09-09-2007, 02:53 PM

I have a G4 that needs a new hard drive. I'm going to replace it myself and need recommendations on what to buy. Thanks in advance for your help.

Ken

09-11-2007, 10:42 PM

Since no one replied...let me ask this. Are hard drives for PCs compatible with Macs? I need to replace this thing asap and need some guidance. I'm counting on you!!

09-11-2007, 10:53 PM

Any HD will work (PC or Mac.) I assume your G4 is IDE100. Go to newegg.com. I picked up a very fast 500GB HD for $120 with 3 day shipping.
-Peace

09-11-2007, 10:55 PM

Originally Posted by buckhorn

Since no one replied...let me ask this. Are hard drives for PCs compatible with Macs? I need to replace this thing asap and need some guidance. I'm counting on you!!

What model Mac G4 is this? PowerMac and if so which one? What is the CPU speed? Older PowerMacs just like older PC's will not work with an IDE drive larger than 128GB. Tell us more so we can better help.

09-11-2007, 10:59 PM

Originally Posted by dtravis7

Older PowerMacs just like older PC's will not work with an IDE drive larger than 128GB.

ooooooh, this is true. I forgot about that.
-Peace

09-15-2007, 07:00 PM

I got a hd for my PMG4 sawtooth.... at office depot... maxtor... 160 gig....

$74 -40 rebate= ... good deal only $34 bucks.

they should say mac or pc on the box.... so you know your getting something that works.

oh, unless you install extra software or hardware, the sawtooth won't see any drives larger than 127 Gigs not sure about other G4's...

09-15-2007, 07:46 PM

ALL Powermac G4's from the Yikes up to the Quicksilver (Except the Quicksilver 2002) have a 128GB Limit. There are PCI IDE cards that support OSX which will allow any IDE drive of any size. The Quicksilver 2002 and MDD did not have that 128GB Limit.

If it were me I would not use that software but get a PCI IDE card.

09-16-2007, 01:41 AM

The option that dtravis mentioned is the best one, unless you're ok with trying to track down a 120gb or smaller IDE drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144174 that's the only 120gb desktop drive I could find on Newegg, and it's out of stock. It may have been discontinued... it's getting difficult to find new desktop drives that are that small. Here's an 80GB if you just want to get a working drive in it and don't care about anything else. This particular drive has been around in one form or another since something like 2001 or 2002. It's a proven, reliable drive.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144122
...and only 80GB.

If you need more capacity than that, and/or intend to keep this machine and think you may be upgrading drives in the future, get a Serial ATA PCI card (Sonnet sells several) and any Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate or Hitachi drive that you like; you're not likely to go wrong with any of them. Just make sure that it's at least a 7200RPM drive (which it should be... I haven't seen 5400rpm desktop drives in a while. If you want the fastest thing going Western Digital offers a 10,000rpm Serial ATA drive) and has at least 8mb of cache. Seagate does have the longest warranty of the bunch, for whatever that's worth.

09-17-2007, 07:52 AM

For what it's worth, you can just plug in a bigger drive and it will format to 128GB and work just fine. I ran for years with a 160GB drive in my Sawtooth model G4. I just didn't get to use all of the available space.