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Matthew Attoe · Jun 24, 2006, 02:14 PM

Hi,

I'm looking into buying a new internal drive for my G5 - either a 500Gb or 750Gb should do.

I've done a bit of searching, and it seems that most of the SATA drives have one problem or another working with the SATA interface in a G5. Some need SSC switching off, some need this, some need that.

Is there ANY drive I can buy that will work right out of the box (formatting and partitioning aside, obviously

)?

What ones have you gotten to work in your G5?

Any advice or help would be most gratefully received.

Many thanks in advance for both your time and patience,

Matthew

mduell · Jun 24, 2006, 05:22 PM

I haven't been keeping up with which drives don't work with the G5s (all I know of are the Seagates that shipped with SSC for a while). Can you list which manufacturers/lines/models you've heard are incompatible? I'll post other models that I can think of.

Matthew Attoe · Jun 25, 2006, 03:20 AM

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your reply.

I think it was the Seagates I'd heard needed the SSC switching off. I'm sure I read somewehere (might have been over at xlr8yourmac) that Western Digital drives were having some problems as well (tho this might have just been new Raptors, I wouldn't like to say for sure!)

Any more information you can come up with would be gratefully received.

Thanks again,

Matthew

Big Mac · 09:45 AM

There are a number of threads on this topic over at the Apple discussion forums. The consensus over there seem to be that the problem is a driver level one rather than a hardware issue. I'm just not too hopeful the post-Intel defection Apple will do anything about it. I'm interested in finding the definitive answer to your question as well.

Matthew Attoe · Jun 25, 2006, 12:13 PM

WOW! Two of the most knowledgeable people on these boards have replied to my thread. That's NEVER happened to me before.

Big Mac - I agree; all I want to do is just order a new HD that I know is gonna work in my G5 with no hassles.

mduell · Jun 25, 2006, 12:44 PM

I did a bit of research...

The WD models that do not work with Macs are: WD4000YR, WD4000KD, WD1500AHFD, and WD1500ADFD (link)

As far as I know, Seagate only shipped a few batches of the 300-500GB drives with SSC enabled by default. All of the 7200.10 drives, including the 750GB, ship with SSC disabled and 1.5Gbps mode enabled for maximum compatibility.

Newegg (who is great with returns) has the 750GB SATA Seagate for $420.

Big Mac · Jun 25, 2006, 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by Matthew Attoe

WOW! Two of the most knowledgeable people on these boards have replied to my thread. That's NEVER happened to me before.

Thank you for the gigantic compliment, Matthew - if you indeed meant me - but while I am knowledgeable in computing subjects there are a number of people around here far more knowledgeable than I.

Matthew Attoe · Jun 26, 2006, 03:06 AM

Big Mac: Of course I meant you. You and Mark.

Whenever I post on these boards there are several people I always hope are going to reply, because I know I'm going to get good, helpful answers, with a little extra help and advice thrown in for good measure.

Mark: Spot on with those 750Gb - looks like that's what I'll be ordering in the very near future. Hopefully they come with the 5-year warranty too.

Again, many thanks for all your help,

Matthew

Big Mac · Jun 26, 2006, 03:34 AM

Well, Matthew, I want you to know that your posts definitely brightened my day. I wish you good luck with your drive purchase.

Matthew Attoe · Jun 26, 2006, 06:20 AM

You're most welcome... maybe one day I'll be able to answer one of your questions for you

mduell · Jun 26, 2006, 06:39 AM

Originally Posted by Matthew Attoe

Mark: Spot on with those 750Gb - looks like that's what I'll be ordering in the very near future. Hopefully they come with the 5-year warranty too.

They do; every Seagate drive, regardless of size, capacity, or channel has a 5 year warranty.

MRTrauffer · Jun 26, 2006, 10:02 AM

I can personally confirm that the WDGWD4000KD doesn't work on the internal SATA bus, however, after installing a PCI SATA controller card, I was able to get the drive to work as it should. It was a great scratch disk.

Cadaver · Jun 26, 2006, 10:28 AM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

I'm just not too hopeful the post-Intel defection Apple will do anything about it.

Dude, you just can't stand Macs using an Intel processor, can you? Its still a Mac, you know.
The current (and upcoming) architectures are excellent performers, and since there's no legacy code in MacOS X like in Windows, it isn't plagued with the problems that Windows has.
The 2.16GHz MacBook Pro's performance has been good enough for me to completely replace my 2.5GHz dual G5 with it.
While I had my doubts when Apple announced its move to Intel, I'd say its the best move the company has ever done.

Cadaver · Jun 26, 2006, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by Matthew Attoe

Hi,

I'm looking into buying a new internal drive for my G5 - either a 500Gb or 750Gb should do.

I've done a bit of searching, and it seems that most of the SATA drives have one problem or another working with the SATA interface in a G5. Some need SSC switching off, some need this, some need that.

Is there ANY drive I can buy that will work right out of the box (formatting and partitioning aside, obviously

)?

What ones have you gotten to work in your G5?

Any advice or help would be most gratefully received.

Many thanks in advance for both your time and patience,

Matthew

Pretty sure that OWC (http://eshop.macsales.com/) guarantees all their SATA drives will work in a G5. They disable SSC in any drive that requires it to work in a G5.

MRTrauffer · Jun 26, 2006, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by Cadaver

Pretty sure that OWC (http://eshop.macsales.com/) guarantees all their SATA drives will work in a G5. They disable SSC in any drive that requires it to work in a G5.

The HD I mentioned above, I purchased from OWC. They did have a warning on the description page for that drive that mentioned that it didn't work with all G5s...that was a warning that I missed when I made my purchase.

OWC NOTE: This drive will not work when installed into a Power Macintosh G5 system without using
a separate SATA controller card. See this Western Digital technote for more information.

Matthew Attoe · Jul 6, 2006, 10:33 AM

Hi,

Again, many thanks for all the replies.

I´ve found a supplier for the Seagate 750Gb drive but I want to just double-check it´s the right one for my G5 - it mentions towards the bottom of the page that it´s designed for MD: Special RAID Edition. Does this mean it won´t work as a normal, bog standard, data drive?

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=42L2

Thank you,

Matthew

Matthew Attoe · Sep 5, 2006, 11:55 AM

Just to let anyone who may be interested know, I bought and installed a Seagate 750GB drive.

It all installed fine and seems to be working perfectly. It formatted down to 698.xxGB.

Many thanks to everyone for their input.

Matthew