Adding Multiple ATA133 Controllers

[Brian Conner]

I have a MDD G4 (dual 1.42) and I want to build a four drive RAID in
addition to the boot drive. I'd like to add two SIIG ATA133 RAID controller
cards and one SIIG ATA133 (non-RAID) controller card. I'll put two drives in
the Master positions on each of the RAID cards, then move the boot drive to
the second optical bay and put it on the ATA133 (non-RAID) card.

My question: If I configure the system this way, will it boot? IOW, with no
drives connected to any of the Mac's IDE busses, will it refuse to boot?

The controllers are not that expensive, but I'd rather not throw away $300+
on a lark that has no chance of succeeding.

The reason for doing this is probably obvious, but I want to create a RAID
that is fast enough to handle uncompressed video without whimpering.

I suppose if the G4 needs to have at least one drive on its busses, I could
replace the IDE cable on the ATA100 bus with a longer one that will reach
the optical bay.


Brian Conner