[moggy]

As my signature states, I have a G3 Yosemite with the original Maxtor 12 gig drive and I added a 20 gig Seagate hard drive a while ago. But now I need lots more space. I'm fighting for MBs. Sigh. My friend did all the research when I got the Seagate, so I'm not particularly familiar with adding a hard drive.

Does anybody have any suggestions, best deals, precautions (does any size matter, do I have to keep in mind that I have a G3 and not a G4?), and because I already have two drives, how do I go about getting rid of one of them and replacing it without creating any problems.

Any specifics would be great. I think I'm shopping around for one around 80gigs. Thanks!

[Cipher13]

Well, you have a Yosemite... which could be an issue. There's a data corruption issue with those machines. But, you seem to have had no problems with the Seagate, so I'll assume you have a revision which doesn't have that problem. Keep in mind, it may well.

Replacing the original master drive (the Maxtor, I assume), may cause problems. I'm not in a position to say.

Anyway... do you want speed? Do you want size? Do you want it to be quiet?

Quiet: Seagate Barracuda IV, up to 80 gigs.
Fast: Western Digital JB 8 meg, up to 120 gigs.
Best of both worlds: Seagate Barracuda IV. It's nearly as fast as the WD anyway... those two are the extremes of speed and sound, really, without going into price/performance/size issues (where the WD would lose in the end, maybe to an IBM 120GXP - which I won't touch with a 10 foot pole).

My advice? Get the Barracuda.

Instructions: Is it replacing the master or slave drive? Find out. Set the jumpers up correctly, to identify the drive as the suitable replacement. Stick the cables in. Boot off the other drive. Done.

[rhogue islander]

The data corruption issue that Cipher refers to only applies to Yosemites with the rev 1 logic board. Yours is a G3 450, so I would assume that yours has the rev 2 logic board. Go to www.lowendmac.com for tips on how to deternine this.

Seagate and WD are both good brands, I have had good luck with Maxtors as well. As long as you're shelling out, you might as well get a 60 gig or larger. www.googlegear.com and www.newegg.com are good sources for inexpensive bare hard drives.

[saru boy]

You can also try www.pricewatch.com and look up the prices for hard drives.

[moggy]

Thanks everyone, all of your help is much appreciated. Now I have some new resources to look at.

[reader50]

Originally posted by moggy:
...
Does anybody have any suggestions ... and because I already have two drives, how do I go about getting rid of one of them and replacing it without creating any problems.
...

An easy way to transfer data is to put the new drive in the Zip bay to begin with. Initialize, install, copy across everything that you want to, organize, etc. When everything is perfect, and your system copy on the new HD boots perfectly, shut down. Move the new drive to the regular position, and dump your slowest / smallest old drive.

Notes:
Your regular HD connection position runs on a faster bus than the one serving the CD and Zip bay. You would not want to leave your newest / fastest HD on the CD/Zip bus because it would run slower than it is capable of. So move it to the regular position once everything is ironed out. Watch your jumper positions whenever you move an HD to a different bus.

This answer assumes the Zip bay is empty, as is the case for most people. It might not be so easy an answer if something is in the Zip bay already, like a Zip drive.

It is possible to stick your slowest / smallest HD in the Zip bay afterwards as a 3rd HD used mostly for backups. Some people have worried about this causing too much heat for the Zip bay, but I have had no heat problems with this configuration, which I have used for up to several weeks at a time. What you will notice if you do this is a good deal more noise - the front mounted drive transmits more noise to the user than internally mounted drives. Also, your system will often insist on spinning up all connected drives before it will complete certain disk actions, which is a minor pain, since that slowest HD will naturally take the longest to get going.

Don't bother to buy a drive advertised as larger than 137 GB. Your system will only recognize the first 137 GB of a very large drive. To use the full capacity of very large drives, you would need a PCI ATA-133 interface card.

[suprz]

per the apple web site itself, a B&W rev 1 will not support 2HD's ( probably because of the data corruption issue of the rev 1. and per everything i have ever read on the data corruption issue, the only brand of HD that did not show signs of data corruption when replacing the stock HD was a Maxtor. the only way around this issue is to use a replacement PCI IDE controller card.

can you tell i have a rev 1?

i personally have a 7200rpm maxtor 40gig in mine, (replacing the stock 12gb IBM) and no data corruption since installing it over 8 months ago