Powermac G4 DA Dual 533 - External FW HDD Size Limit

Question

Powermac G4 DA Dual 533 - External FW HDD Size Limit

Hi there,

Power Mac G4 Dig Audio Dual 533 - OS 10.3.2 - 896 MB RAM.

I need space for Pro Tools files. Been living in the studio for 2 months, and suddenly have very little space left. 🙂

I want to get an external FW400 enclosure, and I see the following one that catches my eye from TigerDirect:

Vantec NexStar3 Black 3.5" USB 2.0 / FireWire Aluminum Hard Drive Enclosure - Item # V13-3256

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=21710 25&Tab=0&NoMapp=0

I want to put the largest hard drive I can get in that enclosure.
Two possibilities:

Western Digital / Caviar SE / 320GB / 7200 / 8MB / ATA-100 / EIDE Hard Drive

or

Maxtor / DiamondMax 21 / 320GB / 7200 / 16MB / ATA-100 / EIDE / RoHS / OEM / Hard Drive

You see any problems with that working on my system? Anybody have any personal experience with the drives or the enclosure? The enclosure gets good user reviews. I like that it doesn't have an exhaust fan (noise value), and that it's a sturdy aluminum enclosure. I tried the Ultra drive enclosures, and am disappointed in them. The fans die quick and they're noisy as heck.

Power Mac G4 Dual 533, Mac OS X (10.3.2)

Posted on Mar 10, 2007 7:08 AM

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Answer 1

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Mar 10, 2007 7:26 AM in response to Chris Mitchell4

Hi-

You don't have to worry about drive size limits with externals.

I checked your link, but found no info on the enclosure's chipset. It is recognized that the Oxford 911(112) chipsets provide the greatest compatibility in firewire enclosures.
You might browse the housing selections at OWC:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/External-Enclosures/

Hard drives are more personal preference, and the one's you listed are reputable brands. Might as well compare drives as well:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/3.5-IDE-ATA/

Best deal, though, are these "build to suit" externals. Even have bundled software, and can choose the drive size, and interfaces that you want:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/400+USB2/

G4 AGP(450)Sawtooth Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2ghzPPC,1.62gbSDRAM, ATI9800, DVR-109,(IntHD)120&160,LaCie160,23"Cinema Display

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Answer 2

Mar 10, 2007 2:23 PM in response to japamac

Well, I have an e-mail into Vantec technical support on whether it utilizes the Oxford chipset. I'll let you know. Thanks for the links to the alternative solutions. I'll definitely consider those as well.

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Answer 3

Mar 14, 2007 1:10 PM in response to japamac

Well, the complete lack of response from Vantec "Tech Support" answered my question about which drive to go with. I used one of your links above and am going with the 320 GB FW400/USB external drive ($169). I know that's an Oxford chipset, and will work with my system, it has a good reputation, and is not exhorbitantly priced.

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Answer 4

Mar 16, 2007 4:10 PM in response to Chris Mitchell4

Hey, I'm running Protools as well on my Gigabit. I wouldn't suggest getting an external...you're going to want all the speed you can get..and for me, protools will only let me save to the disk it's installed on. I wouldn't suggest running protools off of an external drive. I would advise getting an internal HD @ 7200 RPMs. I got a 180 GB IBM drive and made it a dedicated Protools drive...installed os X on it and wiped all apps and everything except the system files and protools. That way I keep all my protools stuff separate from my personal stuff. Also, if one drive crashes you always have another drive to boot from.

The only problem is with such a large drive is that our old Power Macs don't recognize internal drives over 128 GB unless you have a special driver. I've got the driver so I could always send you the software if you wanted.

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Answer 5

Mar 19, 2007 12:51 PM in response to MyrkridianRhapsody

Hi MR,

If you can't record PT sessions on an external drive, then you definitely have something configured wrong. I've been doing it for years, and never had a problem. Go to duc.digidesign.com for help.

I only needed advice on hard drive space limitations as it related to a G4 external FW400 enclosure. I already have all the PT end figured out.

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Answer 6

Mar 19, 2007 12:51 PM in response to Chris Mitchell4

What version PT are you running

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Answer 7

Mar 19, 2007 12:58 PM in response to MyrkridianRhapsody

Power Mac G4 Dual 533 Digital Audio (896 MB RAM)
OS 10.3.2
Pro Tools TDM 6.2.3
3 of the 96 i/o units with an Apogee PSX-100 word clock.
40 GB Internal master hard drive (Maxtor)
80 GB Internal secondary hard drive (Maxtor)
120 GB External FW400 Hard drive (Western Digital)
80 GB External FW400 Hard drive (Western Digital)
(all of them are 7200 RPM). The last 3 drives listed are media only drives. The 40 GB is my main OS drive and nothing gets recorded on there.

Try your DAE Playback Buffer size at 4 or 8 and see if that works.
Set your Open Ended Record Allocation to 10 minutes or less.
Set your CPU Usage as high as you can stand it without sacrificing Mac OS performance.

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Answer 8

Mar 19, 2007 12:59 PM in response to Chris Mitchell4

Hey I'm running PT 7, and on the instructional video that came with it said you can only save to the drive PT is running on. Maybe I'm wrong...

Maybe you can help here...I have dual 550's, and I can only set the processor usage to 2 processor @ 55% without it crashing. ANy ideas?

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Answer 9

Mar 19, 2007 1:38 PM in response to MyrkridianRhapsody

Running PT 7 on a G4 Dual 550 is a big gamble. I'm maxed out at 6.2.3, and can't expand any more without severely exceeding the limits on the Digidesign forum. I'm running it off 1 processor at 70%, and that's worked sweet for me.

I have all my apps (PT included) installed on the 40 GB drive, and I only record on the other drives. Make sure you have plenty of space on your master drive to give the swap file room to breathe.

Try running at 1 processor at 99% and see what happens. Also, try those other suggestions I gave. You might have a lost cause running PT7 on such an old system.

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Answer 10

Mar 19, 2007 1:48 PM in response to Chris Mitchell4

Thanks alot for the help. Yeah I had success with one processor @95%, didnt try 99. Dual 55's works well though.

My system is basically like yours. I have my main OS on one disk, then another OS and protools in installed on another disk. Nothing except protools stuff goes on its dedicated drive. Maybe running my OS off a separate drive from protools would help performance?

My master drive is 30 GB, only 15 is used. My dedicated Protools disk is 120 GB with only like 5 or 10 GB used, the OS and Protools software. I also have a 150 GB external Firewire but PT wont let me save to it. So I just use it as a back up. Any more insight?

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Answer 11

Mar 22, 2007 9:09 AM in response to MyrkridianRhapsody

This is off the top of my head, as I'm nowhere near my PT system. There's something I THINK in the Setup menu in PT where you can define what drives you can record to. Look in there. Usually it's set to automatically make any drive a recordable volume, but you must have it set to manual.

I'm afraid to go to PT 7.x as Digidesign recommends a processor almost twice mine to run it. For now, I'm running fine on 6.2.3 and won't upgrade to 7.x until I buy a G5 that'll support my PCI Pro-Tools cards.

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