[G4] 200GB Drive in G4-450 AGP with ATA-4 Bus

[BDS]

It looks like you can get the full capacity out of that drive.

Taken from the FAQ at  
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/action.lasso?-database=faq.fp3&- 
layout=FaqList&-response=answer.faq.lasso&-recordID=33772&-search

DISCLAIMER:
I have no business relationship with any of the people or companies  
referenced below.


Q:  I have an IDE drive larger than 128GB and it does not format to the  
full size
A:  (from the March 24th, 2004 www.xlr8yourmac.com news page)
Intech wrote they've posted an OS X extension/driver which enables  
48bit addressing/big drive support for older macs onboard IDE. (Their  
previous Speedtools Disk Driver enabled big drive support for OS 9  
users.)

  " Hey Mike I thought your readers would be interested to know that  
there is a finally a driver solution for all those people out there  
trying to run ATA extended capacity drives (over 128 GB in size) under  
MacOS X on their G3's and older G4's. (QS 2002, iMac G4, eMac, MDD and  
later Macs have native big drive support, but not older models)
We just finished releasing a driver which enables this support on those  
machines
http://www.speedtools.com/ATA6.html.
  We've verified support all the way back to a Beige G3/233 and tested  
several languages as well. We've included an intelligent installation  
and removal utility which allows simultaneous installation/removal on  
multiple bootable volumes. Combine this product with our Hard Disk  
SpeedTools for MacOS 9, and you've got a full OS 9 & X Hi-Cap solution!
  Christopher P. Karr
  V.P. Engineering
  Intech Software Corporation
http://www.speedtools.com/ "

NOTE: See the limitations and notes on the linked page above and fully  
read the PDF readme file on "safe partitioning", etc. with this OS X  
extension. (Regarding booting from CD, OS X install CDs, Disk repair  
CDs, etc.) Also note they don't support the B&W G3's primary IDE bus (I  
wrote to ask if this includes the rev B B&W G3s with revised IDE chip -  
he later replied they had only tested with rev 1/rev A B&W G3s which  
have the flawed IDE chip.)
  See below for older info on other options for big drive support:

  (previous info from 2002 follows)

  Note: Apple's August 2002 G4 "Mirrored Drive Door" systems (and  
Xserve) natively support 48-bit addressing to fully utilize large  
drives (Hitachi, Western Digital and Maxtor now sell 'big' drives -  
180, 200, 250GB and one of Maxtor's latest drives have capacities of  
320GB. Larger drives are sure to appear.)
  And despite the Apple kbase doc noting on the MDD and Xserve models  
natively supporting "big" drives (without addon drivers for  
controllers) - owners of Quicksilver 2002 and iMac G4s have reported  
native support (full capacity) with large drives formatted in OS X  
10.2.x. (Also the current eMacs have big drive support - search the  
drive database here for the latest reports.) See this article linked  
off the main www.xlr8yourmac.com IDE and Systems topics pages.  
(Although the drive database is updated more often for reports, this  
page shows a sample of past owner reports on those mac models with  
large drives.)
  Also note that current eMac owners also have reported native "big"  
drive support.

  In the past you needed either a PCI IDE controller (i.e. Acard  
ATA/100+, ATA/133) or Intechusa.com's (OS 9 only) Speedtools v6  
drivers, or a Firewire bridge board with firmware that supported 48-bit  
addressing.

  (older/previous info follows from shortly after Maxtor released the  
first "big" IDE drive - their 160GB model - a few years back)

  Maxtor was the first vendor to release an IDE drive larger than 128GB,  
their 160GB ATA/133 model. (now there are many other choices of even  
larger drives, 180GB, 200GB, 250GB, etc.) As noted in past drive  
database reports and main site news items, an ATA/133 compatible  
interface is required (which uses 48-bit addressing) to be able to use  
the full capacity of the drive - or a driver that supports 48-Bit  
addressing. (If used with an ATA/3, ATA/33, ATA/66, etc. card the drive  
max size is limited to 128GB or so without a 48-bit disk driver.)
  Intech's 3.5 Disk Driver update added support for large drives noted  
in the April 2002 www.xlr8yourmac.com news which had a  Q&A with Intech  
on SpeedTools 3.5 Update Large Drive Support - but as noted there - to  
date they have no OS X support (yet at last as of late 2002).

  If you own an Acard ATA/100+ (or ATA/133 - SIIG ATA/133 cards are also  
Acard based) Mac IDE PCI Card, there is an update that is reported to  
allow full use of the >128GB drives. (This chip is ATA/133 compatible).  
A reader noted in a Jan 2002 drive database entry for his Maxtor 160GB  
drive that the Acard OS X driver update for this Acard ATA/100+ card  
allowed full use of the 160GB drive. (See the Jan 4th, 2002 news page  
for details. You can also see Brian's report by searching the Drive  
Compat. Database by selecting Maxtor as the drive brand, HD as drive  
type, IDE PCI Card as interface, Dual G4 as mac model, and OS X as OS  
version.)

  (FYI - Readers have reported the SIIG ATA/100+ and Miglia ATA/100+ Mac  
IDE cards are really based on the same Acard controller, so this tip  
may also work for those card owners.)

  Reminder on Drive Size vs Formatted Capacity: For those that missed  
the older FAQ item here, remember no drive formats the the "rated"  
size. This is due to the fact the drives are rated using decimal (base  
10) numbering system vs the computer using binary (base 2) numbering.  
[I.E. 1K in decimal is 1000, 1K in binary is 1024, There's an older FAQ  
item in this section that covers this in detail. (See the question  
titled How come my new XX GB Hard Drive is not XX GB after being  
formatted?