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bohdanz · Nov 26, 2001, 05:16 PM

Outpost.com is clearing out Western Digital 7200rpm 80GB drives for $149 which I couldn't pass up. Suddenly I'd ordered two not fully thinking through if it's easy to add 2 drives (in addition to the Maxtor that came wtih my G4.)

Can I have install to IDE drives without doing a RAID setup? (I've never done either of these two options.) One will be used for documents/images and the other exclusively for video editing.

Thanks in advance.

OldManMac · Nov 26, 2001, 05:46 PM

Adding one two drives, in addition to the original, will require another IDE Controller card. This is their web page.

Cipher13 · Nov 26, 2001, 07:32 PM

Not necessarily...

Add the two drives as master and slave of the main bus, and ditch your old drive. That'll work fine.

If you don't want to ditch it, put it on the secondary bus, in the Zip bay's slot... it'll be slow, but hey, it'll work.

oddy8 · Nov 27, 2001, 11:56 PM

If you don't want to ditch it, put it on the secondary bus, in the Zip bay's slot... it'll be slow, but hey, it'll work.[/QB]

I was wondering if that would work. Any trick to this? There's not much info in the owner's "pamphlet." Does it matter if the drive is just loose in there?

kbbaucom · Nov 28, 2001, 04:04 AM

Originally posted by oddy8:
<STRONG>

I was wondering if that would work. Any trick to this? There's not much info in the owner's "pamphlet." Does it matter if the drive is just loose in there?</STRONG>

The bay has screw holes. The drive comes with screws. Why not use them?

Mediaman_12 · Nov 28, 2001, 06:50 AM

HD's in the Zip bay work, but that bus is slower than the main HD's bus.[/LIST]

r-0X#Zapchud · Nov 28, 2001, 07:08 AM

How fast is the Zip-bay bus, really?

Paul S · Nov 28, 2001, 10:40 AM

In the Zip bay you will get transfer rates of around 12MB/s. On the regular ATA bus, you'll get around 35-40MB/s. I am doing this at home because I had an extra 40GB that I wanted to use. I capture and edit iMovie's to it and they play back just fine. It's not the fastest at transfering files, but it's a lot more storage space I wouldn't have had before.

r-0X#Zapchud · Nov 28, 2001, 11:27 AM

Ok, it is not exactly the worlds fastest bus-interface, but it'll be a damned nice space to have if you have 2 fast, new harddrive, and one lousy old 5400 RPM drive with your old files you're gonna copy to your new, nice drives

oddy8 · Nov 28, 2001, 03:57 PM

Any tips on how to get the HD into the Zip bay? I had a quick look but don't want to proceed for fear of breaking the plastic stuff on the front.

addiecool · Nov 29, 2001, 08:43 AM

No, the Zip bay is not slow. The motherboard has two IDE Controllers. The Primary has your Hard Disk Drive as Master and the Secondary has CDROM/DVD/DVD-R as Master. You can connect a second and third drive to the Primary & Secondary controllers espectively. The bay for the Zip Drive is just designed for the Zip Drive but the Speed is the same as the Second Drive in the Primary Port. I have a IBM 75 GB connected to this and it runs just as fast as any drive.

To connect the third Drive simply remove the Plastic front carefully after that you do not risk breaking anything. UnScrew two Screws at the front and pull out the CD casing. Fix up the HDD as Slave under the CDROM where there is space for the ZIP. connect the cables as one would normally do.

I have been using this config since last 6-7 months and it is great in both my G4/400 and Quicksilver G4/733.