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ChaperonNoir · Sep 1, 2003, 12:39 PM

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=10

hi, i have a third generation 400 mhz g4 with a 10 gb hard drive and i want more storage for all program i use. Also, i will buy a second or third generation G5 and i want to put this hard drive in the G5 after. I got to several websites like macwarehouse.com where they had hard drives but they said mac or pc on it. On the other hand, my ichat friends told me that i can format the hard drive for my computer using disk utility. Is that true? Can i buy this hard drive and make it work on my mac? it would be wonderful . Thank you.

RevEvs · Sep 1, 2003, 12:54 PM

PC and Mac Hard Drives are no different, you simply reformat depending on which platform you are using.

The only problem is that the G5s use a different type of Hard Drive to the G4 you now have. THe G4 uses the common ATA connection, whereas the G5 uses the newer SATA connector.

It is possible to buy a convertor for ATA --> SATA that will let you put the drive in the G5 in the future, at the moment nobody is too sure whether there is room in the G5 for the convertor.

Im pretty sure that pretty soon there will be a solution though, and most definitely by the time you get a 2nd or 3rd gen version of the G5.

If not you can always get a external enclosure for connecting the drive to the G5.

You say you are using a 10Gig HD at the moment, when you finally get a G5 they'll probably be 250Gig, which is probably enough room to just copy over what you need and leave the other drive in the G4.

hope this clears things up a bit.

revs

Spliffdaddy · Sep 1, 2003, 01:22 PM

If you're looking for a Western Digital 80GB hard drive - take a look at this one. 8MB cache, instead of 2MB - and a 3 year warranty, instead of 1yr.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...ion=22-144-122

click the button, read the reviews

Boochie · Sep 1, 2003, 01:48 PM

I have this very same drive in my Quicksilver G4, and I can assure you that it's Mac-compatible.

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
If you're looking for a Western Digital 80GB hard drive - take a look at this one. 8MB cache, instead of 2MB - and a 3 year warranty, instead of 1yr.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...ion=22-144-122

click the button, read the reviews

Angus_D · Sep 1, 2003, 01:50 PM

Stop shouting.

CheesePuff · Sep 1, 2003, 02:03 PM

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Stop shouting.

ChaperonNoir · Sep 1, 2003, 02:27 PM

Thank you for your replies

Eriamjh · Sep 1, 2003, 05:35 PM

I picked up a Western Digital 120Gb/8MB 7200 drive from Circuit city for $70. It was a generic drive but made by Western Digital. Formatted, it was 111 Binary GB.

I put it in my wife's Sawtooth 400 as a Master drive, partitioned it, erased the partitions, then copied OSX from the other drive using Carbon Copy Cloner. It even boots OS9. I think CompUSA has another drive for $10 less (after rebates, of course).

bradoesch · Sep 1, 2003, 11:06 PM

If you're gonna use one of those Western Digital Special Edition drives with the 8 MB cache, let me warn you that your G4 might not sleep anymore. There are quite a few reader reports at www.xlr8yourmac.com, a thread here and 3 at Apple's own forums of G4 users and iMac users (including myself) that can't sleep their computers with the drive in there. It just clicks the whole time. Thought I'd let you know.

Brad