Author Topic: Third drive (Read 3664 times)

ADSR · « **on:** February 18, 2011, 06:12:53 AM »

Already two drives inside...

Just to know if it's possible to install another drive into the DA

GR

chriskleeman · « **Reply #1 on:** February 18, 2011, 06:30:26 AM »

Hi GR,

That machine has 4 internal drive bays. It supports two Ultra ATA/66 drives (All ATA drives are backwards compatible). I don't remember whether or not you have a PCI ATA controller card in there or not, but if you do, you can expand to 4 drives easily.

The architecture in the DA doesn't support drive sizes larger than 128 GB on the internal ATA/66 bus, but with a PCI ATA or SATA controller card, that issue is moot.

Krissel and I both have SATA controller cards in our DA's connected to Enterprise level HD's. Both machines work at a very acceptable speed for either Tiger or Leopard. And we both have OWC 1.5 Ghz. G4 upgrades. If you are going to try to use this machine for the long haul, I would encourage you to get a SATA card and drive as ATA drives are becoming quite scarce.

HTH,

Chris

ADSR · « **Reply #2 on:** February 18, 2011, 07:32:22 AM »

Don't have PCI controller card ...but sure gonna buy a Sata one in the future

In my dead MDD had two 80 Gb ATA drives and four waiting if something happens...and it sure will !

Gonna try to put one of these ...should it be in cable select mode?

Thanks for the infos

A bit later..

Opening the DA could see a place on the left to put the drive but there's only a power cable an nothing to connect it (maybe had to buy one...)

So i put it under the dvd drive where everything is there to connect... just reboot but no third drive

Sure made something wrong... can you help me

Thanks

GR

chriskleeman · « **Reply #3 on:** February 18, 2011, 09:04:28 AM »

GR,

As far as I know, your internal ATA/66 Bus will only support two drives, so there's no way that third HD is going to be recognized. That power and connector underneath the DVD drive is for a ZIP Drive, I believe, or may work on another optical drive, but will not support or recognize another HD.

You'll have to get an ATA controller card to put a third ATA HD in. I believe that most host controllers use cable select. And most ATA controllers will let you connect up to four drives, and are bootable under both OS 9x and OS 10x. If you need a specific recommendation, either Krissel or myself would be happy to help you.

I have both an ATA controller and a SATA controller card in my PCI slots on my DA, fyi.

Here is an ATA Card which I have in my DA on closeout from OWC: ACARD 6280

ATA host cards are becoming an endangered species, so act fast if you want one.

And here is the same SATA card that both Krissel and I have, but labeled from a different company: Sonnet Tempo SATA card

HTH,

Chris

ADSR · « **Reply #4 on:** February 18, 2011, 10:47:22 AM »

Chris,

Should have read more carefully your post..

...

Acting fast...just bought an ACARD 628 from OWC

GR

chriskleeman · « **Reply #5 on:** February 18, 2011, 11:35:30 AM »

GR,

You will like the speed bump you're going to get with that ATA card instead of your internal bus.

And if you get a SATA drive, spend the extra money for an Enterprise level drive... 10,000 RPM, much faster, a big difference with that older machine.

CK

ADSR · « **Reply #6 on:** February 18, 2011, 01:07:18 PM »

Tought the card was only for the third... do you mean the three drives could be controlled by the card and be faster than internal bus?

Later gonna look for Sata card and Enterprise drive...never heard about them

Waiting for the ACARD..

GR

krissel · « **Reply #7 on:** February 19, 2011, 01:33:36 AM »

The Acard will support 2 drives. Your internal bus will support 2.

Before I got the SATA I had a Miles SCSI controller with drives attached but removed it since the SATA drives were larger, faster and quieter.

Although at one point I had 4 drives connected successfully, I now only have two internals (both on the SATA) in order to give the power supply a break. The other drives are now FW externals for backup or additional storage. My two internals are 500 and 300 GBs which I find sufficient for everyday use.

chriskleeman · « **Reply #8 on:** February 19, 2011, 08:10:13 AM »

GR, to clarify:

The ACARD ATA controller runs at either ATA 100/133 depending on the speed of the ATA drive connected to it. Most of the later ATA drives ran at either of those speeds. The internal ATA bus speed of your DA is ATA 66. So it's much slower than the ACARD.

That means that you're drives should run noticeably faster on the ACARD, because of the faster bus speed. My recommendation would be to connect the two drives you use the most to the ACARD, as it will be faster. As Kris wrote, you can run up to four drives on the ACARD, but I'm not sure whether or not you'd have to select "Master" on one drive and "Slave" on the other if you're going to do that. The ACARD has two ATA 100/133 channels that use "Cable Select" as I recall, if you're going to connect just two drives to it. So I'd run your primary boot drive at least from the ACARD. Then you can use the internal ATA 66 bus on your DA for storage and/or backup. In my DA I've got:

One 500 GB Enterprise SATA drive connected to a Firmtek SATA Controller card

One 500 GB ATA drive connected to an ACARD 6280

One 60 GB drive on the original internal ATA 66 bus.

The SATA is my primary boot drive.

The ATA is my backup drive.

The drive on the internal bus contains software and an OS that came with the computer when I bought it.

I wouldn't advise going more than the three drives internally so as not to overload the power supply as Kris indicated. I would encourage you to use external drives past that number of internal drives.

HTH,

Chris

ADSR · « **Reply #9 on:** February 19, 2011, 10:55:29 AM »

The Acard is shipped..

Reading the posts, is much clearer.for me ...

I know now what i 'm gonna do in the DA

Thanks

GR

krissel · « **Reply #10 on:** February 20, 2011, 01:01:10 AM »

If you are going to run 4 drives on the ACARD you will have to use Master/Slave configuration.

Personally I wouldn't want to have 4 drives running off one card.

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jchuzi · « **Reply #11 on:** February 20, 2011, 05:35:53 AM »

QUOTE(krissel @ Feb 20 2011, 02:01 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you are going to run 4 drives on the ACARD you will have to use Master/Slave configuration.

Wouldn't that depend upon the manufacturer of the drive? In my experience with ATA drives in my Gigabit Ethernet G4, the recommendations for Hitachi drives were different from those of other brands.

ADSR · « **Reply #12 on:** February 20, 2011, 06:06:54 AM »

i'm gonna use only the two internal drives whith the card and the third new one whith the internal bus...

So the two internal must be in master mode ... and the third ( internal bus) also?

GR

chriskleeman · « **Reply #13 on:** February 20, 2011, 07:59:45 AM »

According to the ACARD manual, which you can download in .pdf here
it is suggested that the "Master/Slave" configuration is to be used for two drives on one channel.

The unit ships with one ribbon cable for two drives, by the way.

Without taking my DA apart, I couldn't tell you if I've got it on "Cable Select" for just the one drive or not. A quick scan of the ACARD manual did not reveal the setting for one drive per channel, but I'm betting that the ACARD will want the drive jumpers on "Master".

Just leave the drive that you're going to use on the internal bus alone if it's already recognized. The ACARD runs on it's own bus through the PCI slot.

In any case, you may have to initialize at least the Master Drive on the ACARD to have it recognized. It's been so long since I did it I can't remember, but that's what the manual suggests.

HTH,

Chris

ADSR · « **Reply #14 on:** February 24, 2011, 08:21:15 PM »

OWC ,quite fast...received the card yersteday

Put the three drives "Master,"

The two internals on the card , the third new one (from my dead DA) on the internal bus.

Seems to work but had a "do you want initialize" from the internal bus one, at startup, even if it's already initialized and data on it

,

Clicking on no...the disk is on the desktop. and readable/writable

Don't know why it's obligatory to do it (as said on the doc...) ?

GR

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Author Topic: Third drive (Read 3664 times)