SATA Drive, IDE Card, and G4 AGP

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

newsgroups@raincode.net - 24 Jul 2006 05:54 GMT

I am new to the Mac world and am trying to build up a Power Mac G4 AGP
(OS X 10.4) with a few upgrades. One of them I am having trouble with
is adding an SATA drive (400GB Hitachi). I am keeping the existing
original 40GB hdd as the boot disk, but adding a CompUSA Serial ATA PCI
Card (sku 32468), to which I am attaching the new Hitachi drive.

>From what I have read around the internet, this should "just work".

But neither the card or drive are showing up in System Profiler. I
know the drive is powered up, and I tried the PCI card in two different
slots. If I open the Disk Utiilty, that only shows my original 40GB
drive.

Could it be that I definately need a Mac-compatible Serial ATA PCI
Card? I have seen conflicting data on whether the card I use must
specifically say that it is "Mac" compatible.

Before I go to greats lengths to try to get this hardware to work, can
anyone advise whether my situation is hopless, and I should change
cards? Again, being new to Mac, I don't know if I can just "make it
work" if I try hard enough, or if I am dead out of the gate.

Thanks!
Rob

Reply to this Message

David Empson - 24 Jul 2006 12:11 GMT

> I am new to the Mac world and am trying to build up a Power Mac G4 AGP
> (OS X 10.4) with a few upgrades. One of them I am having trouble with
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> But neither the card or drive are showing up in System Profiler.

Either the card will be recognised by the Mac using standard drivers
supplied with the OS or in firmware on the card (only likely if it is
designed for use in a Mac), or you will need to install Mac drivers
specifically for that card.

If the card doesn't show up in System Profiler, you almost certainly
don't have Mac drivers for it, so it isn't recognised by the operating
system.

If you did have the right drivers, it would just work.

If the card does need special drivers, then you probably can't boot the
computer from it either.

Try another SATA card. OWC is advertising one which does internal and
external SATA, supporting up to two drives in total, and it Mac
compatible. http://www.macsales.com. They had an introductory price of
US$49 but I don't know how long it lasts. I also don't know how well
this card works.

Signature

David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz

Reply to this Message

Silicon Sam - 25 Jul 2006 12:53 GMT

> > I am new to the Mac world and am trying to build up a Power Mac G4 AGP
> > (OS X 10.4) with a few upgrades. One of them I am having trouble with
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
> David Empson
> dempson@actrix.gen.nz

I used a Sonnet ATA/133 card in my Mac and it works like a charm. It
even has my boot drive on it.

Raymond

Reply to this Message

Mac Forum / General / Hardware / July 2006

SATA Drive, IDE Card, and G4 AGP