ATA 133

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Level 2

209 points

ATA 133

I am finally going to expand my computer and buy another hard drive. My 80 GB keeps getting too full. Seemed so big when I got my new computer 3 1/2 years ago after a 2 GB hard drive. : - )

Can you use a hard drive that has an ultra ATA 133 interface in a G4 MDD 1.0 Ghz computer? The specs for my computer state that only ATA 100 and ATA 60 are supported. What happens if you put an ATA 133 in a ATA 100 slot or an ATA 100 in an ATA 60 slot?

Has anyone used a Seagate 400 GB drive Model # ST3400632A-RK in an older Mac successfully?

Thanks,

Tammy

G4 MDD 1 GHZ DP, Mac OS X (10.4.8), 2 GB RAM

Posted on Oct 6, 2006 5:54 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 6, 2006 6:46 AM in response to Tammy in MO

Look at these links.
First you need to see what the max size HD you can use.

What Macs natively support large IDE drives? (over 128GB formatted)

How Big a Hard Drive Can I Put in My iMac, eMac, or Power Mac?

Cheers, Tom

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Answer 2

fragmore

Level 3

661 points

Oct 6, 2006 7:32 AM in response to Tammy in MO

The G4 MDD has a system bus that will support large drives so you should be able to go with any IDE drive and size, right out of the box. Just format the drive for Mac and install your software.

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Answer 3

gsa700

Level 1

55 points

Oct 13, 2006 4:29 PM in response to Tammy in MO

To answer your question:

If you install an ATA 133 drive into a computer with a ATA 100 bus, it will work at the ATA 100 speed without any problem whatsover.

Since even the fastest drives on the market top out around 80 MB/sec it no problem at all. In fact Seagate drives are still at ATA 100 last time I checked because of this.

Hope this helps.

PowerMac G4 Quicksilver Mac OS X (10.4.8) WD S-ATA HDD's - 1 GB O' RAM

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