IDE Drives for Recording ?

[advid]

My 9600/300(w. G3/500 Card), OS 9.2, 512 MB Ram : internal 4G 10,000x SCSI HD for OS, Internal 2 x 18G Segate U2W HDs and 2 x 34G U2W HDs for audio recording. It crashed twice in two weeks since the last time I tried bouncing tracks. After I restart the 9600, it can't read my internal 2x18G HDs (soft RAID formatted into a 34 G HD). I then reformatted these HDs and worked for one week later, the computer do not show up my external 2 x 34G U2W HDs...I then reinstalled OS and everthing ( Protools 5.1.1, Plug-Ins..,etc.)

But Now that I am statting the next busy season, I 'd ordered an Apple silver G4 /733 to work with. My guestions are as follows :

1. Can I install more IDE drives (say for two units of 7200x ATA 60G HDs inside the G4/733 ) apart from the original one that come with the silver G4 ? Do I need any optional PCI cards to do this ?
2. I plan to use these IDE drives for recording/editing/mixing/mastering purpose. For your reference, I also have Magma 7x extension bays, AD-8000,USD,ADAT Bridge,888/24 IO, Rosendahl Nanosyncs, Protools 24 Mixplus, 2 extra Mix Farms and 2 DSP Farms.
3. I also ordered the DIGI 64 Kit for the U2W drives if the answer for the question 1 & 2 is "Never go with the IDE Drives".
4. I am running all MIDI stuff on another G4/733 using Digital Performer 3.01, with adaptec 29160 PCI card with a 18G U2W HD internal. If I can use IDE HDs for the Protools system, then I can hoop up the 4 U2W HDs that originally connected with the 9600 computer.
5. How can I use the external SCSI CD-R or CD-ROM players with the G4/733 ? Is there any PCI card I should purchase apart from the 64 Kit ?


Please Help ! I did search the topics that concernning my questions but I can really get it right.

Thanks in advance !

[Gary Stadler]

If any of your drives are "SCA" 80 pin types (Ie Seagate drives with P/N ending in "LC"), that might be the problem. I fought with these drives for two months with VERY similar problems to what you're describiing, in a 9600/350...finally dumping them and installing 68 pin drives (P/N ends in "LW") did the trick. Seagate tech and many others swore that there were no differences between the 80 pin and 68 pin variety other than the plug, but it turned out there is.
Can't add much about your ATA question tho...
Good luck

[JC925602]

Hi.

Yes you can use IDE drives with a G4, You can add two of them. One on top of the internal one (you will find 4 screw in the box of the G4 for that purpose). The other one will fit under the cd drive.

Some people did try it, ans some other tryed the ATA RAID card from Sonnet, search the DUC for info.

JC

[studio43]

Hello,
I am in the process of switching to IDE drives myself. Trackcount is not important for us as 24 tracks is more than enough. This works fine and better than with the old Adaptec cards. The only problem I came across now is that it takes up to 4sec between the time that I press REC and the time that Protools actually starts recording(even with 1 track)!!!! I trying to find out what's wrong.
Let's keep eachother in touch

[advid]

Thanks for your response !
I'd upgraded my 9600/300/G3/500 to G4/733 silver, 2 x 18G LVD internal,40G IDE internal, 2 x 34 G LVD external..

I think IDE is not the solution for my case since the waiting time is way too long while recording and even playback. I need over 24 tracks for most of the time...I am now using the DIGI 64 kit for the LVD drive. Nothing's wrong since then.

[doug_hti]

i have a dual channel sonnet ata133 pci card and two seagate baracude 60GB drives softraided 0 (charismac). I initially had it for uncompressed video and it works great. I just installed a hd3 system today and it seem to work fine. I've run tests and I actually get around 70MB/S SUSTAINED!!! and 105 or 110 peaks...which is a LOT of tracks...
I truly hope I don't experience a delay, but I haven't yet.