[vjamacaddict]

I need to buy a new hard drive for my PowerMac 7300/500 (G3 500Mhz upgrade). I'm considering at least a 120GB, but would like to know if I can install the 160GB HD also? What actually is the limit? Could I have two internal 120GB, or even two internal 160GB drives?

Presently I have the 6GB drive from my dead G3 Blue & White, and a 40GB drive. The 40GB is just about ready to bite the dust, so I need to buy another drive very soon!

vjamacaddict
-- PowerMac 7300/500 (500Mhz G3 upgrade), 200MB RAM
-- OS 8.6/9.1

[deboerjo]

The 7300 uses SCSI drives, not IDE. There is no limit to the size, but drives larger than 4GB in 50-pin format are hard to come by, and the 7500-series case is too cramped for most 50-pin converters.

Unless you have a PCI ATA card, then you can use ATA drives. There may be a 120GB limit, depending on the ATA card. Do you have an ATA card, and if so what kind?

[vjamacaddict]

deboerjo -- Thanks for your resonse. My PowerMac 7300/500 has a SIIG ATA 100/133 controller card, so I can use IDE hard drives. The 40GB internal hard drive is IDE. I'm not sure what the 6GB is (from our dead G3 B&W). What is the hard drive size limit for the PM 7300 with the 500Mhz G3 upgrade card? 120GB, less or more?



vjamacaddict
PowerMac 7300/500 (500 Mhz G3 upgrade card), OS 8.6/9.1, 200MB RAM

Originally posted by deboerjo:
The 7300 uses SCSI drives, not IDE. There is no limit to the size, but drives larger than 4GB in 50-pin format are hard to come by, and the 7500-series case is too cramped for most 50-pin converters.

Unless you have a PCI ATA card, then you can use ATA drives. There may be a 120GB limit, depending on the ATA card. Do you have an ATA card, and if so what kind?

[reader50]

Go to DirtCheapDrives.com

Select Hard Drives - Internal from the CATEGORIES sidebar on the left

Select Internal - SCSI Drives from the Sub Categories

Select SCSI - ULTRA / NARROW from the Sub Categories

Don't faint from the prices, but these guys offer up to 18.4 GB. Sorry about not providing a direct link, they hardcoded their .asp pages so you can't link to a category without already having a cartID.

edit: the above post came while researching this one. Get a cheaper ATA drive.

[deboerjo]

The G3 upgrade card is not a factor at all, the only thing it depends on is whether your SIIG ATA card supports drives over 120GB. I'm not familiar with that particular card, so you'll have to look it up on the manufacturer's website or your manual.

[new newton]

If it's ATA100 it'll support drives larger than 120gb.

[P]

Originally posted by new newton:
If it's ATA100 it'll support drives larger than 120gb.

Not necessarily, though that is often the case. If it is ATA/133 then it definately supports LBA, which is what is required for drives over 128 GB. If it's ATA/66 it definately doesn't, but with ATA/100 you'll have to read the specs. However if the board claims to support ATA/133 then you're fine. Get the biggest drive possible.

[new newton]

ATA133 isn't a standard. It's a Maxtor thing.

[larkost]

Originally posted by new newton:
ATA133 isn't a standard. It's a Maxtor thing.

No, ATA133 is a standard, and it is the first one to include large volume support (over 120Gig) as a mandatory feature (optional on ATA100).

[new newton]

You're confusing a Maxtor-defined standard with an industry standard.

[Lateralus]

New Newton is correct. ATA-133 is something that Maxtor has pushed, but that hasn't actually been accepted as a standard yet. Most other manufacturers have yet to adopt it.

[tooki]

And they may well never adopt it, because it's not a ratified standard, and it never will become one, because it's been superseded by SATA. Note also that to this day, no hard drive is fast enough to require the speed of ATA/100, much less ATA/133.

In fact, ATA/33/66/100 aren't really the official names of the standards. They're actually ATA-4/5/6 with UDMA/33/66/100, respectively.

The ATA-6 (ATA/100) standard requires 48-bit LBA (large drive) support, but many ATA-5 (ATA/66) controllers have it anyway.

tooki