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IDE capacity

PPCMLA PowerPC 6 posts Jul 18, 2010 to Sep 5, 2010
Thank you in advance for your kind attention. Would someone tell me what is the maximum IDE hard drive capacity allowable for a beige PPC G3 266 MHz desktop?
This is a very recent recruit I made here in Santa Rosa, Colombia, where these fine machines are not far frequent.
I am new in this interesting and pleasant site, as you can be acquainted of. Thanks again.
Reading the ad it sounds more like a single HD floppy drive with something like a CD changer mechanism in front of it. Seems a little "optimistic" to describe it as hard disk fast, but I suppose technically an HD floppy's data rate (if formatted at a 1:1 interleave) is in the ballpark of a really old MFM hard drive with a 6:1 interleave XEBEC or similar controller. I am curious how fast it could switch disks and if a file could span floppies.

Macs before the Quicksilver 2002 all were capped at recognizing 128GB, so it'd be best to get a 120GB drive or a 160GB (you'd not be able to access the full spectrum but should get a little more GB out over a 120GB).

Intech's ATA Hi-Cap Support Driver allowed you to go over the limit with a custom driver and partitioning but it's probably safer to just find a 120GB.
Thanks a lot for such a useful information.
... Found a newsgroup thread about it. It is a changer, and it maps as 5 virtual drives. No spanning. I bet it'd be really painful to copy a big file between two of those disks...

Kinda like trying to doe something similar on the lobotomized 128k introductory model of the original 512k Macintosh? Automate that floppy-swap nonsense, HEH! ;D

A little late to the party, but you can also get an ATA 133 PCI card and not be limited by the built-in addressing ceiling. A multi-function card like the Sonnet Tech Tempo Trio that gives you USB 2, FireWire, and two IDE channels is a good choice because you can use just one of the three precious PCI slots and get multiple connectivity options.

Peace,
Drew
_________________
Power to the PowerPC!
Come to think of it, I would swear that I remember old ads for this same drive (or one very much like it) being sold for PC compatibles as a hard disk backup solution. It actually makes way more sense for that than as a primary storage device.

Thank you in advance for your kind and suitable answer.
I would like to know in addition if this card, which I've just found, through your information at
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo_trio.html
is recognizeable by a Beige Desktop PPC G3 and, eventually, are there MacOS 8/9 drivers for it?

At your command, Sir.
Yes, it will work just fine. I don't recall it needing any special drivers, but if it does you can download them from Sonnet Tech. I have one in my beige G3 running OS 9.x, and it works well. The only caveat is that there are no USB 2 drivers for OS 9, so the USB 2 ports will only run at USB 1 speeds (max of 12Mbps).

You should do a little more research before you buy that card, though. Sonnet marks it as compatible only with Windows. The card would need to have Open Firmware ROMs/firmware to be fully Mac OS compatible, so you might not have success with that card. I know from personal experience that Sonnet used to make a Mac-compatible card, though. Maybe eBay?

Peace,
Drew
_________________
Power to the PowerPC!
mp.ls