Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

dtriska · Aug 29, 2004, 06:12 PM

So, here's the deal. My sister needs a larger hard drive since her 20 GB is pretty much full. Future Shop has a special on the Western Digital 160 GB drive. It's half the price of the 120 GB drive.

Anyway, my sister's computer is a Summer 2001 iMac. Therefore, the iMac won't recognize the full 160 GB, but only the first 128 or so. This isn't a big deal from her perspective since it's still 108 GB more than she had before.

My question is, are there any known problems with simply using a 137+ GB drive in a Mac with only 32 bit addressing? Will there be any system problems? Will disk utilities screw up? Is there a significant risk of data corruption?

Thanks for the help.

(PS: I put this in the Software forum because I'm interested in software problems.)

ntsc · Aug 30, 2004, 06:08 AM

you could try doing what the old windows users did which was partition their drive into smaller parts until the OS could use all of them. as for whether there are any problems i've no idea, but if it does work thats how you can get the use of the whole drive.

Powaqqatsi · Aug 30, 2004, 06:20 AM

It's not a OS limitation but a hardware limitation ntsc.

Randman · Aug 30, 2004, 06:25 AM

Originally posted by ntsc:
you could try doing what the old windows users did which was partition their drive into smaller parts until the OS could use all of them.

Even partioned, it will still read 128 COMBINED.

If permissions are kept up-to-date and she doesn't mind the limitation, it should be fine. And that way she has a very solid 160GB external to go with the next Mac she has.

Zadian · Aug 30, 2004, 06:57 AM

Originally posted by Randman:
Even partioned, it will still read 128 COMBINED.

As already noted, the 128 GB limitation is a hardware issue. The IDE controller can't handle more. You could use the hard drive in an external firewire case, modern firewire cases can handle larger hard drives.

dtriska · Aug 30, 2004, 05:03 PM

Originally posted by Randman:
If permissions are kept up-to-date and she doesn't mind the limitation, it should be fine. And that way she has a very solid 160GB external to go with the next Mac she has.

That was my take on it, too. I'm just hoping to find someone who has done this.

Originally posted by Zadian:
You could use the hard drive in an external firewire case, modern firewire cases can handle larger hard drives.

Yeah, I've thought about that. I'm not sure it would suit the kind of user she is, though. She's not computer-illiterate, but splitting up her files across multiple volumes is something I want to avoid with her. It's still an option, however.

mindwaves · Aug 30, 2004, 09:01 PM

I'm going to move this to this to the iMac forum as it is about iMac's HD (even though it covers other stuff).

dtriska · Aug 30, 2004, 09:14 PM

Originally posted by mindwaves:
I'm going to move this to this to the iMac forum as it is about iMac's HD (even though it covers other stuff).

The computer may be an iMac, but the topic is about using a 137+ GB drive in an ATA/66 machine, and the possible software problems that could arise (data corruption, etc.).