[X4U] ATA hard drives

[Randy B.Singer]

John Baltutis said:

>Internal ATA drives are limited to 128 GB. For larger drives, you'll need a
>133 MHz card to extend that capacity or revert to FW.


The limiting factor is that his G4's ROM only supports 32-bit LBA 
(Logical Block Addressing), and support of greater than 128 GB requires 
48-bit LBA and OS X 10.2 or later.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86178

Most G4's prior to the "mirrored drive doors" models do not support 
48-bit LBA.

Intech's ATA Hi-Cap Support Driver software ($25) allows the use of 
extended capacity internal ATA drives (drives greater than 128 Gigabytes 
in size) in older (pre-mirrored door) G4 and some G3 Macintoshes running 
MacOS X versions 10.2 and later.  (Obviating the need to purchase an 
ATA/133 PCI card.)
http://www.speedtools.com/ATA6.html



Randy B. Singer
Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

Routine OS X Maintenance and Generic Troubleshooting
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html