# Maximum eMac Hard Drive Capacity



## Hughvane (Apr 5, 2008)

G4 eMac 1.25, OS 10.4.11
What maximum capacity of internal hard drive can I put inside my eMac? 250 Gb drives (in NZ) are selling for under 40c/Gb, and I definitely need to increase the hard drive size in the eMac.

The present installed HD in the eMac is a Seagate Barracuda ST340015A, manuf. 2003
Capacity: 37.27 GB
Model:	ST340015A
Revision: 3.01
Serial Number:	5LACNJ0R
Its spindle speed is 5800 rpm, whereas most modern drives are 7200 (or faster). Will that affect any proposed hard drive change?

eMac details:
Machine Name: eMac
Machine Model: PowerMac6,4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4  (1.1)
CPU Speed: 1.25 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory:	768 MB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.8.2f1

I'm led to believe that the physical dimensions of a new 250 Gb drive would not be a preventive issue.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Apr 5, 2008)

There is no maximum size.  As long as they make it, you can use it.

Ok, actually, that's not _entirely_ accurate.  You can address a total of something like 144 petabytes, which is thousands of times larger than any hard drive currently on the market.

The only effect of going from a 5400 rpm drive to a 7200 rpm drive is reduced hard drive access times... which is a good thing.

The 250GB drives on the market today are identical in size and shape to your current hard drive.


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## eric2006 (Apr 5, 2008)

The eMac uses a standard desktop 3.5" hard drive in addition to the above.


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## DeltaMac (Apr 5, 2008)

These days, a standard desktop hard drive is SATA, and you can't use SATA. You will need ATA (or PATA) when you shop for a replacement drive for your eMac.


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## LeoTheLion89 (Feb 7, 2012)

i just bought a eMac 1.0GHz and waiting for delivery i was told all it has is a cd-rom drive i have several cd burner and dvd drives around all which are IDE can i use one of these? Or do i need a Apple drive i read any drive will work but will any drive boot media?


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## LeoTheLion89 (Feb 8, 2012)

apple specs say up to 160gb


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## DeltaMac (Feb 8, 2012)

That's just the largest that came with an eMac originally.
You can use whatever is the largest PATA hard drive, if you like.
I have a 250GB in my eMac.
There is no particular limit for the capacity of the drive that you could use, except you would be limited to what's available. There's not much larger than 320 GB now for PATA drives.


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## LeoTheLion89 (Feb 8, 2012)

i could just use a SATA Drive with a SATA to IDE Converter board


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## DeltaMac (Feb 8, 2012)

Yes, if it will fit. There's not a huge amount of extra space around the hard drive connectors.


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## LeoTheLion89 (Feb 8, 2012)

can eMac use ssd via ide to compact flash adaptor?


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## LeoTheLion89 (Feb 8, 2012)

if so what size of cf card should i get?


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## DeltaMac (Feb 13, 2012)

If you use a CF card reader, I suppose the card capacity depends on what you want to store on that card.
But then, I don't really understand what you are asking in your post #10
SSD through IDE to CF ? Do you have a link to a site that would have something like that?


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