New internal SCSI drive

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Level 1

5 points

New internal SCSI drive

I have a Power Mac tower, an old dual G4 450, with a Gig of RAM, and two internal Hard Drives. The hard drives are running slow, and are no longer reliable, so I need a new internal one (I already have an external Lacie 250GB firewire drive). I was looking up the specs for my machine, and remembered that I had an Ultra SCSI card installed when I first bought me machine, and saw that my machine could support internal SCSI drives.

Anyways, I ordered a Seagate Cheetah 73 GB drive, and plan on using this in my Mac tower, is this okay? Will it work? I guess I'll know more once I actually receive the drive and attempt to install it. I just get a bit confused with SCSI, and the IDs and termination and such. Also, i plan on running my OS from this SCSI drive, and probably scrapping the two internal drives I have now. Any adivice or help would be much appreciated. Thanks

Power Mac G4 dual 450, Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Posted on Feb 12, 2007 3:57 PM

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Answer 1

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Jeff

Level 6

12,058 points

Feb 13, 2007 1:07 AM in response to illweather

SCSI hard drives are often considered the best, but I'd recommend that you make the jump to a larger Parallel ATA (ATA-133) or Serial ATA (SATA-150) drive, with a Mac-compatible controller card. The cost/GB of SCSI drives is so much more expensive than ATA drives, that you could undoubtedly get a 200 GB PATA or SATA hard drive for less (when sale-priced), than what you've paid for the 73 GB drive. The least-expensive ATA-133 Mac-compatible controller card (Acard AEC-6280M) can be found here. Your G4 has onboard support for an ATA-133 drive, although any drive larger than 120 GBs will be recognized as 128 GBs. Additionally, that G4's bus speed is only ATA-66, so you won't get the fastest data transfers, of which the drive is capable. The ATA-133 controller card enables the faster speed and removes the 128 GB limitation, so you can connect and fully-recognize a mega-sized drive. You can also look for a (Mac) SATA controller card and drive, checking other Mac retailers for prices on comparable products. Sonnet, SeriTek, Acard, and SIIG are some of the brands to look for. As for hard drives, you can usually find a good sale price on one (less than 50¢/GB), advertised in the weekly sales inserts of your local electronics, computer, and office supply stores.

As for the 73 GB drive that you've purchased, what type of SCSI drive is it - LVD/SE? What type of connection interface does it have?

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Answer 2

illweather Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 13, 2007 1:37 AM in response to Jeff

Thanks for the info.

Well the SCSI drive I got was only $33, a few more bucks shipped. And since I do have an external firewire HD that's plenty big (250GB), I'm not currently looking to upgrade to an ATA-133 or SATA controller card.

Not sure on all the specs of the drive I just bought. I guess I'll find out when it arrives. The SCSI card in my Mac is just the standard Ultra SCSI card that Apple installed as an option. Not sure who makes it, but I'm assuming it's Ultra 160 SCSI. (I don't even really know that much about all this SCSI terminology) I'll have to take a closer look at it.

I guess now I just need an internal SCSI cable. And determine the type of connection on my SCSI card...and new HD.

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Answer 3

illweather Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 20, 2007 12:24 PM in response to illweather

I received my SCSI drive yesterday, but am still not sure what kinda SCSI connection/port it has. In addition, configuring the jumpers on it seem much more complex than on a typical ATA drive. I'm sure some of this confusion is due to the fact that I am very "green" when it comes to internal SCSI devices.

I think I have a friend that can look at my setup, and determine what steps I need to take in order to get the drive installed and configured before loading an operating system on it.

Also, Seagate's site has some info on installing their internal SCSI drives, which I printed out, but the jumper settings are still really confusing me.

If I posted some pictures maybe that would help explain my situation?

Thanks for any help

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Answer 4

illweather Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 26, 2007 3:13 PM in response to illweather

So my PC tech friend did a bit of research for me on my SCSI drive and controller card. He says that the adaptec card that came with my machine from Apple, only supports up to 20MB/s transfer rates, which is not fast enough if I want to use my SCSI drive as a boot volume. Is that true?

My current HD that I boot from, is a crappy ATA-66 20GB 5400rpm drive, that came with my machine, and runs like crap. I would think the SCSI would be faster than that, but maybe that controller card is just not good enough.

Any help would be appreciated.

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Answer 5

Jon Smith

Level 4

1,390 points

Feb 26, 2007 7:32 PM in response to illweather

Hello illweather,

Just sold a dual 450 Sawtooth with an Acard 6280M controller card and Seagate 7200rpm 80GB ST380013A hard drive (a combination I like), and it struck me as being pretty perky.

You didn't answer Jeff's inquiry as to the number of the Seagate Cheetah SCSI; if it's the ST373307LW, it's a fine drive but it wants a faster SCSI controller (also, a special squeaky teflon cable). My DA has an ATTO Express UL3S SCSI controller which was a little pricey, though maybe they've come down a bit. It's mated to a Seagate 15000rpm 18GB ST318452LW which came well used and I didn't expect much from, but it's performed flawlessly for a year now. Still have the new 36GB ST336607LW hanging out and waiting for its shot, but the oldie won't give up.

I think I get about a 75MB/s transfer rate with the ATA-133 setup (which is totally silent), and almost 80MB/s from the SCSI which makes these funny little grunts and stall noises to keep itself amused.

HTH ..... Jon

P.S. Your Mac should boot at far less than 20MB/s - at least I never heard of that's being a consideration; it will just seem (painfully) slow. ..... J

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Answer 6

illweather Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 26, 2007 8:32 PM in response to Jon Smith

Jon,

My Cheetah's model number is: ST173404LCV. For some reason, Seagate has no info on this model on their site.

The adaptec card is a AHA-2930CU.

Basically, I'm trying to work with what I have, but I guess if this controller card is way too slow, then maybe I'm just shooting myself in the foot. I just would rather not spend a few hundred on a new SCSI card, since it seems like they're all so expensive these days, yet when I bought my Mac, I think my card was around $50.

Thanks for the info.

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Answer 7

Feb 26, 2007 10:40 PM in response to illweather

If it helps, this page came up in a Google search.
There are specifications and pinout information toward the bottom of the page.
http://discountechnology.com/Seagate-ST173404LCV-SCSI-Hard-Drives?sc=2&category= 221

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Answer 8

illweather Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 26, 2007 11:06 PM in response to Dave Hamilton

Thanks for those specs Dave. I think I've determined what I need next. Adaptec has a card called the 29160, which supports 160MB/s and has a 68pin port both internally and externally.

Though, according to the site that you found, the drive I have is an 80pin. So can one of those adapters on that page (or a similar one) hook up to my drive and then work with the Adaptec card I'm looking into (the 29160)?

Man I'm confused. I just want to get this stupid drive to work. 🙂

Thanks

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Answer 9

illweather Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 7, 2007 1:36 PM in response to illweather

Got a new SCSI card, the Adaptec 29160N, fairly similar to the 29160, but 32 bit instead of 64bit PCI (hope that isn't a huge dissadvantage). Has yet to arrive in the mail, but after doing a lot of research, I think this sucker will work with my SCSI HD.

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Answer 10

illweather Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 26, 2007 12:31 AM in response to illweather

Have had the drive up and running for about a week now. It's running 10.4.9 and functions great! Funny little noises here and there (it is a SCSI drive...) but nothing that bothers me. Also recently upgraded my RAM another 512MB so my old mac is functioning better than ever (maybe a bit too strong of a statement...).

Anyone else buys one of these, I can help!

CASE CLOSED

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