quick reply!

There doesn't appear to be an "Info" button for my version of Disk Utility (OS X 10.6.8), but I captured the tab that shows the partition map. You will see that attached to this message — hopefully below.

I have also gotten a Finder "Info" (apple-I) on the drive, which you will also see attached (also hopefully below). Is there anything else I should hunt down and check?

Disclaimer: the screenshots taken and posted here were done when the drive was hooked up with the help of a USB-to-SATA adapter, as I wanted to get a move on this project. I wouldn't think that having it hooked up directly to the motherboard via SATA would show anything different here, but if it does I can try that as well.

Self-correction: there is an apple-I from within Disk Utility; I did not know about this until 30 seconds ago. Here is the screenshot of that:

Here's another screenshot of the information; this was done while selecting the actual drive from with Disk Utility (as opposed to its parent, upper-level disk description):

The drive has a GUID partition map.

It must be APM.

Reformat the drive. In Partition tab, create 1 partition (don't keep "Current"). In Options, select APM (Apple Partition Map). Apply. The drive will then work in a G5.

japamac wrote:

The drive has a GUID partition map.

It must be APM.

Reformat the drive. In Partition tab, create 1 partition (don't keep "Current"). In Options, select APM (Apple Partition Map). Apply. The drive will then work in a G5.

Thanks. Hmmm...that didn't seem to do the trick, though. I formatted the drive as Apple Partition Map, as you suggested. I am wondering if doing it through a USB/SATA adapter like I did somehow isn't giving it the full and proper formatting job.

brettallica wrote:

japamac wrote:

The drive has a GUID partition map.

It must be APM.

Reformat the drive. In Partition tab, create 1 partition (don't keep "Current"). In Options, select APM (Apple Partition Map). Apply. The drive will then work in a G5.

Thanks. Hmmm...that didn't seem to do the trick, though. I formatted the drive as Apple Partition Map, as you suggested. I am wondering if doing it through a USB/SATA adapter like I did somehow isn't giving it the full and proper formatting job.

Just to update this: I pulled out "the big guns" and formatted this drive as APM using one of the drive bays on my Mac Pro (4 x Xeon 5355 Quad 2.66GHz). I then put it back into the Power Mac G5, and it's still not being recognized. This is bizarre.

Always the same slot in the G5?

Try the other slot/connector.

japamac wrote:

Always the same slot in the G5?

Try the other slot/connector.

I have tried both slots and both sets of connectors with this and other drives. This is the only one that won't work no matter what I do.

Is it something to do with the drive size being too large for the OS? I'm just throwing ideas out there...

brettallica wrote:

Is it something to do with the drive size being too large for the OS? I'm just throwing ideas out there...

Not likely. I have two 2TB drives in my machine right now and they behave splendidly under Tiger.

old comm guy wrote:

brettallica wrote:

Is it something to do with the drive size being too large for the OS? I'm just throwing ideas out there...

Not likely. I have two 2TB drives in my machine right now and they behave splendidly under Tiger.

I didn't think so either; I was just throwing out some ideas. What the heck could be going on here? The drive is brand new and is fully healthy.

Any ideas, guys? I've got a Power Mac that's just sitting around here collecting dust. I'd really like to get this thing going and retire my MDD. I have already formatted and installed 10.5 Server on an 80GB drive just to make sure that it's not the computer. I installed the OS via optical drive, and I went through all of the updates and everything. The computer is working totally fine, so I think through all of this it is quite clear that it's something with the drive. I'll still hold firm that it's just some sort of wonky setting or something and not the health of the drive itself, though.

If it's a setting, the only thing would be a jumper.

Other than that, it's either the software that you are using or the drive.

Just to check, how much RAM is installed, and is it properly installed.

Must be installed in sized pairs:

Power Mac G5: Memory Specifications and Requirements