G4 500Mhz + Sonnet ATA 133 Card = 128 Gb max storage ?

D

djbeta

Registered
Hi there,

I thought that if I added a Sonnet ATA 133 Card to a G4 500 Mhz desktop machine, I would be able to use hard drives above 128Gb in size..

But it seems that I was only able to partition the first 128Gb of this drive I installed a system onto.

Is there something else I need to do.. ? Any ideas about what is going on ?

Do I need a *serial* ATA card to use larger drives in the G4 500Mhz ?

Also... I did happen to buy an SATA card to use (also in this G4 500 machine).. and am wondering.. can anyone tell me if this should work with the G4 500 and a Sonnet SATA card:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3250824AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

thanks
 
have you made sure that the ata133 card's firmware is up todate? i know i had to flash mine in order to have larger drives. also what os are you running? i don't think os 9 could go over that either, only os x. as far as the sata, make sure that the hard drive will work on that card, and that the mac works with that drive. sonnet has a list of what drive will work with their cards. and there are some drives that will not work on macs. google is a good place to find that info. but i'm guessing that it would work. the only thing is that the drive you list is a sata2 drive, and i don't think there is a sata2 card for macs. the drive will work on a sata card, but only be 1.5g/s transfer instead of 3, so it would be a waste of money when you can get a sata 150 drive fore less.
 
I don't like say this. but it goes. For using a bigger drive then 120 GB in your Power Mac, I run in to this my self. I have one of then new 750 GB drives. If I run it inside the mac if have parton it out as 120 GB. because the frimware on the G4 Power Macs will not see anything past 120 GB. So what can do is get your self a external drive enclosure for that drive and when you plug it in you can get the full 750 GB of the drive.
 
I've had similar issues with adding more then 128gb of storage to an older G4. The extra storage would be devoted exclusively to iTunes. I'm debating whether to go ahead and get a SATA controller card and internal SATA hard drive or just get a external firewire hard drive. Would the extra speed afforded by a SATA drive really be necessary for iTunes? Any thoughts? Thanks.
 
wow, you really dug up an old thread. you should of started one of your own. but as for itunes, as long as its not plain old usb 1.1, itunes will not notice the interface speed. so get which ever is cheaper.
 
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