Old Power Macs and SATA Not a Marriage Made in Heaven
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- 2006.11.03
"I needed another hard drive for backup storage, and I had this Power Mac 7600 sitting here just begging for some higher capacity drives."
So the story began.
I decided to take a chance that the US$50 OWC 2+2 SATA PCI card, with two internal and two external SATA ports, was indeed compatible with Macs older than the Blue and White Power Mac G3 (as listed on the product page, B&W G3 through early generation Power Mac G5s were supported).
I spent a decent time researching the card before making the purchase. While I did not discover concrete evidence that some intrepid Mac aficionado had tested this particular configuration, I did uncover enough peripheral evidence to indicate the possibility of success.
After purchasing the SATA card, it took a few weeks to find a SATA drive that matched both my price point and storage needs. I also spent a little time shopping around for SATA data and power cables. MonoPrice.com came through with some of the best prices I've seen, along with reasonable shipping rates.
I finally collected the necessary parts to put my plan into action. I see no reason to lavishly detail my testing procedure and the resulting irritants that were to foil my best intentions, as that story can be found on the AppleSwitcher blog (see SATA Hates Me and Here's a Little Story About It).
I'll give a concise report here and then meander into my course of action since the initial testing. I installed the OWC SATA card into the Power Mac 7600 and connected my drives as shown in visual aid #1:
Summary: Mac OS 8.1-9.1 all recognized the 30 GB PATA (parallel ATA) drive and the two formatted volumes on it, but they could not mount the 320 GB SATA Seagate connected to the OWC SATA card. XPostFacto would not boot into OS X 10.3.9 from it's volume resident on the PATA 30 GB drive. Connecting an OS X 10.3.9 SCSI drive to the internal bus allowed XPostFacto to boot the 7600 from the internal bus into OS X. 10.3.9 could not see the installed SATA card nor the drives connected to it's bus (SCSI bus 2).
Drive Setup in the classic Mac OS could not format the drives connected to the SATA card. I had no success, whether booted from the SATA card or from an installation CD. Any Mac OS volume already formatted into HFS or HFS+ before being placed in the Power Mac 7600 could be formatted via the Finder's "Erase Disk" command.
However, I was not able to discover a way for whole drives or individual partitions that weren't already formatted as HFS or HFS+ partitions with classic Mac OS drivers installed to be recognized by the Finder (no luck with a drive formatted in OS X without the Mac OS 9 driver option checked). Also, the Finder utility only allows the volume to be erased; the whole drive cannot be formatted and partitioned.
This article may seem short, but the next installment (planned for Monday) will look at the various findings I have uncovered between my initial test and now.
A quick note before I go: The OWC SATA 2+2 Internal/External PCI
card has given every indication that it is operating within
specifications. As you will see next time, the issues I have most
likely (98% chance) pertain only to unsupported setups like my own.
Further Reading
Recent Embracing Obsolescence articles
- Steve Jobs stirs up the DRM hornet's nest, 02.12. Stripping DRM would level the playing field for players and allow digital music services to compete on price, quality, and selection.
- SoundApp an audio workhorse for PowerPC, 680x0 Macs, 12.22. For those using the classic Mac OS, SoundApp can convert tracks, play music, and look up CD tracks online.
- The iAudio G3: More features than an iPod nano at an iPod shuffle price, 12.14. The iAudio G3 lets you avoid DRM lock-in while providing multiformat support, more features than an iPod nano, and a price lower than Apple's iPod shuffle.
- Does Zune improve the DRM landscape or just increase confusion?, 12.08. Microsoft has forsaken backward compatibility with its own PlaysForSure standard to take on the iPod. Won't that just further confuse potential customers?
- More in the Embracing Obsolescence index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: 15" 'TiBook' PowerBook G4, Jan. 2001 - A new 1" thin PowerBook design with a titanium case, 15" widescreen display.
- Group of the Day: ModBook List covers the Axiotronic ModBook tablet Mac.
- January 9 in LEM history: 01: Macworld keynote - 02: The new iMac - Redefining Apple's market - 03: Safari shows off the Apple difference - Impressions of Safari beta - 04: The colored iPod mini - 06: Installing 'Tiger' on unsupported Macs - Time to replace 5-year-old PowerBook - 07: iPhone and Apple TV - Axiotron Modbook - Mac vs. PC price comparisons are never fair - Backup to the rescue - 08: 2008 Mac Pro value equation
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- MacBook Keyboard Among Best Ever, Glass Trackpad Less than Intuitive, TiBook Desktop Mod, and More, The 'Book Review, 01.09. Also $179 to change battery in 17" MacBook Pro, argument for an Apple netbook, MacBook Air SuperDrive hacked for any Mac, bargain 'Books from $170 to $2,299, and more.
- BYO $240 Hackintosh, HyperCard Resurrection, USB 3.0 10x as Fast, SlimBlade Trackball, and More, Mac News Review, 01.09. Also the brilliance of the Macworld keynote, businesses embracing Macs, Picasa for Mac available, Toast Titanium 10 ships, and more.
- iPhone Reaches Vermont, 15 iPhone Tips, Apple's iGlove, First Editable Office App for iPhone, and More, iNews Review, 01.09. Also WebEx collaboration on the iPhone 3G, hands-free visor kit from Kensington, portable iPod and iPhone power, new cases from Speck, and more.
- Hooked on Classic Macs, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 01.09. Tommy Thomas is back with a renewed focus on Macs that can run the 'classic' Mac OS.
- Software Should Come with a Fresh Date, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 01.09. Sooner or later, some hardware or OS update will probably break a program you own. Software vendors should be up front about how long they'll support it.
- Thanks for the IBM PC, Dad, L. Victor Marks, My First Mac, 01.09. Dad, thanks for bringing home that first IBM PC way back in 1981.
- What a Legacy: The Origin of the IBM PC, Tom Hormby, Orchard, 01.09. IBM introduced its PC on August 12, 1981, shaking up the entire personal computer industry. Today even Apple makes its computers IBM compatible.
- Our Debt to the IBM PC, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.09. A Mac user looks at the legacy of the IBM PC.
- Heat Management for 'Books and the Last Mac to Run OS 9.1, Phil Herlihy, The Usefulness Equation, 01.08. Tips on keeping a first-gen MacBook Air from throttling back with CoolBook, using G4FanControl with a G4 PowerBook, and the fastest Mac that can boot Mac OS 9.1.
- Surprise, Average Broadband Throughput Is Lower than Maximum Throughput, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.08. If a service is advertised as 8 Mbps maximum, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the average speed is below that number.
- A History of Apple's Lisa, 1979-1986, Tom Hormby, Orchard, 01.08. Originally envisioned as a business computer to replace the Apple II, the Lisa brought the mouse and GUI to the computer market - only to be felled by the less costly Macintosh.
- Lisa's DNA Is All Over Modern Computing, Ray Arachelian, Apple Seeds, 01.08. Those who label Apple's Lisa a failure are ignoring the computer's legacy that shows up in every personal computer sold today.
- The Innovative Lisa, Dan Knight, Online Tech Journal, 01.08. Apple's Lisa and how it paved the way for the Macintosh.
- The Lisa Legacy, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.08. We should always remember how Apple's innovation paved the way for all future computers.
- Waterfield First with SleeveCase for New 17" Unibody MacBook Pro, Charles W. Moore, 'Book Value, 01.08. Waterfield has a reputation for top quality bags at appropriate prices, and it's already designed a sleeve for the new 17" Unibody MacBook Pro.
- Blackouts and Web Access, Death of a Kanga, the Future of PowerPC Macs, and More, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 01.07. Also another email client suggestion and whether a G3 iMac can handle a 7200 rpm hard drive without overheating.
- The 17" Unibody MacBook Pro Value Equation, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.07. The new model is a bit faster, a bit smaller, a bit lighter, and has an incredible 8-hour battery life.
- How Netbooks Impact Microsoft and Apple, Tim Nash, Taking Back the Market, 01.07. Netbooks are keeping Windows XP alive, which may slow adoption of Windows 7, and perceived value keeps the Mac market share growing at the expense of Windows.
- Apple's Worst Business Decisions: Another Perspective, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.07. Apple's poor business decisions predate the Macintosh. Let's hope they learn from their mistakes.
- The Ill-Fated Apple III, Jason Walsh, Apple Before the Mac, 01.07. "...not only was the Apple III mind crunchingly expensive, it was made with none of the passion of the Apple II or Macintosh."
- 2 Apple Failures: Apple III and Lisa, Tom Hormby, Orchard, 01.07. Apple's two not-so-great product lines between the Apple II line and the Macintosh.
- Apple III Chaos: Apple's First Failure, Joshua Coventry, Cortland, 01.07. Apple had known nothing but success with its Apple II product line, but when it tried to enter the business world with the Apple III, the learned the cost of failure.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best MacBook Deals, 01.09. Used 1.83 GHz, $595; 2.0 SD, $650; refurb 2.1 GHz, $849; 2.2, $899; 2.4, $949; new 2.1 SD, $945 after rebate; 2.4, $900 a/r; 2.0 Unibody, $1,199 a/r; more.
- Best G5 iMac Deals, 01.09. Used 17" 1.6 GHz Combo, $400; 1.8 SuperDrive, $450; 1.9 iSight, $575; 20" 1.8 GHz, $500; 2.0, $625; 2.1 iSight, $699.
- Best iPod nano deals, 01.09. New 3G/8 GB, $125 shipped; 4G/8 GB, $134 shipped; 16 GB, $175 shipped (most colors).
- Best Apple TV Deals, 01.08. Refurb 40 GB Apple TV, $199; new, $220; refurb 160 GB, $279; new, $320. Prices include ground shipping.
- Best Mac Pro Deals, 01.08. New 2.8 GHz 4-core, $2,099 after rebate; refurb 8-core, $2,399; new, $2,589 a/r; 3.0 $3,398 a/r; refurb 3.2, $4,099; new, $4,099 a/r.
- Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 01.08. Used 867 MHz Combo, $490; 1.33 GHz, $548; 1.5 GHz SuperDrive, $595.
- Best 17" MacBook Pro Deals, 01.07. Used 2.16 GHz Core Duo, $1,190; 2.33 Core 2, $1,400; 2.4, $1,799; refurb 2.33, $1,799; 2.5, $1,899; new, $1,900; refurb 2.6, $2,299.
- Best Power Mac G5 Deals, 01.07. Used 1.8 GHz single, $500; dual, $629, 2.0, $700; dual-core, $929; 2.3, $999; 2.5 dual, $900; 2.7, $1,089; 2.5 Quad, $1,399.
- Best iPod shuffle Deals, 01.07. Refurb 1 GB '07, $39 shipped; new, $43; '08, $45; refurb 2 GB '07, $59 shipped; new, $58; '08, $63.
- More deals in our archive.
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