HP Pavilion dv6-6c53cl Notebook - Internal Hard Drive Options

Greetings,
I just purchased an HP Pavilion dv6-6c53cl Entertainment Notebook PC (at Costco), and so far it's been a great deal. Everything seems to be working just fine.
Because I do a lot of development work in Virtual Images, I have been running a number of external Hard Drivers from the notebook over the couple of weeks since I've owned it (including an external SSD). All that seems to work fine.
But, I was wondering if anyone knows whether it is possible to install a second Hard Drive or SSD in this Notebook Model. I saw on the HP site that some Notebooks allow the installation of a second Hard Drive, but I couldn't find any information on this model that would suggest it can handle such a configuration.
My primary objective for doing this would be to retain the original 1TB Hard Drive that came with the Notebook, but have a secondary SSD Drive to perhaps run the Paging activity from, when such functionality is needed upon running some of my larger Virtual Images.
Any assistance with clarifying if this is an option with the HP Pavilion dv6-6c53cl would be very much appreciated.
Cheers,
Wayne
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Hi,
This article may help:
http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=28&chapter=0
and also this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e22CuUfl6WY
Good luck.
BH
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Similar Messages

Pavilion g6 internal hard drive not working , Can I use WD internal hard drive ?

I have pavilion g6 series laptop . I don't know RPM .
HP internal hard drive is looking very costly.
Can you tell me whether I can use WD internal hard drive or not . If yes then How much RPM hard drive I need to buy?

Hi,
We won't concern about RPM, faster (more rpm) is better. The HDD's are much, much, much, much cheaper now. They were more expensive during a flood in Thailand few yours back. Yes, you can use WD HDD for your computer. You can pick one from the following list:
http://www.newegg.com/Laptop-Hard-Drives/SubCategory/ID-380
My suggestion:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136835
or this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178340
Regards.
BH
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How can I replace my internal hard drive on my Macbook?

I have a 13 inch aluminum late 2008 MacBook. The processor is 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 running OS X Lion 10.7.4. The hard drive is currently set up as follows:
Macintosh HD 132.5 GB (with only 1.32 GB free)
BOOTCAMP 26.69 GB (with 6.15 GB free)
I am unsure if this matters but here is the info just in case:
On my Macintosh HD I have:
Audio 3.04 GB
Movies 33.11 GB
Photos 36.98 GB
Apps 15.27 GB
Backups Zero GB
Other 42.78 GB
I only use 1 software program on my Bootcamp (which I hardly use but must keep to run an electric vinyl cutting machine). I have thought of re-partitioning the drive. But then I got thinking that maybe the drive is just too small and it's no use.
I also have an older Lacie 300 GB external hard drive that I use to keep all of my iTunes Library, most of my iPhoto library and most of my data. I have another older Lacie 300 GB external hard drive that I use exclusively for my Time Machine back ups.
I also have a Western Digital 2 TB external hard drive that I use to put all of my movies on so that I can play them on any of my computers or plug into my Play Station 3 and play them on any of my TV's.
I have considered just getting another Western Digital 2 TB external hard drive to use for virtually all of the files/pictures/movies/music etc. on this internal hard drive.
Right now I am unsure what the best move is to make. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with Apple Tech Support today trying to buy an internal hard drive to install myself. They were not very helpful (in fact he told me I would have to ship in my machine just to replace the battery which is NOT true). Is there anyone out there who can give me some advice on this situation? Any help or suggestion would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

For a new hard drive try Newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&name=Laptop-Hard-Dr ives&Order=PRICE
Or OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/
Here are video instructions on replacing the hard drive on the Aluminum Unibody http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbook_13_unibody/
To transfer your current hard drive I like the free application Carbon Copy Cloner. It makes a bootable copy of everything on your hard drive http://www.bombich.com/index.html You'll need a cheap SATA external hard drive case. Put the new drive in the case then format and partition the new drive and clone your old drive to the new one. Check that it's set up right by booting up from the external drive. Then replace your old hard drive with the new one and put your old one in the external case.
Here's a cheap SATA external hard drive case on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Aluminum-External-Enclosure-Capacity/dp/B000XPS3U6/r ef=pd_cp_pc_3
If you don’t have the tools to open up the MacBook OWC has a set for $5
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TOOLKITMHD/

PLEASE HELP me select new internal hard drive for Macbook Pro 2012 (non-retina)

Good afternoon.
I just bought a Macbook Pro 2012 (non-retina) 15 inch from a friend. I think it is running Mountain Lion (has not been upgraded to Mavericks yet), and has iLife on it. It came with the stock 500 gb 5400 rpm internal hard drive. At home, I only have the Snow Leopard OS installation Cds and a copy of iLife 2011 installation Cds. I am going to buy 16 gb of RAM from Other World Computing to install.
I want to replace the hard drive with a 1 tb hard drive, preferably something that is $100 or less.
I talked to Other World Computing (OWC) and looked at the Data Doubler Option to replace the optical drive with a Solid State drive, but decided that for now I want to keep the optical drive inside the computer for portability issues.
I know that Solid State drives are better, but they are still too small, and I want the ease and portability of a 1 tb size INSIDE my computer.
Initially I was going to order this from Other World Computing: 1.0TB 2.5" HGST Travelstar 7K1000 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 9.5mm Notebook Drive 32MB Cache. *'New' Factory Replacement with 2+ Year HGST Warranty*    As of April 4, 2014 it's on sale for $79
But then I started reading some of the discussions online and thought maybe I should get a hybrid solid state drive?
I saw on Amazon the Seagate 1TB Solid State Hybrid Drive SATA 6Gbps 64MB Cache 2.5-Inch ST1000LM014 It's on sale for $94.
But according to some reviews, this Seagate has a platter that is only 5400rpm, unlike the previous Seagate Momentum that has a platter speed of 7200rpm.
How reliable are the Seagate, versus a Toshiba or Western Digital or Hitachi or something else?
Here are my questions about replacing the hard drive:
1. Is a hybrid solid state drive going to need some kind of special formatting after I put it into the macbook so that I can put the operating system on it?
2. Is a "normal" platter hard drive more reliable than a hybrid solid state drive?
3. Is there any additional driver or special software that I have to install for a hybrid solid state drive?
4. Currently there is no personal data stored on the computer. Can I just put the new hard drive in, and then insert the snow leopard install cd?
5. If I install snow leopard, can I just go to the App store and get the free upgrade to Mavericks?
6. If I want to do the "Data Doubler" option in the future and add a normal Solid State drive into my computer, will it have trouble interacting with the 1 tb hybrid solid state drive?
I would love to get some recommendations about the smartest option to upgrade my hard drive with something that will be fast (I edit lots of photos) and large (1 tb) that isn't going to cost too much. I don't know much about the different brands or options (and there are so many listed in tons of online reviews), that I got really overwhelmed and confused by the info out there.
I would really appreciate any help and advice. I've never switched out a hard drive before.
PLEASE HELP !!! Thanks!
Here is the "About this Mac" Info:
Macbook Pro 15-in Mid 2012
Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,1
Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Software: OS x 10.8.5
Storage (Hard drive): APPLE HDD ST500LM012 Media, Rotational, SATA, GPT (GUID Partition Table)

1. Is a hybrid solid state drive going to need some kind of special formatting after I put it into the macbook so that I can put the operating system on it?
The boot drive, regardless of what it is, needs to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). This is standard with OS X.
2. Is a "normal" platter hard drive more reliable than a hybrid solid state drive?
There are arguments pro and con. Bottom line, SSD's and hybrid drives are still quite expensive per GB than standard hard drives. If you have the bucks and are a speed demon, go ahead.   I have better use for my money.   Standard hard drives are mechanical and may wear out over time. But even though SSDs are not mechancial, they can still go bad and ultimately they even have a limit to their write capacity. The jury is still out on this debate.
3. Is there any additional driver or special software that I have to install for a hybrid solid state drive?
No
4. Currently there is no personal data stored on the computer. Can I just put the new hard drive in, and then insert the snow leopard install cd?
You can physically put the hard drive in but probably not install Snow Leopard on this MBP.
The mid-2012 MacBookPro9,1 models came with Lion 10.7.3 (11D2097) preinstalled.   It is very unlikely you would be able to install Snow Leopard on it. Historically you cannot install a version of OS X that is earlier than the version that came with your Mac (even if you replace the hard drive).
5. If I install snow leopard, can I just go to the App store and get the free upgrade to Mavericks?
Not via Snow Leopard on this MBP. See my response to #4.
6. If I want to do the "Data Doubler" option in the future and add a normal Solid State drive into my computer, will it have trouble interacting with the 1 tb hybrid solid state drive?
No. They are completely independent of each other; they are just independent storage units (drives) and their RAM does not interact.

What Internal hard drive can I use to upgrade my macbook pro 2010

what Internal hard drive can I use to upgrade my macbook pro 2010

You may use any 2.5" SATA notebook drive not higher than 12.5 mm that uses either 1.5 or 3.0 Gb/s interface. Visit OWC for available options and prices.

Where can I find an Apple certified internal hard drive?

I have a December 2006 MacBook Pro that I upgraded RAM and hard drives (twice) from OWC. After having Apple replace the display and the motherboard (again twice) I've been having boot problems. My local Genius Bar told me to replace the RAM with my original RAM and see if it solves the problem.
Well, it seems to solve it, but my internal HD shows up as "Failing" in disk utility. I cleaned off my original 120GB HD and installed the OS (Snow Leopard) and whenever it's plugged into firewire, the system will boot automatically to it rather than the internal drive.
There's an Apple logo on the original drive, so there's something about it that the Mac likes. There seems to be something to the "official" Apple hardware deal.
My problem is that the Apple Store doesn't seem to sell either internal drives for notebooks or memory for MacBook Pros as old as mine.
I can take it back to the Genius Bar to find out if they can sell me the right stuff without having to install it themselves, but I'd much rather do it myself, so I don't have to let go of my computer, which I use every day.
Any thoughts? Apparently I can't trust the hardware that OWC sells. Does this make any sense?

Where can I find an Apple certified internal hard drive?
At Apple
But if you want to spend less ..... OWC have a great selection and are very Mac Friendly

Which is faster for music production? internal hard drive or external drive

hey there. simple question. i'm looking to run music poductin software on an apple mac - would sound files be retrieved faster from a new mac book pro internal hard drive or an external drive? (am thinking one of those lacie orange rugged things that spin at 7200 rpm)
and if the sound files would play better coming form the internal hard drive, would it compromise processor speed for running soft synths / effects units etc etc?
please note am not talking about my current mac book, but a new mac book pro
chanx in advance - horton ;o)

For what it is worth here is my tuppence worth on the subject, horton. (and a warm welcome to the forums , by the way!)
One of the major reasons why many sound professionals (and others worried about speed) use fast external FW800 or (when possible) eSata drives for their work, rather than the internal drive of an MBP or the like, is that the internal boot drive is already carrying the OS and a bunch of apps on its fast, outer sectors. It is usually doing a fair bit of work keeping things running, too. An external FW 800 drive can be kept unencumbered of such things.
On top of this the 2.5" drives in notebooks are slower at the best of times than 3.5" drives. If you want real speed, my suggestion would be that you keep the internal drive for your OS and Apps as much as possible, and get a fast 7200 rpm 3.5" FW800 external with its own power supply for your sound files (assuming you will have access to mains power).
If you use the internal for this sort of purpose too, you are going to find that the internal fills up fast, that it soon develops free space fragmentation issues, and that it gradually slows to the speed of mollasses!
Cheers
Rod

What internal hard drive is compatible with Macbook Pro (15-inch, late 2008)?

G'day guys,
I was just wondering which internal hard drive is compatible with Macbook Pro (15-inch, late 2008)?
Thanks
bryce

same as used by Apple:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Toshiba-MQ01ABD1001TB-1TB-2-5-inch-SATA-Laptop-Notebook- Hard-Drive-1-0-TB-/380643766002?pt=US_Internal_Hard_Disk_Drives&hash=item58a022e ef2
I own many of them.

HP Pavilion dv6 7039tx Notebook-It was working fine and then it suddenly got stuck during startup.

I own a HP Pavilion dv6 7039tx Notebook. The OS is Win 7 64bit. I made 4 partitions after formatting the 1TB HDD as the C drive would not reduce to the 40GB size I wanted through disk management.
It was working fine till now and then it suddenly got stuck during startup.
I talked to customer support and they said it was a OS problem and I should order a set of 6 Recovery DVDs. i want to know if using the HP recovery disk
1) Has an option to repair the system and leaves the disk partition unchanged?
2) It resets the notebook to factory condition?
3) There is an option of recovery disk which I should specifically ask for?
Thanks!!

Hi RanSri,
I understand you are having issues with the HP Pavilion dv6 7039tx Notebook.
You can restore it to a previous time when it was working correctly.
This link for windows working correctly.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c01835735&lc=en&product=5277768&tmp...
Use this link if Windows does not open normally.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c01835735&lc=en&product=5277768&tmp...
Hope this helps.
Thanks.
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The best way to replace the internal hard drive

Hi,
I have a MacBook with a 160gb hard drive which has been partitioned into two partitions one for OSX (130gb) and the other for Windows 7(30gb) and as you can imagine 30gigs for windows is almost nothing, the OS itself is taking a big percentage of its capacity, so I would like to expand both partitions by having a bigger hard drive installed but I was wondering what would bethe best way to do this so I don’t have to reinstall OSX and Windows 7, I have heard about Super Duper for OSX I don’t know if a similar software exists for Windows, well I don't even know if this is the way to go. So my question would is...
What would be the best way to replace an internal hard drive and have everything moved including the Operating Systems (OSX Lion and Windows7)?
Can someone be so kind and tell me the procedure I should follow to accomplish this task? I’m not expecting a step by step tutorial but if you could list the tools needed and a brief procedure it would be greatly appreciated.
Oh, I’m using Boot Camp for the Windows 7 installation.
Thanks a lot.

For a hard drive try Newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&name=Laptop-Hard-Dr ives&Order=PRICE
Or OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/
Here's instructions on replacingthe hard drive http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=45088
To transfer your current hard drive I like the free application Carbon Copy Cloner. It makes a bootable copy of everything on your hard drive http://www.bombich.com/index.html You'll need a cheap SATA external hard drive case. Put the new drive in the case then partition and format the new drive and clone your old drive to the new one. Check that it's set up right by booting up from the external drive. Then replace your old hard drive with the new one.
Here's a cheap SATA external hard drive case on eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-2-5-SATA-HDD-HARD-DRIVE-EXTERNAL-ENCLOSURE-CASE-BOX-/120 636286623?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item1c167ba69f
For copying the Windows partition I like WinClone http://download.cnet.com/Winclone/3000-2242_4-172338.html
After you've installed your Mac OS with Carbon Copy Cloner (or SuperDuper) on the new drive create a new Windows partition with Boot Camp and copy your WinClone copy to it with Winclone.

How to move an iTunes library from the internal hard drive to another bootable disk.

         I got two Mac OS X installations on my i Mac system. One on the internal hard drive (320 Gb), that has been there since the iMac was bought 3 years ago, upgraded to Lion on 2 August. (call that INT) . I have a USB external drive, and recently bought a firewire Lacie external drive (2Tb), so to boot from there when I can, with hard drive space getting tight this year. I successfully installed another copy of Lion on LACIE.
         Then I went to work to transfer my iTunes library, which the media files were optioned to store on the USB drive. Intending to transfer both the music and video files, and the megadata ( playlists, ratings, playcounts ) I found the media files and the iTunes library file and the .xml document in my iTunes folder from INT. I made a new folder in the USB drive, and copied the contents from the old iTunes folder to that new folder. I re-started in LACIE, and found my empty iTunes folder. I copied over to the new iTunes folder, then opened iTunes. My eyes saw the music library to the same number of items, with the playlists etc showing.
        However, I tried to sync an iPod Nano, and a window came up saying 100 songs could not be copied to the iPod because they could not be found. After ejecting the iPod I tried to play a song from iTunes, and the screen filled with exclamation points. A small window came up, asking for a password to open "sparsebundle" and my name. I entered my password for the administrator's log-in and it said try again with the password. Without knowing what password to put in, I clicked Cancel, and got another small window asking to locate the file. Then clicked Cancel again, not knowing where to search. All the media folders were showing after quitting iTunes and opening Finder .
      I re-booted into INT, and opened iTunes. The library was still there. I synced my iPod again, ejected it, played 3 songs on the iPod, synced again, ejected it again, and opened the playlist "Recently Played". It showed up okay with no problems. So my iTunes library in INT is alright.
      Has anyone got any idea how to make the transfer into LACIE and get it running alright, or what went wrong with what I did ?
      In the meantime I will empty my LACIE iTunes library folder's contents to the trash, and securily empty the trash .

Solved the issue without using the trash . I tried to consolidate the library in LACIE, then clicked on any exclamation-mark song and tried to locate the file. Repeating those steps 3 or 4 times cleared it up. That was confirmed when I synced the entire library on a iPod Classic, and showed up no problems after syncing the Nano.
     What went wrong was perhaps to fail to consolidate the library at first .

I'm running Final Cut Express 2. How can I move entire project and application from one internal hard drive to another? Ran out of space on one drive. Thanks.

I'm running Final Cut Express 2. My video project is 95% done and I've run out of space on my 500g internal hard drive. How can I (1) move the complete FCE program and video to my unused 250g internal hard drive and operate it from there and (2) how do I then purge all the FCE info from the 500g drive without losing anything from the 250 drive?
Also, is it possible to change the aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9 when the project is finished? If so, how? I now know this all should have been done before I started. Thanks for the help.

1. You can't move the application. It must remain on the system drive. Move your capture scratch folder to the external FireWire drive and use the reconnect function in the project.
2. What's the media 16:9 or 4:3?

How do I recover files from an internal hard drive that is no longer recognized?

Hi there,
Any help on this problem is greatly appreciated! I have a MacBook Pro (late 2009) running Snow Leopard. Over the last few years, after having brought the computer in to get checked, it seems that the RAM cards have gotten loose (or the bottom cover of the computer gets loose) and occasionally a grey curtain will come down from the top of the screen and everything stops working. Restarting the computer is often fine but sometimes it can't be restarted and I have to take the cover off, reset the RAM cards in their slots, and retighten the cover. The computer usually works fine after that, but verifying the disk using Disk Utility will sometimes indicate there is an error and the disk needs to be repaired. Repairing it in Disk Utility is usually fine.
Last year this happened but the disk could not be repaired. The operating system could still be run, and after making a backup of all my files I reinstalled the operating system from the installation DVD, which didn't delete any of my files on the hard drive anyway.
A few days ago the same grey curtain issue happened, however upon resetting the RAM and back cover and restarting the computer, the apple logo appeared which was quickly replaced by a prohibitory sign, which stayed on the screen indefinitely. After putting in the installation DVD and trying to reinstall the operating system, when the option comes up to choose which disk to install OS X on, the internal hard drive does not appear as an option. Going to Disk Utility from the DVD, the internal hard drive appears on the left but the text is greyed out. Attempting to repair the disk gives the following error message:
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Invalid key length
Invalid record count
Catalog file entry not found for extent
The volume could not be verified completely.
Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
While I know I could completely erase and reformat the disk, I really don't want to lose any of my files (ideally). If I erase the disk but select "Don't Erase Data" from the "Security Options..." in the "Erase" tab in Disk Utility, will this keep all my files in tact and will I be able to access them later? Are there third party applications that can recover my files so I can make a back up before I delete and reformat the hard drive? I am currently running the computer through an external hard drive connected by USB, but the internal hard drive still doesn't show up in Finder (only in Disk Utility as greyed out text).
Can I recover my files?
Thanks so much!

Try using a data recovery product such as the ones listed here. Don't erase the drive or write anything else to it until the files are recovered or you choose not to recover them.
(117246)

I have a late 2012 iMac running osx 10.8.5. I keep losing access to my internal hard drive. I can reboot and regain access and it will last for a few minutes or hours. Disk utility does not seems to help.

I have a late 2012 iMac with an I5 precessor running OSX 10.8.5 and a 1tb internal hard drive. I keep losing access to the internal hard drive/startup disk.
I can reboot and everything operates as normal for a few minutes or hours but then I lose all access again to anything on the hard drive. The computer is still up and running but no files can be accessed and certain websites cannot be acessed even though internet access appears to be normal. Disk utility can only find permission errors related to iTunes which can be repaired only to come back at the next scan (I would not think permission errors would have anything to do with the hard drive crashing). It does not seem to matter what program I am using at the time access is lost and it can lose access sometimes right after reboot when no program is running.

You will need to boot into the Recovery Volume (command - R on a restart or hold down the option/alt key during restart and select it) to run Disk Utility/Disk Repair.

Internal Hard Drives Disappeared, Finder Memory Problem

Hello Helpful Folks,
I recently installed an addional internal Hard Drive, and an additional 1GB SDRAM. This worked great for a day, but the next morning, after powering up, system was extremely sluggish, and after much deadline-induced impatient problem solving, has gone from bad to worse (system refuses to acknowledge existence of internal Hard Drives). I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but as
the devil is in the details, I figure too much info is better than not enough.
Following is a breakdown of my system: AS IT LAST WORKED; RECENT UPGRADES; and MY LAME ATTEMPTS AT PROBLEM SOLVING THAT HAVE MADE THINGS WORSE. Please don't interpret my all caps as shouting, just trying to organize this post for better clarity.
System is dedicated to Video Editing with FCP 3, running under OS 9.2.2. System is "off the Grid", i.e. no network, no internet, no printer, no gaming devices. System was purchased new in July 2001, by a friend. At one point I know this system had an Airport card, which was removed prior to my purchase in 2003. I can't remember what else it may have had installed in its history, but here's what it has now:
SYSTEM AS IT LAST WORKED:
**bold items are upgrades Original Owner or I installed with no apparent problems**
Power Mac G4 "Quicksilver" 2001
867 PowerPC G4, 256 L2, 2MB L3
-1 Stick "ValueRAM - KVR 133 x 64 C3/512" in PC 133 DIMM slot **
- "Virtual Memory" was turned off years ago due to conflict with FCP 3
-2 empty DIMM slots
-1 60 GB internal HD (Maxtor Ultra ATA/100), 1 partition, formatted HFS+, jumpered as "Master" on Internal ATA 2 ID=0 (which as I understand it is ATA/66 speed)
-1 Pioneer "Superdrive" DVD-R/W/CD-R/W on Internal ATA 0 ID=0
-NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with 32MB SDRAM in AGP Slot, feeding a 17" Apple Studio Display.
-PCI Display Card "formacGA7" - not attached to any external device, not sure what its intended purpose is.**
-3 Empty PCI Slots
-OEM Keyboard attached to Monitor's rear USB port.
-Microsoft 3 Button Wheel mouse with "IntelliEye" (wheel is 3rd Button) connected to Keyboard USB port (right side).**
-2 OEM FireWire (400) ports
-2 OEM USB (1) ports
Peripherals that have worked in various configurations with this system over the past 3 years:
-3 OWC Mercury Elite ("Oxford Chipset") Externally powered, External FireWire(400) 200GB Hard Drives, 1 partition each, formatted HFS+, daisy-chained to either of the FireWire ports.
-1 Canon GL1 MiniDV camera, attached either to the other FireWire port, or to the last drive in the chain, depending on my urgency/laziness factor. BTW, FCP 3 has worked flawlessly controlling this Cam for logging and Batch Capturing.
Applications on System Hard Drive that I have OEM CDs for:
-OS 9.2 - (I think I remember that OS X was removed from system due to conflicts shortly after original purchase)
-FCP 3
-DiskWarrior (version unknown, purchased from Alsoft in 2003)
-OWC Intech Hard Disk SpeedTools ver 3.5
Other CDs I have:
OEM CDs for Power Mac G4:
-Software Install, OS 9.2, CD vers 1
-Software Install, OS 10.0.4, CD vers 1
-Software Restore, OS 9.2 & 10.0.4 CDs vers 1, Discs 1-4 of 4.
-OEM Apple Hardware Test; Power Mac G4, SW vers 1.2.1
Applications on system Hard Drive that I don't have CDs for, that I rarely use, but I'd like to keep:
-After Effects 5.0
-QuickTime Player 6.0.2
-Toast Audio Extractor 1.1
-Toast Titanium 5.0.2
Applications on system Hard Drive I use if my wife is busy on our Windows XP machine:
-Photshop 6.0
-Microsoft Word & Excel
# of other Applications on System Hard Drive I either don't use or may be integral to the system: 260
# of Control Panels:
-Enabled: 34
-Disabled: 0
# of Extensions:
-Enabled: 174
-Disabled: 0
note: a number of the applications and extensions are for AOL, Quickbooks, Microsoft Money and the like, as well as other things I don't use (Airport, USB printers, Networking, etc.)
Smart things I did:
-Regularly made backup copies of my FCP projects to the external drives.
-Bought a copy of MacDrive so I can see what's on my External Drives on the XP machine.
-Printed out System Profile before I installed upgrades.
-Thoroughly searched this discussion board for and gathered as much info as I could before upgrading.
Dumb things I did:
-Made a copy, but not a clone, of my System Folder to one of the external drives when I first got it.
-Didn't keep any sort of separate log of what's on the External Drives.
-Never ran any sort of Disk Maintenance, even after one of the Externals crashed (DiskWarrior saved my butt on that).
-Ignored some of the advice on this discussion board.
Really dumb thing I did without even realizing it:
Captured all media for a rush job onto my internal system Hard Drive, as well as storing and using massive jpgs for the same job on that same drive...
Which led to painfully slow rendering times, and crashes caused by "Error: Out of Memory", which I interpreted as "Must buy more memory" and not "must make sure I'm not trying to edit media stored on system drive, especially with massive jpgs that I should reduce"
RECENT UPGRADES:
Here's what I did, and how I did it:
Turned off system, disconnected all External FireWire Devices, disconnected Monitor, opened case, touched various metal parts of case and power supply to discharge any Static, unplugged power cable.
-Installed 2 512MB sticks of "Lifetime" PC 133 SDRAM; total System RAM is now 1.5GB, all 3 DIMM slots now occupied.
-Installed 1 Maxtor "DiamondMax" Ultra ATA/133 100GB Hard Drive (8 MB buffer) as "Slave" (no jumper) in top of U-Carrier above System Hard Drive; attached to middle of original Apple ribbon cable, attached available power plug.
Taped spare jumper to inside of empty drive bay, noting origin and date. Did NOT push PMU button. Carefully closed case. Reconnected Monitor, did NOT reconnect any FireWire devices. Powered System on, but did NOT perform PRAM reset.
I don't remember the exact order of what happened next, but I think: System booted up normally, a window popped up saying a new drive had been found, would I like to intitialize it?, which I did as Mac OS extended, and then named. If I was instructed to restart, I did so, otherwise did not. Clicked on "about this Mac" and saw that it now showed 1.5GB RAM. I then went about moving Media/Render files off the System drive (and one of the Externals) onto the Internal Drive, with a combination of FCP's Media Manager, and dragging from the Finder. After files had copied, dragged Media/Render files from System Drive to Trash. Opened FCP project, had FCP re-link to new locations of missing files. Saved, closed, and re-opened project, set Capture/Scratch disc to new internal Drive. At some point I changed FCP's Memory Allocation from whatever it was to 512000KB Minimum, and 900000KB Prefered (and I hope I got all those zeroes right). Did NOT restart after changing Memory Allocation, unless a window popped up instructing me to do so, in which case I did. Re-opened my project, rendered a few thing at a noticeably increased speed, saved everything, emptied the Trash, shut everything down, and called it a night as it was 4:30 am.
A few hours later, I plugged the MiniDV and an External Drive into the FW ports and powered up the System. It was behaving extremely sluggishly. I would click on something, the pointer would turn into a wristwatch (sometimes with the minute-hand moving, sometimes not) and like an actual minute later, what I'd clicked on would open. All three drives were on the desktop, still had their files, and "About this Mac" still showed 1.5GB total Memory. So I powered down, disconnected the FW devices, waited a bit, and powered back up. Same sluggish response. I tried to open my FCP project file, and instead got a Window that said something to the effect of "The Application associated with this document could not be found". I think I tried to open FCP from the Applications folder on the System Drive and got the same message (I'd only had 3 hours sleep, no coffee, my client had died, and his family was coming for whatever I had in a few hours).
LAME ATTEMPTS AT PROBLEM SOLVING THAT HAVE MADE THINGS WORSE
Panic had set in, which never solves anything, so I don't remember what order I performed which tasks, between searching for clues in this forum, and convincing myself that that would be faster than trying to compose a question, waiting for a response, etc.
The first two things I did, and I can't remember which I did first (both from Keyboard Commands during Restart):
Rebuild Desktop
PRAM Reset
Neither of those solved the problem, so I continued.
I tried restarting without extensions.
I would get errors that said something like "Not Enough Memory to Open Finder".
I tried booting from Disc 1 of the Software Restore Disk, which only wanted to destroy my data.
I tried booting from the OS 10 disk, with the same result.
I was finally able to boot from the OS 9.2 Software Install Disk, and actually saw both internal drives on the desktop, and the 1.5GB RAM in About this Mac. I tried to allocate more memory to Finder, but was informed that "Cannot Perform Requested Operation. This operation requires versions above 8.0".
I think at this point I decided that I must have too many extensions, and started disabling ones I thought irrelevent to my cause (mostly anything that said "AOL", "Airport", "Ethernet", "Printer", "Modem", "Speakable", and a couple things called "Open TPT".
It gets worse. Then I decided to turn off some "unnecessary" things via the control panels, but somehow managed to disable the control panels themselves: AppleTalk, DialAssist, File Sharing, Modem, Mouse (as I saw that Microsoft Mouse was among the others), Remote Access, Speech, USB Printer Sharing, and possibly TCP/IP.
That certainly didn't help anything (though upon restarting from the OS 9.2 Disc I was able to see the extensions and control panels in their respective "Disabled" folders in the System Folder). But I still wasn't able to get more Memory to Finder.
So, I decided a few more PRAM resets might help, which succeeded in making both Internal Hard Drives disappear. I tried booting up from the DiskWarrior disc, but even the Mighty DiskWarrior couldn't find the drives. I performed the longer, in depth version of the Apple Hardware Tools tests, which reported that everything's fine (including the new RAM), but made no mention of the Hard Drives at all. The deadline having long passed, I shut the system down. I read through more posts and tech articles, etc.
I searched my External drives with MacDrive on my XP, and found the drive that has the copy of my System Folder (which shows all extensions and control panels as enabled); not sure if the Quicksilver will boot from that, I don't know what the Keyboard command for booting from a FireWire drive is (if there is one) and the drive itself only has 900MB of free space.
I can't find any reference to Internal ATA drives anywhere in the MacDrive documentation; if it was possible I'd put them into the XP, get the files off the Mac drives, reformat them and install OS9 from the Discs.
This is where I am now:
The Quick Silver is still powered down. I removed the Microsft mouse and replaced it with the OEM Apple mouse. I opened the case, and removed the PRAM/Backup battery (manufacture date: July 2001). Couldn't find my voltmeter, so took the bat to Radio Shack and bought a new one. Had the Radio Shack guy test the old one: it showed 3.69 volts still. Have not installed the new battery yet. The case is still open, waiting for any advice any of you might have to offer.
Thank you all so much for your patience in perusing and pursuing this.
Sincerely,
Patterson
Power Mac G4 Quicksilver 867 Mac OS 9.2.x 17" Studio Display, 512MB RAM

Thank you Rodney and John,
The jumpers are correct for both Maxtor Drives.
Rodney, you are correct in that the initial problem (slow rendering/"out of Memory" crashes) was caused by my not realizing I'd stupidly captured several GBs of media to my system drive, and not checking which drives those files were on (as I'd assumed I'd put them on one of my external media drives) once that problem presented itself.
Before I'd determined what I'd done, I bought the extra RAM. After I'd found the media files on the System Drive, and saw that my dedicated media drives were too full to easily move them, I decided to buy an additional Internal drive so that I could:
-Move the Media onto it relatively quickly and finish my urgent project.
-Juggle all my media into a more organized fashion for archiving (as most of my projects are on-going long-term affairs)
-Wipe it, Partition it, and clone my System Drive onto it, as a spare bootable drive in case my OEM System Drive failed.
Copying the Media files onto the New Drive and moving the System Drive's Media files into the Trash worked great: huge improvement in Rendering, etc.
Before shutting down for the night I Emptied the Trash, and was pleased with the amount of space I'd freed up on the System Drive.
My guess is that the System Drive was terribly fragmented, having been subjected to intense use over the past 5 years without any sort of Drive Maintainence, and deleting that massive amount from it in one shot caused my extreme system sluggishness upon Startup the next day.
My subsequent lame attempts to solve the sluggishnes ultimately resulted in my losing access to both drives.
Today, I replaced the Backup Battery, pushed the PMU, re-attached the AC, and Powered Up with the case open as per your suggestion.
It was trying for a few minutes (the gray screen went black at one point, and then returned to gray) before presenting me with the flashing question mark.
There was, however, a quiet but distinct "buzzing" sound that would alternate: 1 sec "buzz", one second silence, one second "buzz", one second silence, etc. coming from the drives, even after the "?" appeared.
I powered down, removed the Ribbon and Power Cables from the new "Slave" drive, and powered up again, with the exact same results.
I powered down, removed the Ribbon and Power cables from the original "Master" drive, reinstalled the Jumper on the New Drive as "Master", plugged the End of the Ribbon and the Power cables into the New "Master" drive and powered up. The screen went to the "?" within 20 seconds instead of 4+ minutes, and no more "buzzing".
I put the Apple Hardware Tools Disk in, ran the "long" test, and everything came out fine.
I have to abandon this for now, but thanks again for your previous advice, and any more you may have!
Cheers,
Patterson

HP Pavilion dv6-6c53cl Notebook - Internal Hard Drive Options

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