Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

willab · May 30, 2004, 04:22 PM

I noticed that a hard drive just fits above the optical drive in the G5. Would it be a problem to have a drive there? If it is OK to have it there can I put it on the same IDE cable as the superdrive?

djohnson · May 30, 2004, 04:40 PM

Only way you can find out is if you try!

willab · May 30, 2004, 08:39 PM

Originally posted by djohnson:
Only way you can find out is if you try!

I'll wait for something more reassuring than that before I try.

SSharon · May 30, 2004, 10:56 PM

I'm not sure if this is reasuring but it shows that the G5 can power the drive and keep itself cool.

Just back up your data (you should anyways) and try experimenting for us. We thank you in advance.

willab · May 30, 2004, 11:18 PM

I don't even have a second drive yet. If someone responds before I buy a 250 gb drive tomorrow to at least tell me if I can put the superdrive and drive on the same IDE cable I may try using an old drive on top of the Superdrive, but I am not willing to try it without at least that assurance. I do not want to have the drive overheat, and it seems that that could easily be a problem also.

jwblase · May 30, 2004, 11:22 PM

It's possible to run an ATA drive off of the superdrive ATA connection, but you'll need a power cable Y-splitter and a new ATA cable to do it. I currently have an older 60GB drive running off of my G5, and it's working great.

However, I have my drive sitting in the 2nd SATA spot, not on top of the optical drive. I don't know what that would do for the drive heat issues.

JB

willab · May 31, 2004, 12:23 AM

Originally posted by jwblase:
It's possible to run an ATA drive off of the superdrive ATA connection, but you'll need a power cable Y-splitter and a new ATA cable to do it. I currently have an older 60GB drive running off of my G5, and it's working great.

However, I have my drive sitting in the 2nd SATA spot, not on top of the optical drive. I don't know what that would do for the drive heat issues.

JB

How did you get the ATA connection to the bay for the second hard drive? I wanted to do that, butm unfortunately, CompUSA is the best computer store that I know of in my area and they carry a Y-splitter for the molex, but no extension. At that point I planned on buying a PCI ATA card and finding a way to route the cable to the drive.

willab · May 31, 2004, 12:26 AM

I tried replacing the superdrive with the HD (temporarily) but when I formatted the drive it would not let me copy files. I got an error code 36. Any suggestions?

starman · May 31, 2004, 11:15 AM

I did this the other day. I got a power Y-splitter and used an ATA 133 cable. I held the hard drive against the top of the case through the Superdrive's slot while my wife slid the Superdrive back in. Worked perfectly.

It's a Maxtor 250GB drive. I'm quite happy so far, and I still have a slot open for another SATA drive if I needed it.

Mike

jwblase · May 31, 2004, 03:44 PM

I bought a regular ATA 2-drive cable, and had to run it to the superdrive, then around the wall to the HD bay.

Look here for directions I used, with a different cable.

It's an ATA 100 bus in G5, and I'm using it for all my video and audio media at the moment. It works great.

JB

starman · May 31, 2004, 09:51 PM

The 250 GB drive is hot as hell, so I took it out.

Mike

willab · Jun 2, 2004, 10:51 AM

I was afraid heat would be an issue. I ended up buying a 250 gb SATA drive from CompUSA for $160.