Instead of paying a premium for a firewire hard drive (which according to reports don’t actually match the data rates of an equivalent spec’d internal IDE drive) you can actually fit one into the zip drive compartment on the G4s. Then, just clip in the spare cables already there for the Zip drive.
This gives you a total of 3 IDE hard drives (the other one sitting on top of the one that ships with the G4).
I will never use the zip drive, preferring a cd burner to back my stuff up, so it puts the spare slot to use and saves money too.
The drive I used was a spare Seagate drive I had, which has a rubber sheath around it which gives enough friction as to keep the drive firmly in place underneath the DVD drive. (I tried my IBM Deskstar drive and it was fairly snug too).
Oddly enough, when I installed it and went into drive set up, it said it would only let me initialize the third drive by also wiping my second hard drive (the one strapped to the original G4 hard drive).
I don’t know why it wouldn’t let me just initialize the third drive, but the simple get round is to take out the second drive and replace it with the third one. Then initialize it. Then return the second hard drive to where it was, and the third one back under the DVD drive.
I maybe making it sound more complicated than it is, but it all takes only a short time, and is preferable to going the firewire route needlessly.
If you install an ATA card then you can add even more drives! There are an additional 2 bays (beside the u-bracket/2 drives, CD-DVD, Zip bays) but only 1 power cable. What I am thinking of is getting a cable that will hopefully split that single remaining power cable into two. Anybody know of one?
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regards
Steven Hood
[ O U T L A W : S D G ]
True. But the nice thing about using the zip drive bay is you don't need to spend money on an ATA card (unless you need more than 3 hard drives).
Re. 'splitting the single remaining power cable into two', I'll ask around.
Steven,
Windows users who mess around with PCs always have a few spare hard-drive power splitters hanging around.
You can buy them from Maplins or any PC shop but I tend to buy them six at a time from computer fairs (should be under £2 at a fair).
Bob C
quote:Originally posted by s.hood:
If you install an ATA card then you can add even more drives! There are an additional 2 bays (beside the u-bracket/2 drives, CD-DVD, Zip bays) but only 1 power cable. What I am thinking of is getting a cable that will hopefully split that single remaining power cable into two. Anybody know of one?
Thanks Bob - I'll see if they have a website.
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regards
Steven Hood
[ O U T L A W : S D G ]
quote:Originally posted by s.hood:
Thanks Bob - I'll see if they have a website.
send me your address and i'll send you one foc ... i've got a few spare !
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Gary MacKenzie
Audio Visual Technician
(email me if you want a quick reply)