[G4] Sawtooth Drive Install Hardware

[Ronald Steinke]

On 7 Jul, 2005, at 16:17, Carlos wrote:

I need to "stack" drives in my G4 Sawtooth. Does anyone have a  
picture or a URL with photos and a description of parts/brackets that  
I need in order to mount additional hard drives on top of the two  
bays at the bottom of the machine? If someone can tell me what to  
request, I'd post a WTB on the lem-swap list.  Thanks,

I would  suggest that you try to find a "double drive" bracket that  
fits on the extreme right side of the interior of your G4. This  
bracket will mount two drives on the same location in the case. One  
drive mounts directly above the other. Then, you will also need a IDE  
ribbon that has TWO connectors at one end so you can plug into both  
drives with the same ribbon.

Once you have the bracket and ribbon installed, make sure that you  
have identified the drives as separate identities, ie: Master on one  
and Slave on the other, before trying to startup. Use an OS  
installation CD to reformat the drives and install the OS that you  
want on whichever drive you intend to use as the boot drive. You  
could do an OS installation on both drives which would give you the  
ability to boot to either if needed.

For any additional drives to be installed in the case, you will need  
to buy an ATA IDE Controller PCI card. Be sure to get a card that is  
compatible with your machine and the ribbons needed to connect to the  
extra drives.

I have been using a Sonnet ATA-133 IDE card for over 6 months with no  
complaints other than the fact that I had to buy the connector  
ribbons from Sonnet in order to mount a third and fourth drive in my  
G4 GBit Ethernet case.

All the above is predicated on the idea that you are going to install  
NEW drives in the G4. If you intend to continue using your old drive  
and just add more drives, most of the information still applies  
except for reformatting the drives. You may not want to lose all your  
existing data, yes?

Another thought is - Why not simply replace your old drive with a new  
and larger one if all you need is more space? Put your old drive in  
an external FireWire box and keep all your data as a backup. That  
way, you could still have your cake and eat it, too.

A third thought is - Install the new LARGE drive in the second  
mounting location of your case and just use a new IDE ribbon to make  
the connection to it and your old drive. Your box has enough power  
plugs to do this without having to go to a lot of expense to buy  
cards and ribbons.

Hope this gives you some ideas that won't cost you more than you want  
to spend.