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FridgeMagnet · Oct 24, 2001, 07:50 AM

Hi folks,

I have two ATA drives in my G4 533DP tower, does anyone know off the top of their heads if I can fit a third using the bus that the CDRW is on? is it as simple as getting a splitter cable or is it just downright impossible?

ta very much

bluedog · Oct 24, 2001, 11:25 AM

Sure you can. I tried it. The cable already has a second interface on it for connecting a ZIP. The issue is the bay that contains space and the cable/power where a ZIP would normally go is too small for most drives. You can try and put it in.

From what I hear the ATA bus for the main drives are 66mHz bus and the ZIP/CD-R bus is only a 33mHz bus. This means you will get poorer performance from this drive. I would also think you may run into difficulties when writing CD-Rs in this configuration. Don't know this for sure, just conjecture.

Try it out! BTW, I have a dual533 also. I attempted to put a drive in that space and decided just to buy a larger one and put it on the main bus. Good luck and let us know if it works!

FridgeMagnet · Oct 24, 2001, 11:33 AM

cheers Bluedog,

I'll give it a go and let you know if it works, I already have both slots on the main ATA bus filled and i'm just reluctant to take one out of action in order to get a larger drive, I only use the second for Mp3 storage so the slower bus might be acceptable.

Thanks again

COmie JOe · Oct 24, 2001, 07:44 PM

Yea I have a G4 533DP and the main ATA 66 Bus that the stock drive is connected to. The ATA bus the DVD or CD-RW drive is connected to is only EIDE ( I think it has a limit to 13 Mbps Vr. ATA 66=66 Mbps) so the performace will be far less than what the drive can do. Buy a Fire wire case or a ATA card. If you go the route of an ATA card and your looking for preformance most cards have 2 IDE buses so put a drive on each bus (so each is a master (this includes the Onboard ATA 66 bus))

Why do this you may ask, IDE is not full-duplex so data can only move in one dirrection at a time and when you have two drives connected to one bus the can limit your preformance for each drive.

FridgeMagnet · Oct 25, 2001, 01:30 AM

Thanks guys,

I tried it last night, seems to work fine and I haven't noticed any perceptible sreduction in speed, the CDRW works fine but I haven't tried burning yet. I'm sure it's not an ideal situation but it's handy to know it can be done. The Zip drive bay was the perfect size for the drive too so that's no problem, although this particular drive is a fraction of an inch smaller in width to the drive that came with the mac so some drives might be a bit of a squeeze.

Thanks again,

vmarks · Oct 25, 2001, 11:09 AM

If you got a PCI ata/IDE card, you could add another four drives...

maxtor, sonnet, and others sell em.

JaimesBeam · May 26, 2007, 03:39 PM

In my new Quicksilver there's space along the bottom of the case for like six drives; three pairs. Add an ATA133 PCI card with two master&slave cable ports and you've got it!

Any recommendations the ATA133 PCI controllers that will handle big drives?
I have an ACARD ATA133 RAID controller AEC-6880M. There's a driver and utility program, but I don't like that the disk drives don't show up normally under the ATA tab in the System Profiler. But it seems to work fine...

Thanks, Jim.

bowwowman · May 27, 2007, 08:07 AM

Originally Posted by vmarks

If you got a PCI ata/IDE card, you could add another four drives...maxtor, sonnet, and others sell em.

Yea but for almost the same price, you can go for SATA HDD's & Card and get mo speeeed & future portability too!........

Originally Posted by JaimesBeam

In my new Quicksilver there's space along the bottom of the case for like six drives; three pairs. Add an ATA133 PCI card with two master&slave cable ports and you've got it!

Any recommendations the ATA133 PCI controllers that will handle big drives?
I have an ACARD ATA133 RAID controller AEC-6880M. There's a driver and utility program, but I don't like that the disk drives don't show up normally under the ATA tab in the System Profiler. But it seems to work fine...

Thanks, Jim.

Yea but you'd need 3 sets of the double stacked HD brackets to do this (which are available on ebay) As for big drives, AFAIK, all ATA/133 cards currently being sold will handle them. But see my comment above on this ^^ SATA does NOT have any drive size limits that I know of

seanc · May 27, 2007, 12:43 PM

Someone needs to fix the software on this forum.

THIS THREAD IS FROM 2001.

Threads older than 6 months should be AUTO-LOCKED.

imitchellg5 · May 27, 2007, 01:43 PM

Where was I in 2001? This thread has caused me to ponder my past.

bowwowman · May 28, 2007, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by imitchellg5

Where was I in 2001? This thread has caused me to ponder my past.

you dont have a past, never did, never will.......foget 'bout it...........

If u dont know where you was then, howz u know wherz u is now or wherz u gonna be tomorrow ..........

ponder THAT

JaimesBeam · May 28, 2007, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by seanc

Someone needs to fix the software on this forum.

THIS THREAD IS FROM 2001.

Threads older than 6 months should be AUTO-LOCKED.

Old threads should not be auto-locked, What if someone finds a solution to an old problem??? Why shouldn't they be able to post the answer where it belongs?

Jim.