[G4] question: hard drive transfer

[Daniel Brieck]

Jeff,

You could theoretically put your whole external drive inside your G4's  
case if it would fit, but why would you want to do that. It would work  
reasonably well if you had a small firewire drive that is bus powered,  
but a typical fire wire enclosure that needs power from its own power  
supply would require some tinkering.

Here is what you should do if you want the hard drive itself to be  
internal....

I am going to assume that the drive that is in your firewire enclosure  
is a standard IDE hard dive. You can install the external drive on top  
of your existing hard drive in the G4 after removing it from the  
firewire case. So all you have to do is get the drive out of the  
firewire enclosure and put it into your G4. You will need a screw  
driver of some sort to open the enclosure and unscrew the hard drive  
from it. Save the screws that hold the hard drive in the case, you will  
need those to put the drive properly in the G4.

Here is a video link from apple about replacing the internal hard  
drive, you will do almost the same instead not replacing but adding.
http://www.info.apple.com/usen/cip/html/g4ge/g4gbenet-atadrive- 
cip.mov.html


Basically here is what you do?
1. Turn off the computer and the External enclosure.

2. Touch metal(PCI Covers, etc) to discharge any static electricity ,  
before touching any computer components. Do this all the time before  
touching anything inside the computer.

3. Remove the hard drive from the firewire enclosure (disconnecting the  
power and IDE/ ATA cables) ***Note that this may void your firewire  
enclosures warrantee if it has one.***

4. Open the G4's case (make sure it is off and static is taken care of)

5. Notice how the IDE cable plugs in to the drive on the G4. It is the  
last drive on that cable making it the master drive. The drive that you  
will add will be configured as a Slave drive(second or middle plug on  
the cable). You will have to configure the hard drive that you are  
adding by moving its jumpers to the appropriate position for slave  
mode. If you don't set the jumpers right then the drive may not show up  
on the G4 or cause both drives to not show up. Find the jumpers on the  
hard drive.  Look on the hard drive itself for jumper configuration,  
because it may tell you how to set up the jumpers , if not check on the  
drive manufacturers web site for jumper settings.  Remember how the IDE  
cable is plugged in the G4 original hard drive, because if you flip  
them then you will have to also configure the G4's hard drive jumper  
settings.

6. Unplug the IDE cable, and power from the hard drive that is in your  
G4.

7. Then remove the one screw that  holds the drive carrier in place, it  
is located in the center front toward the g4's door hinge. Cafe fully  
remove the drive carrier from the computer.

8. Position the Second hard drive  on-top of the first drive and secure  
it into place with the mounting screws from the external enclosure.

9. Then carefully put the drive carrier back into the G4, and put the  
screw in.

10.  Re attach the IDE cables (end master goes to the bottom drive and  
slave second goes to the top drive) and 	power cables to both drives

11. Close up the G4 and then turn it on

12. Your done if everything is working properly
		If it does not work then probably something with jumper settings is  
causing the problems...


Good Luck
Dan Brieck Jr.

On Nov 26, 2003, at 9:58 AM, Jeffery Abbott wrote:

> Greetings Folks,
>
> I have a question for the techies:  I have a PM G4, AGP graphics model  
> and an external firewire hard drive.  I would like to relocate the  
> external hard drive- I think it would be better in the mac's case,  
> rather than on my desk- and it would help cut down on cable clutter.   
> On the box the mac shipped with, it says (3 firewire [1 internal]).   
> Does this mean that I can remove the hard drive from its external case  
> and put it inside my PowerMac case?
>
> Will I need anything special to do this?  A special firewire cable?   
> some sort of internal power cable?  a brace to mount the drive on?   
> special screws?
>
> Thanks for any help!
>
> Cheers!
>
> Jeff
>