WD Caviar Raid 160 GB to run as 2nd internal hard drive?

Question

WD Caviar Raid 160 GB to run as 2nd internal hard drive?

Is it possibile to run a Western Digital Caviar Raid 160 GB, 16MB cache as the second internal hard drive?-for HD recording.
And if so, do I need any adapter for connecting the power/data
cable?
As far as I know: the "Caviar" is a SATA 2 drive and the internal Apple SATA bus is level 1 ; so, it is compatible at level "1" ?
Thank you

G5 dual 2Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Dec 11, 2006 5:55 PM

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Answer 1

Gannett

Level 1

18 points

Dec 12, 2006 9:59 AM in response to snitzelmaster

Watch out for WD SATA disk compatability issues with on-board G5 Sata chip.
See
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1415
...
Problem:
After installing a WD4000YR, WD4000KD, WD360ADFD, WD7400ADFD, WD1500AHFD, or WD1500ADFD, the computer system will hang (lock up), necessitating a system re-boot.
....
Resolution:
The only work-around we have identified at this time is installing a SATA Host Bus Adapter (controller card), effectively circumventing the on-board interface.

If you are using an internal PCI card it may be ok.

--
Gannett

G10 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 4 GB

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Answer 2

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Dec 12, 2006 2:44 PM in response to snitzelmaster

Auto-negotiating back down to 1.5Gbps works with most. But there seem to be problems with the 7200.10 Baraccudas.

I would look at the WD 320GB, in either the RE (enterprise edition, designed for RAID) or Caviar SE16. Or even the 500GB Caviar SE16 (one of the quietest and fastest 7.2K drives).

But.... I would erase w/ zero-all option for any drive you do get regardless before using. Just to insure there are no bad sectors.

If you think you need 100GB, get at least double, if not more. In part so you don't have to use more than 50-60% and for performance reasons.

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