Looking for an IDE card driver for an old G4...

[Hoggy]

Hi guys,
I have an old G4 (mirrored front) that I've recently been upgrading on the cheap. I was able to max out the RAM in fairly straightforward fashion with a couple of eBay purchases.

However, I also bought a 250Gb hard disc. It's an IDE/PATA model, but both motherboard controllers will only recognise it as 128Gb. I thought it would be simple enough to add a PCI card with a newer IDE controller, so I went back onto eBay again and bought one. Unfortunately this does not appear to be as "plug and play" as I was expecting. The machine doesn't recognise it and I'm guessing it needs some sort of driver.

Unfortunately the card is a generic model - the closest it has to a brand name is "PCI card" - I'm not kidding. So far google hasn't got me anywhere. Does anyone out there know of any drivers available for a card like this, or failing that, who can supply me with a card that will get the drive working to its full capacity?

 

[DeltaMac]

I'm confused about the model of PowerMac that you have. All have 3 IDE buses, not two. One in the rear, for the pair of hard drives that could be installed under the power supply. It's an ATA-100 bus, fully capable of large hard drive support. Two in the front - one goes up to the Optical drive area, taking two drives, if you want to. The other is used in the lower front drive area, again for two more hard drives. And, is an ATA-66 bus, also large-hard-drive capable.

So, any MDD-G4 will support large hard drives. Therefore, yours must be older.
Which processor do you have?

To your question about the IDE controller card, is there any kind of naming stamped on the largest chip on the PCI card itself? I guess you can ignore any paper labels. Even a cryptic part number might be helpful.

 

[Hughvane]

Hi guys,
I have an old G4 (mirrored front) that I've recently been upgrading on the cheap ... I also bought a 250Gb hard disc. It's an IDE/PATA model ... who can supply me with a card that will get the drive working to its full capacity?

Not a card recommendation but suggestions:
1. Are you determined to put the 250 inside your G4? If not, then I can suggest an IDE-USB adaptor/connector which will make your 250 an external hard drive. Whether you want to operate it 'bare' or put it in an enclosure is up to you. I have two 'bare', externals which I use for storage and music, but because they're USB 2 connectivity, they're not suitable for movies - other than passive storage of course.

2. Have you considered putting the 250 inside an external USB-Firewire enclosure? The f/w will take care of the transfer speed issue, although not to the same extent as would IDE.

 

[Hoggy]

So, any MDD-G4 will support large hard drives. Therefore, yours must be older.
Which processor do you have?

I guess I've been confused about the model of machine myself - apologies for the red herring. It does have a silver front, but not mirrored. It isn't dark grey like the first generation G4s were. It has a small speaker on the front face, towards the bottom, which doesn't have any kind of cover over it.

The processor speed is 867mHz, bus speed is 133mHz. Hope this helps with identification.


Using an external USB or Firewire enclosure is something I would consider if I can't get this card to work, but I'd much prefer to keep the drive internal for neatness sake. However, the card was a cheap eBay buy and owes me very little so if I have to dicard it that's not the end of the world.

 

[DeltaMac]

Yours is the model known as 'Quicksilver'. Some later ones were sold with logic boards that could use larger hard drives. Yours is apparently an early one.

Can you identify any of the biggest chips on that PCI card?
Some PCI cards might work natively if you have upgraded to Tiger (OS X 10.4.x), but there's no guarantee of that. Best way to proceed is to get an IDE adapter that actually claims to work on a Mac.... Many of the Acard brand should work, for example.

 

[Hoggy]

I'll have a look for chip names once I get home.
The machine is running Tiger at the moment, so no luck there.
Thanks for the reply!

 

[Hoggy]

Here's a photo of the board, including the biggest chip which will hopefully give some clues...