[Cube] need hard drive for Cube

[Mac User #330250]

----------  Original message  ----------
Subject: Re: [Cube] need hard drive for Cube
Date:    Friday, 07. October 2011
From:    "John M. Hammer" <JMHammer at aol.com>
To:      "cube at listserver.themacintoshguy.com" <cube at listserver.themacintoshguy.com>
> George, that will not work. An unmodified Cube's internal controller can't
> address more than 128gb. It doesn't matter if the drive is partitioned;
> the Cube can use only the "first" 128gb.

Yes it can. Only the Open Firmware can't. So you need to make sure your boot
partition is within the first 128 GB and that no partition crosses the 128 GB
line. This is to ensure that no partition will be corrupted by an installation
that is not >128 GB capable (like an unmodified Mac OS/Mac OS X).

> Pick up a nice 120gb drive. They're inexpensive, easy to swap in, and are
> basically the highest capacity the Cube can address internally. If you
> need more storage, you can get a much larger external drive; FireWire-400
> is fairly inexpensive and quite fast. Remember that the Cube's USB
> subsystem is USB 1.1, which is fine for many purposes but not for mass
> storage.

You'll get a greater price <--> capacity ratio at higher capacity HDDs. I'll
get one of those, say 250 GB or even 500 GB.

I'd install Mac OS X like usual, which will only see 128 GB and make a 128 GB
partition. Then run the Open Firmware hack from Pareis, get it here:

http://4thcode.blogspot.com/2007/12/using-128-gib-or-larger-ata-hard-drives.html

After this restart your system with a 10.5 DVD (you'll propably need an
external USB or FW800 drive for this. For USB to work, you need the USB boot
hack, here:

https://sites.google.com/site/shawnhcorey/howto-boot-apple-powerpcs-from-a-usb-drive-in-open-firmware

Then add the remaining space as a new partition. Done.

No more hacking to do for the paritioning. Always safe. No corruption issues.
SAFE!


All you need to do, is re-run the Open Firmware hack once you wipe your PRAM,
which is only the case when you 1) do so on purpose or 2) have a weak/empty
PRAM battery and replace it.

Just leave the script somewhere on your 128 GB boot partition.

> The only way to recover data from your cooked drive is to pay thousands of
> dollars to a professional data recovery laboratory *and* get lucky. Only
> you can decide if your data is worth the expense. Hopefully you have a
> recent backup of your data.

Make backups!
Adhere to the 128 GB "boundary line" to be safe! No need to be afraid!


Cheers,
Andreas  aka  Mac User #330250