What do I need to install 2nd drive on old Sawtooth?

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Level 1

31 points

What do I need to install 2nd drive on old Sawtooth?

Hope its OK to ask about legacy computers on this board!

I have a powermac Sawtooth (450 ghz AGP) running OS9.2 - and was recently given some graphics programs that run on os 10.4 (Tiger)

I know its possible to install Tiger on the computer but would rather install a second internal HD and leave the original drive intact.

Since the capacity on the current HD is pitiful, was thinking I would also prefer for the second drive to have greater storage capacity (500 GB+) but my research indicates that as it is, this computer does not recognize HD's over something like 160 GB.

My QUESTION is: what are all the things I would I need to buy to install a bigger-than-160 GB HD on this computer? Except for adding more memory, I never upgraded it, all the expansion slots and bays are available.

Thanks!

G4 Sawtooth 450, Mac OS 9.2.x

Posted on May 14, 2014 12:50 PM

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Answer 1

buz

Level 4

1,205 points

May 14, 2014 4:00 PM in response to B Lee

Hello,

I'm no authority but your research is correct, the Sawtooth will only recognize 160Gb's of any drive. However, if you install a SATA PCI controller card then you can install SATA drives of any capacity. Firmtek (sp) made some very popular SATA controller cards. I have one in each of two old G4's along with plenty of drive space.

HTH

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Answer 2

Jon Smith

Level 4

1,390 points

May 15, 2014 10:33 AM in response to B Lee

B Lee wrote:

Hope its OK to ask about legacy computers on this board!

Virtually Mandatory!

And remember, a practical old time doctor starts by feeling his patient's purse!

You can: add a 120 GB HD; add two 120GB HDs, cloning your present drive to one of the new HDs; substitute 160GB (or larger) HDs for the 120GB HDs (remembering that your Sawtooth will read the first 128 GBs of the HDs;

Or: add an ACARD 6280 controller card that will format larger (ATA) HDs to read like SCSI drives, but will let your Sawtooth handle larger than 128GB size HDs. The ACARD is a good quality card, popular in G3 days, is compatible with your current HD(s), will expand capacity to as many as 4 of your 500GB HDs, and should be available at a very reasonable price on eBay. I don't know if it would affect an ability to clone back and forth from native to ACARD controller HDs, or how compatible it might be with external HDs or Target Drive Mode.

Or: you could purchase a 2002 Quicksilver (disclosure - my favourite) that would handle larger the HDs natively and probably do a few other things that later G4s do that Sawtooths (Sawteeth-?) don't.

Upgrading older Macs is great fun, but remember 'free' is often expensive so keep a firm hold on your wallet.

Enjoy... jws

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