[G4] Preparing to migrate to G4 MDD

[Joseph B. Gurman]

     Steven wrote:

>I'm new to this list and soon I will be new to using a G4 Mac.
>I ordered a G4 Dual 1.25GHz Mac which will arrive in a week or two.
>
>I have a couple of questions while anticipating the migration.
>My old Mac has a SCSI drive that contains my user directory.
>I have to move this to the new G4. I was thinking of installing the
>drive into the G4. The question I have is does the SCSI card (Adaptec
>2940U2B) of the old mac work in the new one? The card originally came
>from a Blue & White I believe. Is it safe to just try it? Do Blue and
>White and G4 MDD Macs have the same kind of PCI slots?
>
>My other question is about the harddrive in the new Mac. It is 80 Gig
>ATA drive. I'm thinking of adding a second drive of the same make and
>model to make a faster RAID volume. Anybody know what brand/type drive
>Apple fits in these Macs? Any chance of buying the same drive seperately
>in the market? Thanks,

     Unfortunately, according to Adaptec, the 2940U is not supported 
under OS X on any machine (you don't make it clear whether you mean 
to run OS 9 or OS X):

http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/product/markeditorial.html?sess=no&language=English+US&cat=%2fTechnology%2fMacintosh&prodkey=mac_osx_info

     If memory serves, this may even be one of the Adaptec cards that 
literally prevents G4's from booting in OS X.

     As a matter of personal experience, I would not recommend any 
Adaptec product for any current or recent Mac running OS X. The page 
above refers to support through OS  X 10.2.2 (a year ago?), and 
nothing more recent. We had so much trouble with both disks and tapes 
on Adaptec SCSO adapters that we gave up on the brand. Atto and 
Initio are probably better ways to go, though my experience with 
either under OS X is limited to tapes.

     If all you need to do is transfer your files, though, an Ethernet 
crossover cable should work, as should booting the G4 in FireWire 
target disk mode when connected to one of the B&W's FireWire ports. 
In either case, it's just the cost of the cable (Ethernet or FireWire 
400) vs. the cost of a new adapter.

     As for the disk drive type, I suspect it varies over time, but 
the "80" Gbyte drive in my 2 x 1 GHz MDD G4 responds thus to 
"system_profiler SPIDEDataType" at the Terminal command line (one of 
the nice features of 10.3 being the command line version of the 
"System Profiler:"

>     ATA-6 Bus:
>    
>       Vendor ID: 0x106b
>       Device ID: 0x0033
>       Revision ID: 0x0000
>    
>         IBM-IC35L080AVVA07-0:
>        
>           Capacity: 76.69 GB
>           Model: IBM-IC35L080AVVA07-0
>           Revision: VA4BA52A
>           Serial Number: VNC4<&c, &c.>
>           Removable Media: No
>           Detachable Drive: No
>           BSD Name: disk0
>           Protocol: ATA
>           Unit Number: 0
>           Socket Type: Internal
>           OS9 Drivers: Yes
>        
>             Mom's disk:
>            
>               Capacity: 76.69 GB
>               Available: 66.42 GB
>               Writable: Yes
>               File System: Journaled HFS+
>               BSD Name: disk0s5
>               Mount Point: /

     So the drive is a Hitachi (formerly IBM) product. I purchased 
another, presumably identical drive, and have it in the machine (on 
the other bus).

     I would very much suggest getting used to the convenience of 
inexpensive, ATA devices. Unless you are planning on doing 
direct-to-disk, uncompressed, digital video, you may be happy enough 
the with speed of the ATA controllers on the G4, and not need a RAID.

     HTH,

						Joe Gurman
-- 
"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by."
                                                             - Douglas 
Adams, 1952 - 2001

Joseph B. Gurman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar Physics
Branch, Greenbelt MD 20771 USA