Adding External Hard Drives of Mac G4 with Tiger

Hi BD Aqua!

Thanks for the fast reply! And the OWC Link.... WOW.... (gazing in amazement) I didn't know that I could just choose any one of these to work with my old G4/Tiger combination???

I previously delt with Western Digital ....or G-Drive for my Mac----and both say their modern style drives do not work at all with 10.4 Tiger....

So just for the record... making certain here before I expend money in that OWC place... you're saying all drives 2.19 TB or smaller will work with my old G4 ?

And especially I would get a FW one of course as I like the speed....

Also like the faster 7200 / [10,000 (did they have any?) ] drives not the slower ones to take advantage of all that FW has to offer.

I'm not doing this type of major purchase decision every day, sorry to ask, but I assume FW 800's they show 2 ports of are both backwards compatible to FW 400 if that is what my G4 has?

I ask again as I would daisy chain the drives for that comparison program to use.... and I have had FW drives/scanners where one port is 400 one is 800 so it mattered (back then--years ago) which port I used, so making certain its 400 in case my G4 only has two 400 ports not one of each as I always assumed when not purchasing the products.

I know I rambled.... making questions for each of the above so you can answer easily:

Q1. Any drive on that site/page /link you showed me that is 2.19 or smaller will work?

Q2. I use and will be purchasing more than one drive, so just being certain before expending in this direction that they will work with my 10.4 G4 Mac.

Q3. I also like the faster FW read/write speeds, so I assume the FW 800's on this one:

http://http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/MSQ7S20TB64/

(for example---I've not shopped whole page/site yet) has two FW 800 ports they mention as 400/800 does that mean backwards compatible to my 400 ports on G4 ? [I understand you mentioned in your reply about cables that do the 400/800 upgrade/downgrade as I have them on my "pc", I am just checking to see if the description since it included the phrase 400, does that mean its instantly compatible without the cables?]

Q4. I assume both ports may be FW 400 on the G4 unless one is 800 and one is 400.

Q5. So how does OWC 's own variety of HD (Newer Tech) compare with the big companies.. like Seagate and Western Digital.... I don't want to lose my photos as they are only kept on the HD not the computer of course---computer just copies from the camera using iPhoto 09. (I know they have warranty, I don't want a new one, just want to know their reliability of total drive failure compares favorably with the others before committing to a new company... (that is why I have more than one HD in case one fails, the other has the photos (same ones) on it as well, like RAID but done manually in the case of this old Mac. (You know I really would want Time Machine, but don't have that one in 10.4!)

Q6. I think I asked this long ago... I found something on OWC that was stackable like Newer Tech (I don't need the stacking so do not take that into account)---but reviewers mentioned that the drives did something funny to their Bluetooth devices, cutting them out and only discovered this after they purchased it.... its why I stayed away from everything on OWC.... to avoid getting the wrong drive... I have 3 Bluetooth devices operating on the Mac G4 at almost all times.... Keyboard/ physical Mouse w pad/ and of course the digital camera can send photos to iPhoto or any folder on the Mac using Bluetooth connection. If the drives put out interference EM signals that disrupt this, then I'm not able to use the drives... sorry for this difficult one to be last question... I tried to find my earlier words I thought I wrote about this but was unable to locate on my computer or here....

Thanks everyone and BD Aqua for reading it all again! Hope my listing the questions made my thoughts clearer as to what I'm asking.

Hi BD Aqua!

I'm going to say great job! Great answers all of them, and mark it solved here....

But... I still have more "follow-up" questions..

Since they will take a bit of researching the proper links or take a photo and posting etc. to get my point across so watch for a new thread (I'll link the new one back here) ---you'll know its related since its the only one I'll be posting but I'll also do it for future users of Apple Community to be nice and helpful....

I'll also take you up on offer to join your web site... Really looks good....

Question 1: Can you advise what parts of what I already asked are still good to "re ask" for that web site too? Or should I just cut and paste your and my entire postings so who ever joins in on your site knows what we discussed and answered already? Up to you, its your site!

Question 2: Let me know if appropriate to reply here or wait until I post there... don't want to upset the rules of Apple Community in doing so..

Just wanted to reply sooner rather than later to let you know I read your reply (Great pics... YES I have 800 FW on both Mac ports and both ports on each of my G-Drives (poor little full 500 GB ones each).

Thanks again!

Hi BD Aqua !

Hope they let me post after solving it...

A follow up informative piece I discovered and wanted to post anyway....

You said::

A5. I'd say the cases & chipsets used are far better than what HDD Manufacturers use, the HDD used is the question, & OWC's may have different brands. You can read the ratings there.

Here is what I found ( a bit old 2006 I see) :

Douglas Griffin Feb 23, 2006 1:51 AM

Re: External hard drive suggestions in response to Vincent Tam

Hi Vincent,

This thread seems to have died except for the fact that I'm still subscribed to it. No one ever saw my own question.

However, I did a bit of research and pestering friends after posting, and ended up going with a 600 Gig RAID, Mercury Elite-AL Pro FireWire 800/400 from Other World Computing ( http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/. )

I can't really compare to other externals on a personal experience level, but I was told to go with Seagate drive on the inside, which this has. Subsequent research and reviews seemed to bear the advice out. Speed tests and feedback on the OWC product and company are good too.

If you decide to buy from them, just be aware in that not every external of this model has Seagate drives inside. It vascilates back and forth from size to size, so read the specs for each before you purchase. This advice might also apply to their other drives as well.

Wish I could be of more knowledgable help, but, from my experience, this may be the only answer you get to this old thread.

Add no, I don't work for the company. ; - )

So its just as you stated.... inside the cases can be a "Seagate" HDD just as Douglas Griffin showed above.

What is HGST??? So I checked...

Its Western Digital owned!

U.S. Headquarters
HGST, a Western Digital company
3403 Yerba Buena Road
San Jose, California 95135

So you like them? I started this exploration looking at Seagate Drives, which you say is your "last" choice... care to go into detail?

(I'm still typing up a longer reply including the two Seagate drives I found on "Staples " Website (so they are amazingly low priced compared to OWC's) that I was recommended to get... so if I know why you are unfavorable to them, maybe I'll skip that part and post it without that one as I certainly do not want drives that fail me for storing photos (remember I use two backup drives or more so if one fails I have the other, but why risk failure if Seagate is not as good as HGST ones?---(Spoiler alert for my new thread here)--but again I have to track down and show you what WD and others said about 10.4--- )