Why can't I use my slave hard drive on OS X?

S

Sosai X

Registered
Hi all,

I've recently installed a second ATA hard drive as a slave in my G4. It works fine on OS 9.2 but on OS X it only shows up and can only be accessed on the desktop. The second hard drive doesn't show up in any of the directories or menus when I'm using applications (i.e. when I try to open, import, save, etc.).

I even went into Disk Utility, selected the second hard drive > Partition> Format: Mac OS Extended but still no luck.

Wonder what I'm doing wrong. Can anybody help? Thanks.
 
I have the same setup and it works fine under OS X. Make sure that your jumpers are set correctly on both hard drives to designate them as master or slave. When you formatted the 2nd drive, did you update the hard disk drivers? Also, check your connections to the hard drive and make sure they didn't come loose.
 
Thanks for your response.

Hmm...I'm pretty sure the jumpers and the connections are correct, otherwise why would it work fine on OS 9.2? I'll check again though.

How do I update the hard disk drivers? I've already gone through Disk Utility on OS X as I mentioned in the previous message.
 
The original drive might be set to 'cable select', which can cause you various problems when you try to put in a second drive as 'slave'... moreso in X than in 9, I'm told.
 
D'oh! Now I feel real stupid. Sorry for wasting your time. It was as simple as scrolling all the way to the left to find the second hard drive. Still trying to get used to OS X. It was in the Finder window.

As for the 'cable select', you're right the Power Mac G4 manual mentions Ultra ATA devices not working if set for cable select mode. According to the manual that came with my Western Digital hard drive,"The Master/Slave configuration will take precedence over Cable Select. Even if the system, devices, and cable all support Cable Select, jumpering devices as Master/Slave will work and thus overrice Cable Select."

Anyway, thanks to everyone for your inquirys/suggestions.
 
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