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Hard drive issue... Help!
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Apr 2008
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I recently began having trouble with my Dual G4 1.25 GHz MDD Power Mac (Bad H.D.).
I purchased a new HD at Best Buy, a Western Digital 160gb drive, being that my original drive in my mac was only an 80gb, the install instructions on the new drive reads that older G4's such as mine require an ATA card in order for it to recognize the full capacity of the new drive.
I was wondering if ATA cards are cross platform compatible with both PC and Mac? I've called numerous computer stores and even enquired at the Apple store, and no one seems to know. So I am relying on your genius to find the answer.
Thanks :-)
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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No, not all ATA (IDE) cards will work in a Mac; many don't have OS X drivers.
Buying a 160GB drive implies that you're incredibly price sensitive; you're welcome to just use the drive (with 137GB usable) instead of spending as much as you spent on the drive on a card.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Thanks for your help. I don't have a problem using the 137gb of space, as long as there are no performance issues. I really can't afford spending the extra money on the ATA card. I just want my computer working again.
Thanks again
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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Offline
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No, there are no performance issues.
Buying a hard drive so far behind the value curve clued me in that you didn't really want to spend much more money.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Japan
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I am not positive but I think the MMD models do support drives over 120GB in size. That limitation was for older G4 towers (I think). Here is a link to the Apple page on the 1.25 MMD.
Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors) - Technical Specifications
If you scroll down you can see that you can install up to 4 drives in that model, but be sure to use the "Cable select" dip switch setting on the drive. The rear HD case is where the original HD is installed and it is cramped in there and there is one screw at the top of the case that is rather hard to access (easy to drop it too so use a magnetic screw driver!)
I have installed several drives in my MDD and it is much easier to use the 66ATA case in the front. But then the old bad drive has to be removed anyway. Good Luck 
(Last edited by David Lee; Apr 5, 2008 at 05:15 AM.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Thanks for your replies. Well after installation of the new drive, it seems that it may not be the drive after all, the problems I was having are still persisting. I think it may be the logic board so I think it may be bye bye G4  .
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Japan
Status:
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I found an article on the xlr8yourmac.com HP about this (link below), it is OK to install large HDs in the MMD models. Link below should be one line (it is broken here to fit in the reply box).
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/action...amp;-response=
answer.faq.lasso&-recordID=34188&-search
But the related info is:
Mac G4 and G3 machines before the 2002 Quicksilver models do not have native support for large drives on the onboard IDE (HDs larger than 128GB will be limited to 128GB formatted).
If the HD is installed correctly, cable select dip switch settings and good cables, it should be OK. Now lets hope that your problems are software related, not hardware.
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