I have an external Firewire drive case that used to contain a 320 GB disk. The disk itself died recently. But the case and associated circuitry are fine.
I want to replace the drive with a larger one - 1 TB or more. But I can't find one that uses the older PATA interface. Does such a drive exist? Are there any other pitfalls I should know about with disks that large?
Gary
G4, Mac OS 9.2.x
Look at these links.
What Macs natively support large IDE drives? (over 128GB formatted)
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/action.lasso?-database=faq.fp3& layout=FaqList&-response=answer.faq.lasso&-recordID=34188&-search
How Big a Hard Drive Can I Put in My iMac, eMac, or Power Mac?
http://lowendmac.com/macdan/05/1024.html
Using 128 GB or Larger ATA Hard Drives
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2544
The Power Mac Storage FAQ
http://forums.macnn.com/65/power-mac-and-mac-pro/246391/the-power-mac-storage-fa q/
Possible Alternative - SpeedTools ATA Hi-Cap Support Driver: Allows the use of extended capacity ATA drives (drives greater than 128 Gigabytes in size) on older (Pre Mirrored Door) G4 and G3 Macintoshes running MacOS X versions 10.2 and later. Cost $24.95
http://www.speedtools2.com/ATA6.html
Possible Alternative 2 - Larger than 128GB drives can be used by adding a PCI ATA/100 or ATA/133 controller card, one which is 48-bit LBA compliant; or by adding a PCI SATA controller card and using SATA drives.
Cheers, Tom 😉
Thanks, Tom.
I've already addressed the 128 GB limitation in my EXTERNAL Firewire drive by having had a 320 GB disk in the case.
I jst want to replace the dead drive with a larger one in the external case I already have. I'm not really looking for a disk to put inside my G4.
Gary
Check the usual PC retailers online (newegg, Micro Center, etc.) and see what's still available. The problem is that as drive capacities were getting larger, the industry had begun the transition from PATA to SATA. You might be lucky to find a 500 GB drive. If you run across reconditioned drives, I'd only consider buying a factory-reconditioned one.
Jeff -
It appears that you are correct. 500GB is the largest PATA disk that was ever made (as far as I can tell).
I'm off to Amazon for the best deal.
Thaks.
Gary
Large capacity disk drive
