ATA drive in PowerMac G4 removeable bay

[AE]

I've read posts in which users report adding an additional ATA drive in the Zip bay below the CD in a PowerMac G4. This would allow for three internal ATAs, which would very useful in 96k sessions with high track counts.

Can anyone tell me more about this configuration? I know that Apple doesn't certify the Zip bay for hard drives due to potential problems with heat dissipation, so I ordered a couple of the new Western Digital WD1200JB special edition drives (they run very cool, so will probably be fine). Anything else to be aware of regarding installation and/or operation?

By the way, I haven't put them to use yet, but these Western Digital drives have amazing specs. Bare Feets reports performance as good or better than most 10k SCSI drives, and at $196 for 120 Gig (NewEgg), they seem like a great deal...

Any additional insights will be greatly appreciated.

[AE]

OK, I spelled removable incorrectly. Sorry. Now, any thoughts?

[AE]

Originally posted by Chris R:
[QBThe second way (which i what I use and works well), is to take the CDRW/Superdrive out of the computer and mount it into an external firewire case. That opens up the secondary IDE controller for two additional hard drives. If properly ventilated, it works great.[/QB]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Hey, that's a great idea -- the Superdrive is the only reason to have the G4 accessible, so I'd be able to move the computer to a remote, quieter rack and mount it horizontally. Kills a whole flock of birds with one stone. Thanks!

[Count Zero]

Do you have any problems booting from an external firewire optical drive ?

[Chris R]

AE,

Just FYI...The problem with mounting a third HD internally (other than heat) is that there are only two IDE controllers on-board. The primary, which contains the Macintosh HD. You can easily add a HD onto it and still get ATA66 performance.
The Secondary (also ATA66) connects the CDRW/Superdrive. If you connect a third hard drive to the secondary IDE it will slow the hard drive down to the lowest common denomitor (i.e. CDRW).

There are two ways I see to remedy this. First is to buy a IDE PCI controller card and add the third drive to that. I have not tried this, so I don't know what the ramifications would be. Also, since PT power is mainly defined by cards and PCI slots are hard to come by in a Mac, so that may not be an option. And don't forget about DAE 6042!

The second way (which i what I use and works well), is to take the CDRW/Superdrive out of the computer and mount it into an external firewire case. That opens up the secondary IDE controller for two additional hard drives. If properly ventilated, it works great.

I use IDE successfully for 44.1k and 48K sessions, but mainly use IDE drives for samples, work in progress sessions and storage before backup dates. 96K will surely be much harder because of the sustained throughput requirements, and probably react better to SCSI for big track counts with dense edits. But it's worth a shot.

Hope this helps,

-Chris
www.wavedigital.com

[Alécio Costa]

Chris, which IDE ATA drive would you recommend me? I have had some difficulty finding the IBM GXP most guys in the US do use. Here I have found MAxtor´s models, with 7200 RPM, 8ms seek time, 2mb cache. is it oka? thanks in advance!! [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Rader Ranch]

well, i'm not Chris, but i've been hearing nothing but good things about the Werstern Ditgital drives w/the 8MB cache. gonna get me a couple big ones sopon...

also, Chris......did you have to get any updated drivers to put the superdrive in the firewire case and have it be recognized/work properly?

damn, i love my typos.... [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[Chris R]

Hey guys,

Count Zero - Yes, I am not able to boot to a CD from the firewire. I keep a fresh OS install on a small partition of one of my IDE music drives. I haven't had to test the premise (knock on wood), but I believe that if my Mac hard drive dies, the computer would find the OS on that drive and boot up. But you can boot to the music drive and make changes to the Mac hard drive because at that point it is no longer the system disk.

ALÉCIO - I have had excellent success with Maxtor drives. We use IBM and Seagate IDE drives primarily at Wave, but my home computer has three Maxtors (over two years old) and a Seagate Mark IV Sofsonic. If I had to compare, I would say that the Maxtor (7200RPM, 8ms, ATA66-100) is a little faster than the Seagate. The Seagate's main advantage is that it has foam damping which makes it one of the quietest drives I've heard.

All the best,

-Chris

[Chris R]

also, Chris......did you have to get any updated drivers to put the superdrive in the firewire case and have it be recognized/work properly?

damn, i love my typos.... [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [/QB][/QUOTE]

Sorry dude,

You posted as I was typing. No, I have an older 533 G4 which didn't come with the Superdrive. One night I was inputing samples and stupidly I left the tray open while I was getting the next disc. When I swung my chair around I hit the CDRW from the side and broke the tray. So I found an A03 (the superdrive at the time), installed it in a firewire chassis from www.owc.com, and the mac recognized it. I keep the Disc Burner extension off and use Toast Titanium for burning but if my memory serves me right, I have used it to burn CD's with Disc Burner.

-Chris