Using a 250GB external hard drive

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rubingr

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I need to get a larger external hard drive for video and audio storage, and was thinking of gettting a 250gb, so i wouldn't have to worry about it for a while. Anyway, I heard something about needing a card of some sort to use a drive this big, and I was wondering if I can get one for a powerbook g4?
The drive will be hooked up in an external enclosure, with an EIDE connection, running through a USB 2.0 hub, along with my other 4 drives (2 40gb, 2 80gb), though I would like to get rid of a couple of smaller ones with just the one large drive. Anyway, any help would be appreciated.


Rubingr
 
I believe that some G3 based Macs needed a newer ATA card to access an ATA drive that size - but if you're putting your drive into an external EIDE enclosure, then you'll be fine as long as the enclosure has a controller that can handle 250GB.
 
Any "Quicksilver" Macintosh or earlier needs a little "help" via a PCI ATA card to be able to use internal IDE drives larger than 137GB.

If you're hooking it up via FireWire or USB, this does not apply. Just check with the vendor of the FireWire/USB case and make sure that the USB/FireWire-to-IDE bridge supports 48-bit LBA (which is the factor in whether you can use >137GB drives or not).
 
I already have a couple of enclosures, one of which I was going to use. How can I tell if any of them have a controller that will accept the larger drive?
 
Do you have manuals or original packaging for them?

If not, you could check the manufacturers' web sites for information.
 
Or, just pop the hard drive in, connect it via FireWire/USB, open Disk Utility and partition it. If it lets you create a partition larger than 137GB, you're good to go.
 
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