Replacing hard drive, G5, can I use any drive? OSX10
I'm new to the world of mac, just purchased my first G5 a few weeks ago. It has two 250gig SATA 3.0 hard drives, but noticed that the primary drive (applications drive) S.M.A.R.T. system says it is "failing".
I've looked on newegg.com and found quite a few 500 gig and 750 gig SATA 3.0 hard drives i'd like to get, but on the same web site they have a seperate section for Mac hard drives so i'm confused... Do I really need to get a "Mac" hard drive or can I replace the failing drive with any hard drive?
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I've read on other mac forums that some people with G5's have trouble installing newer SATA 300 hard drives in their macs because their macs came with SATA 150 hard drives. They said it's difficult to get the new 300 to work with the 150 controllers.
Will this be an issue?
I have a Powermac 2.0Ghz DP, processor says its a "PowerPC 7,2", and i'm not sure if my mac is SATA 150 or 300, if that helps you help me.
They said it's difficult to get the new 300 to work with the 150 controllers.
Most drives have a jumper that will set the interface for 150 operation. The drive manufacturer will have information about it, either on their web site, or included with the drive (if the drive is not "OEM") Some drives will also have the settings right on the label on the drive. Some drives will require you to remove a jumper, others to move the jumper, and others to add a jumper...
My question is about the G5 itself and if it will give me problems when I try to install an SATA 300 drive on it, if it has only SATA 150 controllers.
Once you set the jumper to the correct position, which you claim to already know about,
you are then installing the equivalent of a SATA 150 drive as far as your mac G5 is concerned.
Any mac I've done this very installation on, has not complained.
jb.
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If I set the drive to SATA300, will the drive run at 300 speed if the G5 originally came with SATA 150 drives? Or will the G5 default the new 300 drive to 150?
E.G. Can I get SATA300 speeds from a SATA300 drive even if that G5 had SATA150's installed originally?
The drive speed is limited by the controller. For example, if you have a hard drive that is ATA 100 (100MB/sec), but your computer is really old and only has ATA33 (33MB/sec), then you will only experience speeds at 33MB/sec. Same applies to SATA drives.
E.G. Can I get SATA300 speeds from a SATA300 drive even if that G5 had SATA150's installed originally?
I am not aware if any of the G5 units ever came with SATA300 speed controllers. The 300's are a newer marketing ploy, and really, unless you are doing some pretty heavy duty video rendering (with software that can take advantage of the G5 processor etc.), the 150 setting will be more than adequate. For myself, if I was into the whole SATA deal, I would only buy a 300 if it was the same price (or not much more expensive) as a 150.
To find out how fast the controller is in your machine, you should check the specifications at Apple, because these things happen to change in an ad hoc basis, sometimes without a change in the external model number...
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