[G4] G4 Sawtooth AGP external hard drive request

[Ronald Steinke]

On 1 Oct, 2005, at 23:36, Adrian Abraham wrote:

On Oct 1, 2005, at 9:37 PM, <tommylaws1 at cox.net> <tommylaws1 at cox.net>  
wrote:


> 1. Any recommendations as to a reasonably priced hard drive in the  
> 250 gig range? (Smaller or larger OK too if you know of a great  
> deal or other reason to go larger smaller). I'm not a techhie and  
> am not doing a new version of StarWars on my computer.
>

As long as you keep this drive "External" it will be fine, but if you  
then connect it to the Sawtooth's internal IDE connector, only 128  
gigs of said HD would be recognized. 2 x 120 gig drive might be a  
good idea, keep the OS and applications on one drive and your data on  
another.


> 2.Can my present drive be 'booted'/copied to the new drive without  
> losing my present programs?  Is so, any help on how to do this  
> would be appreciated.\
>
>
As Jim suggested, Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper should work.

You could also try this, I recently upgraded my HD and after  
installing Tiger on the new HD, it offered to copy over all my  
applications, settings and data from the still connected old drive -  
very very cool feature this.

It was not perfect, I had to reinstall software to get my Palm to  
sync but everything else - files, songs, videos, mail, bookmarks,  
ical events, documents, address book, photos, all my applications,  
just everything was perfect !!!. Tell that one to your windows  
friends :)


> 3. Any idea on how to go wireless with this system?
>

Can't say.

Additional notes:

1. A larger than 120Gb drive can be formatted in multiple partitions  
of less than 120Gb each IF IT IS TO BE MOUNTED INTERNALLY and still  
show up on the desktop. If it is put into an external FireWire  
enclosure, it does not need to be partitioned and will show up no  
matter how large its capacity is. Recommendation: go with an external  
FireWire enclosure unless you have to have the drive mounted internally.

IDE drives are so cheap these days, shop around your town for the  
best deal. Whatever you  buy, pay for it and don't look back. There  
will always be a cheaper price tomorrow, but you shouldn't wait until  
then if you want it today.

2. I agree that Tiger has some terrific new functions that will make  
your switch easier, but also agree that you should use either Carbon  
Copy Cloner or SuperDuper if you want to make a "copy" of your old  
drive information onto a new drive. The alternative is to gather up  
all your program installation discs and do all that work over again.

3. You could try a third party wireless card, but it would be easier  
to connect to a wireless modem with an ethernet cable which would  
give you a faster connection. The wireless modem could be used with  
any device that is natively capable of wireless functions and  
networked to the Sawtooth via sharing controls. For example, I have  
my Gbit G4 connected via ethernet cable to a 2Wire wireless modem, my  
wife's iMac connected via Airport card and adapter, and my Pismo  
laptop via Airport card. All three can surf at the same time without  
interfering with each other.

I have had good luck with Belkin and Orinoco wireless products, but  
you should do more inquiries about compatibility, ease of connection,  
necessity/availability of extra software, etc. before making your  
purchase.

Good luck.