[G4] Hard Drive questions...

[Al Poulin]

On May 26, 2008, at 3:07 PM, Rick wrote:
> This one is for Al Poulin... or anyone else who might want to chime  
> in...
>
> I've got a QS 2002 more or less load. It's got two to GB Hard drive  
> and a 120 GB external Hard Drive driven by USB and built by Western  
> Digital and serving as my TM more or less.
>
> The first drive is all but max out and the second drive is a  
> intermediate back up / storage drive.
>
> I was thinking out upgrading my first drive to something around 320  
> TO 500 GB USED... Seniors usually have limited funds to spend on new  
> hard drives. The question is do I stay with the current formate ATA  
> Bus or jump up to a  SATA DRIVE AND CARD which mean a STATA Card and  
> what else? Also what kind of  SATA? And what do I get out of such a  
> upgrade?

Rick:

Thanks for the honorable mention.  But I have no experience with SATA  
cards and drives to upgrade G4 machines.  However, I have noticed that  
Apple sells USB-2 external drives and that these drives are bootable  
with the later model Macs.  FW drives are still trusty bootables.

There has been a bit of traffic on this subject in the G3-5 List (also  
known as the G-List).  Check their archives or join up through  
lowendmac.com .
Take a look at this thread:  Booting From SATA,
http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list/browse_thread/thread/9326285a33a11d07?hl=en

It might also help to look at the profile for your machine at:
http://lowendmac.com/ppc/quicksilver-2002-power-mac.html

which says that it will support internal drives over 128 GB.

Noting what Eric W. said, there is a degree of complexity in upgrading  
from ATA internal to SATA, but many people take advantage of SATA and  
learn what they need to do.  At the moment, that is beyond me.  So, if  
I were to keep things as simple as possible right now, I would opt for  
a larger, internal ATA drive plus an external drive capable of both  
FireWire and USB.  You can window shop at Apple's web site store and  
find external drives with up to four interfaces.  Note this one, G- 
Tech G-DRIVE Q 500GB Quad Interface Hard Drive, and compare others  
elsewhere for features and prices.  With something like this, you can  
be ready for whatever machine replaces your QS 2002.  Also look at  
drives at OWC.

Good Luck,
Al Poulin