[EnVoy]

I just acquired a Dual 2.3 Ghz PPC with no hard drive in it. I went out and bought a Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA drive and installed it. When trying to install OS 10.5.6 it does not recognize the drive at all. The Barracuda instructions say on an older 1.5Gb/sec motherboards to use the supplied dip switch, which I did to no avail.

I'm guessing the HD of 1TB is too large to be recognized by the machine? Can anyone confirm, or know of another reason?

Computers specs:
Dual 2.3Ghz G5 PPC
4gb ram
Orginally had a 250GB HD in it




Thanks

[AKcrab]

Did you format the drive for mac?

[Eriamjh]

Did you check the drive on the XlR8yourmac.com HD compatibility database?

[EnVoy]

Originally Posted by AKcrab 

Did you format the drive for mac?

I cant even get the machine, or the os install disk, to recognize it.

[AKcrab]

When you're booted from the OS Install disk, and it's asking you for an install destination; Go up into the menu bar and look for Utilities, where you'll find "Disk Utility". Does it show you the drive and let you format it?

[EnVoy]

Originally Posted by Eriamjh 

Did you check the drive on the XlR8yourmac.com HD compatibility database?

Here's what I found:

Seagate SATAII & WD 70G/10K Raptor long term report.
System specs:
Machine Name: Power Mac G5
Machine Model: PowerMac11,2
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (1.1)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2.3 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 2.5 GB
Bus Speed: 1.15 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.7f1

The system originally came with a (IIRC WD) 250GB drive. It now has a 70GB/10K WD Raptor (installed shortly after purchase, single volume):
WDC WD740GD-00FLC0:
Capacity: 69.25 GB
Model: WDC WD740GD-00FLC0
Revision: 33.08F33
Serial Number: WD-WMAKE2298163
Protocol: ata
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Serial-ATA
Bay Name: "A (upper)"
OS9 Drivers: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified

It also has a Seagate 1TB (purchased and installed two weeks ago):
ST31000333AS:
Capacity: 931.51 GB
Model: ST31000333AS
Revision: SD15
Serial Number: 9TE03RVP
Protocol: ata
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Serial-ATA
Bay Name: "B (lower)"
OS9 Drivers: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified

Both are on the stock SATA I bus. The ST31000333AS replaced a 400GB Seagate, forced to SATA I via jumpers; the new Seagate is also set to SATA I. I also have a 8 port HiPoint ROCKET RAID card that shows up as a "SCSI" controller ... though it is not fully functional (which is one reason why I installed the newer, larger drive). (RocketRAID cards are not bootable)
pci11ab,11ab:
Type: SCSI Bus Controller
Bus: PCI
Slot: 8x4
Vendor ID: 0x1103
Device ID: 0x2320
Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x11ab
Subsystem ID: 0x11ab
Revision ID: 0x0009

Since you are doing reports on the 1.5TB Seagates, (most reports so far (drive firmware SD17) noted periodic I/O stoppages (stuttering media file playback, etc.) - although many have disabled journaling as a workaround, which seems to help.
NOTE: Another tip was to partition the 1.5TB drive so that no volume was greater than 1TB. (Larry at OWC mentioned that and a reader that had not seen the problem later wrote he had his 1.5TB drive partitioned into 3 volumes (none greater than 1TB). And the Nov. 21st news page has a note on a new firmware update (SD1A) from Seagate - a couple readers that have updated their drives said so far it seems to have solved the problem (they enabled journaling again)-Mike)
I figured this could also help out old PPC/G5 users who are looking to either upgrade their existing system or get a new one.

My 70G/10K Raptor has always felt fast. I have used this for boot, applications and also for WoW - and it has noticeably helped all of the above. Its not super fast in throughput (though it is fairly old) the response times definitely make up when a lot of IO is going on. (10K rpm drives have better random access performance than lower rpm drives) I was some what hesitant on upgrading as I only have the stock bus and I wanted to make sure the newer, bigger & faster drive would not have any immediate problems or problems down the road.

The good news is the 1TB Seagate is the fastest single drive I have ever owned - in terms of throughput. It will sustain between 70 and 95MB/s... the drive has 32MB cache so I imagine that helps for small file I/O ... this drive rarely misses a beat. I am not sure if the SATA I jumpers disable NCQ, though there are some limitation to this drive - some are not very good.
When running multiple apps - say video (DVD quality, nothing very taxing) and hitting hard with a large file IO and maybe running a few other things can bring the drive and the system to a crawl. Video will stutter ... and there can be some lock ups. I have found no file corruption. (is the drive Journaled? if so have you tried disabling journaling? Just wonder if this is the same issue Seagate 1.5TB owners are reporting.-Mike) Currently the 1TB drive is partitioned and running as boot (1st paritition) and data (2nd partition) ... the Raptor is simply sitting around at the moment.

I think for normal use this drive will run great. My Seagate 400GB ran fine for two years without issue. I think if you have demanding apps and need to multi task a lot, this drive is not for the stock bus, which brings me to the HiPoint ROCKET RAID (PCIe 4x, 8 SATAII channels/ports) ... runs fine, but the web interface has been down for several months and performance has changed. The current array is fine, however it will stutter audio (iTunes playback) when I got to screen saver ... it will also stutter video or audio when its hit hard .. this was not originally the case. Also because the web interface is down, there is no way to add or change the array. I should be able to get some support from High Point, however so far they have not be helpful. It would be nice to see an high bandwidth PCIe RAID card for the old PPC G5s .... MegaRAID had a nice option for the G5 XServers ... (through Apple BTO) but I have not seen those or been able to obtain a card. In theory it should work, however cooling in the tower's PCI bay could be problematic (esp with an ATI X1900 installed).

To sum up the 1TB Seagate - moving around data has never been faster. The drive is responsive, though I think for some things the 70GB Raptor can still be faster. When the drive is hammered via large I/O (say 10GB + ... moving around games (WoW is ~10GB alone)) or audio (55G) or video (90G +) ... the drive and (if booted from) the system can become unresponsive ... and it may lock completely requiring a hard reboot. When running SRM it will also show ~ 85MB/s sustained, though this can change depending on what's going on.... for comparison the Raptor will show around 55MB/s (and this will vary more) however the system wont miss a beat.

Hopefully I will get into more HD content .... but I find it odd Apple has yet to release a HD (BluRay) quality DVD player with their OS. (The commonly thought reason (since last year) is that there's DRM concerns (trying to avoid it getting cracked as on the PC)) Apple is advanced in many things, however I think their online ambition is getting in the way of a practical player (and of course the hardware Bluray drive to play it). Many people simply want to buy DVDs (old ones or even the occasionally new ones) It's a shame they make one of the best 30" LCDs, yet have no capability to play an off the shelf Blu-ray disc. I think a 24" and 32" would make Apple's offerings irresitable - even in these economic times.
-dragon_x, aka Brian



Reviewer's Name: Dino L.
Date Submitted: 7/19/2006
Drive Type: Hard Drive
Drive Interface: IDE (Serial ATA onboard)
Drive Brand: Seagate
Drive Model Number: ST3300622AS Barracuda 7200.9
Driver Used: Apple Standard
Mac Model: Apple G5 Tower
Mac OS Version: OS X 10.4
Reader Comments: Apple G5 Tower (dual 2.3GHz)
Seagate ST3300622AS, drive p/n: 9BD144-304 (drive) firmware: 3.AAH
Picked it up today at the local Fry's. Works perfectly well. No wake from sleep issues either.



So it seems that it should work, no?

[EnVoy]

Originally Posted by AKcrab 

When you're booted from the OS Install disk, and it's asking you for an install destination; Go up into the menu bar and look for Utilities, where you'll find "Disk Utility". Does it show you the drive and let you format it?

No, it does not show up there.

[AKcrab]

Weird.. Maybe you simply got a bad drive?

[reader50]

I have a Samsung F1 1TB drive in my Quad G5. It formatted and ran without issues for the past 6 months or so. Doublecheck your cable connections, then recheck Disk Utility. It should show a hardware icon for the drive, allowing you to partition & format it.

If Disk Utility really can't see the drive, then the drive is most likely defective. Is this a Seagate 7200.11 drive? You know, the ones that are real cheap on newegg, and have tons of bad reviews warning people to avoid them in ALL CAPS?

[EnVoy]

Originally Posted by reader50 

I have a Samsung F1 1TB drive in my Quad G5. It formatted and ran without issues for the past 6 months or so. Doublecheck your cable connections, then recheck Disk Utility. It should show a hardware icon for the drive, allowing you to partition & format it.

If Disk Utility really can't see the drive, then the drive is most likely defective. Is this a Seagate 7200.11 drive? You know, the ones that are real cheap on newegg, and have tons of bad reviews warning people to avoid them in ALL CAPS?

Heres the HD info:

1TB 32MB SATA HD 7200rpm 3.5Gb/s
ST310005N1A1AS-RK
PN: 9BX1A8-571

No where on the unit can I find the 7200.11 designation. I guess its bad so I'll take it back.

[reader50]

The model number is ST310005N1A1AS-RK, this has to be the retail kit version of the 7200.11 as seen here. Click on the > SPECS link above the purchase button. Your model number is the 1 TB version, with a 1.5 TB size also listed. The 1.5 is only offered in the 7200.11 line - the 7200.12 line stops at 1 TB.

[EnVoy]

Originally Posted by reader50 

The model number is ST310005N1A1AS-RK, this has to be the retail kit version of the 7200.11 as seen here. Click on the > SPECS link above the purchase button. Your model number is the 1 TB version, with a 1.5 TB size also listed. The 1.5 is only offered in the 7200.11 line - the 7200.12 line stops at 1 TB.

So that means this drive is NOT part of the dreaded 7200.11 "dont buy" line? I was going to exchange it for a new one, or should I get something else?

[EnVoy]

OK hold on. I just pulled the drive out and read he label on it. It says its a 7200.11.
Heres the label info:
ST31000333AS
P/N: 9FZ136-336
Firmware: CC3H
Date Code: 09302
Site Code: TK

None of that is the same as the label on the box. So looks like I do have one of the "dont buy" drives. What do you recommend I do? Exchange for another one and hope that one works? Or return and buy something else in the 1TB flavor?

[hwojtek]

Get a Western Digital 1TB "Green Line". It's pretty good and indeed saves a bit of power.

[reader50]

It's up to you. Since you got the retail version, you probably paid $140-160. If you returned it as defective and got your money back, you could then get a bare drive for as little as $85.

You don't need the retail version of a drive. Retail kits come with cables (your G5 already supplies those), mounting screws (don't need this) Windows software (don't need this either) and a 5-year warranty. The warranty is the only useful upgrade over a bare drive (3-year warranty). Hardly worth paying double for.

[EnVoy]

ok I'll return it and get a drive only. Which one of these do you recomend:

Samsung F1

WD Caviar Green

Seagate ST31000533CS

[AKcrab]

Western Digital

[reader50]

I'm happy with my Samsung F1, and have had good luck with WD in the past. I've no strong brand preference - I'm just avoiding Seagate 7200.11 drives until the reviews become mostly positive again. So far, they haven't, a strong hint Seagate hasn't worked through the issues yet.

[EnVoy]

Thanks for your help everyone..