04-20-2004, 10:54 AM

I have a G4 533MHZ Digital Audio. I have a third 80 GB HD that I just bought and went to put it into my Mac and there is no cable to add a third hard drive in there.

There are two drives in there already using the cable...

What can I do to add a third (or possibly 4th) hard drive into my G4?

TIA

04-20-2004, 02:14 PM

If the motherboard doesn't have a physical connection, I would think it has to be external

04-20-2004, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by Shakermaker

I have a G4 533MHZ Digital Audio. I have a third 80 GB HD that I just bought and went to put it into my Mac and there is no cable to add a third hard drive in there.

There are two drives in there already using the cable...

What can I do to add a third (or possibly 4th) hard drive into my G4?

TIA

You can try to find Mac-compatible PCI based ATA controller cards. I haven't done any reasearch on these, since I don't have extra room in my Cube anyway.

BTW...you'll also want to make sure you have a proper mounting spot for the 3rd drive. Good Luck!

04-20-2004, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by Chamorro

You can try to find Mac-compatible PCI based ATA controller cards. I haven't done any reasearch on these, since I don't have extra room in my Cube anyway.

BTW...you'll also want to make sure you have a proper mounting spot for the 3rd drive. Good Luck!

Good suggestion - there is what looks like two more spots on the chassis to put two more HD's (at least that what it appears - it looks like with the door closed they would fit!) so I may need a card...

A friend of mine has an firewire case that can turn an internal drive into an external drive so I may get that off him - problem solved!

Thanks!

04-20-2004, 04:21 PM

dunno much about internal macs... but on pc's they come built with 2 IDE cables... (big wide ribbons that connect to hard drives)

so basically, you have 2 ribbons possible... each ribbon able to hold 2 drives... for a total of 4 drives able to be added to the computer without the addition of a pci card.

your possibilities are:
1 hard drive, 3 CD roms
2 hard drives, 2 CD roms
3 hard drives, 1 CD rom
4 hard drives, 0 CD roms (not practical unless your a server tower or something)

so basically, if you have a burner, and a cd rom or something, you can only have 2 hard drives....without having to add extra hardware to allow for your extra drives.

so if you have 4 drives total already, your options are: firewire or pci card

04-20-2004, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by DualG5Lova

dunno much about internal macs... but on pc's they come built with 2 IDE cables... (big wide ribbons that connect to hard drives)

so basically, you have 2 ribbons possible... each ribbon able to hold 2 drives... for a total of 4 drives able to be added to the computer without the addition of a pci card.

your possibilities are:
1 hard drive, 3 CD roms
2 hard drives, 2 CD roms
3 hard drives, 1 CD rom
4 hard drives, 0 CD roms (not practical unless your a server tower or something)

so basically, if you have a burner, and a cd rom or something, you can only have 2 hard drives....without having to add extra hardware to allow for your extra drives.

so if you have 4 drives total already, your options are: firewire or pci card

Interesting...I have 1 DVD-R/CD-R (Superdrive) drive, and nothing in the Second bay (i believe it was designed for a zip drive to fit in...).

So what you are saying is I may be able to fit a hard drive where the zip drive could be?

04-20-2004, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by Shakermaker

Interesting...I have 1 DVD-R/CD-R (Superdrive) drive, and nothing in the Second bay (i believe it was designed for a zip drive to fit in...).

So what you are saying is I may be able to fit a hard drive where the zip drive could be?

I'd say if there is enough space for a zip and there's a connection it should work

04-20-2004, 08:03 PM

internally, the zip drive bay should be the correct size for a hard drive, but you would want to make sure... so you will be able to physically mount a hard drive where your zip drive is, yes.

on your hard drive you have a ribbon coming off and going to your motherboard. it has 2 options:

Hard Drive > Super Drive > Motherboard
Hard Drive > Motherboard & Super Drive > Motherboard

the difference here is how it is routed... the ribbon has 2 plugs on it... but, most of the time, when you only have 2 drives, it is best for you to put them on separate ribbons (faster throughput i would guess).

if you do have 2 ribbons in your mac, and one goes to your hard drive, and one goes to your superdrive, you can easily attach another hard drive to the 2nd plug on the primary ribbon (the one with the master hard drive)

one thing you do want to be aware of though... im not sure how picky mac hardware is, but from my experience with pc's, the computer will only recognize the hard drive when the original hard drive is set to master, and the new one is set to slave (master is the one with the bootable OS on it)

uh... if you have any specific questions, just ask me... otherwise, i could get into more detail, but you wouldnt need to worry about it past what ive already said

04-21-2004, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by DualG5Lova

one thing you do want to be aware of though... im not sure how picky mac hardware is, but from my experience with pc's, the computer will only recognize the hard drive when the original hard drive is set to master, and the new one is set to slave (master is the one with the bootable OS on it)

uh... if you have any specific questions, just ask me... otherwise, i could get into more detail, but you wouldnt need to worry about it past what ive already said

I will check tonight to see if the zip drive is the correct size for a HD to fit in there.

As for the Mac's - you're right they are VERY picky about the Master/Slave thing. This 3rd drive however is set to slave, so it's all good!

Thanks for the great info guys!

04-22-2004, 10:38 AM

Well, just to let you guys know that I set the jumper on the third drive to slave, plugged it on the same controller as the DVD-R drive, and it works like a charm!

Thanks all!

04-22-2004, 11:01 AM

yay

i havent lost everything i know yet ... its been about 5 years since ive really ripped apart stuff.. im a bit rust