Installing Maxtor SATA 16MB cache

Hey all..
I have the following problem..
I have a RAID array of two 36gig Raptors which is working fine .. thanks to vango44
I also have 2 PATA disks of 40gig running smooth as well..
I just bought a new Maxtor Diamondmax 10 250gig 16MB cache..
I hooked it up.. SATA cable and powerconnector.. I plugged the SATA cable in SATA slot number 3 .. 1 and 2 are in use .. raptors..
But it doesnt show up in Windows.. :(
My BIOS settings are exactly as they are described in vango44 his tutorial..
Any1 got a solution for me?

Ghehehe.. thanks for help but that wasnt it.. I forgot to update BIOS :P .. Now it can detect disks larger than 135 gig.. ANd i didnt install Promise drivers.. all fixed now ..

Similar Messages

Maxtor 16Mb Cache HDDs & Neo2 Problems

Hands up anybody who has issues with Maxtor Diamondmax 10 (or Maxline III) 16Mb cache SATA150 hard drives and the K8N Neo 2 54G Platinum (or varients) motherboard.
I've just built a high end system for a customer comprising of:
Athlon 64 3800+ Retail CPU
MSI K8N Neo2 54G Platinum Motherboard
1Gb (2x512Mb Corsair XMS3200 Pro) Memory
3 x Maxtor 250Gb Diamondmax10 SATA150 16Mb Cache HDDs (2 in RAID 0 1 for Data)
Antec 480Watt Neo PSU
256mb Radeon 9600XT 8xAGP
Antec P160 Aluminium case with 2 x 120mm fans front and back.
I've had nothing but greif with the Maxtors. The board RAIDs fine with 2 x 120Gb Maxtor SATA 8Mb cache but windows will not install on the RAID0 using the 2 x 250Gb 16Mb HDDs.
Even installing Windows XP Home on a single drive gives grief ie, wont reboot properly.
I've given up now and stuck to a 240Gb RAID0 array with 2 x 120Gb Maxtors. They work perfectly on their own.
I then reintroduced 2 x 250Gb Maxtors as seperate Data and Video drives in addition to the 2x120Gb RAID0. As soon as I set the Data drive to hold the My Documents folder the machine takes an age to redetect the IDE devices and reboot.
Any impending BIOS updates (I'm using 1.3) or driver updates to solve or improve the problem? Anyone from MSI out there?
Anyone with similar problems? (I'm expecting a few!!!)

there is no way new nforce drivers will help you guys with instable systems if your maxtor sata+ncq drives are the reason. you will need at least an update of the nforce3 ide raid controller bios. i already gave up, because i don't feel like i'm having too much spare time to make quality assurance for free. i gave back my diamondmax 10 300gb (6b300s0) and exchanged it for 2 samsung spinpoints which are much more quiet and run perfectly as a raid0 stripe.
oh, by the way. here's something to read for everyone who wants to know, how skilled the msi tech support is:
1st mail:
Hello.
Is there a compatibility issue with the Maxtor hard drive, mentioned above?
The system freezes frequently during bios start-up when the disk is
connected to s-ata ports 1 or 2. When connected to s-ata ports 3 or 4, the
system runs more stable. Furthermore the disk's working noise is unusually
loud, like the nForce3 chip wouldn't activate the cache of the disk. The
noise level can be compared to old U2W-SCSI disks from 96.
Is there any solution for this problem? The DiamondMax 10 worked much
better in a KT6 Delta LSR.
Thanks.
msi replies:
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for contacting MSI Technical Support.
With regard to your concerned, first check if the SATA1/SATA2 enabled in Integrated Peripherals under BIOS setup.
If so, we would suggest you reinstall Nvidia nForce3 System Drivers by this link to see if the PC work stable,
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/driver/dvr/spt_dvr_detail.php?UID=607&kind=1,
or try to refer to the procedure as described in this link: http://www.msi.com.tw/html/support/bios/note/award.htm or http://www.msi.com.tw/html/support/bios/note/ntfs.htm to manually update the BIOS, or you can download MSI Live Update from http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/software/swr/spt_swr_list.php?kind=1 and online update the BIOS for your motherboard.
If the problem still persist, Would you please describe your issue or testing procedures in detail so that we might give some advice?(system configuration, OS etc.)
Please feel free to let us know if you still have any further issues or inquiries.
Best regards,
MSI Technical Support
2nd mail:
Dear customer support,
I would like to mention that the latest nForce3 drivers are not useful because the system is instable during the BIOS boot sequence. BIOS freezes during IDE device identification process or the system hangs right at the beginning of the OS boot sequence. These are the hardware components installed:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ S939 "Winchester"
Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum-54G (BIOS 1.30)
2x512MB Infineon PC2700 CL2.5 (HYS64D64320GU-6B)
Maxtor DiamondMax 10, 300GB, S-ATA+NCQ (6B300S0)
Terratec Mystify 5200 512MB
Toshiba SD-M1612
Pioneer DVR-108
Windows XP Pro SP2 (fully patched, nForce Unified Driver 5.10)
My retail shop told me that it is a common problem of S-ATA drives that have NCQ support implemented because the current chipsets do not support it. Is it possible to fix this problem by a BIOS update of the integrated nVidia S-ATA RAID controller (currently the BIOS version is v4.6)? If not, when will nForce4 boards be released?
Thanks.
msi replies:
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for contacting MSI Technical Support.
Please refer to below message for how do I identify the BIOS version?(Sample)
Upon boot-up, the 1st line appearing after the memory count is the BIOS version. It is usually in the format:
A6380MS V1.0 091096 where:
1st digit refers to BIOS maker as A = AMI(R) W = AWARD(R)
2nd - 5th digit refers to the model number.
6th - 7th digit refers to the customer as MS = all standard customers.
V1.0 refers to the BIOS version.
091096 refers to the date this BIOS is released.
(currently the BIOS version is v4.6) was not correct for your motherboard.
Please feel free to let us know if you still have any further issues or inquiries.
Best regards,
MSI Technical Support
3rd mail:
4.6 is the revision number of the nvidia s-ata raid controller bios.
so, should i really have faith in the skills of this support team? they can't eve differenciate between regular mobo BIOS and RAID controller BIOS. they suggest to reinstall the nforce drivers, although my system crashes even before i can get to windows? will they determine a possible bug and request further investigations from the engineers, bios engineers? i don't have time to hope for weeks / months.

Single Maxtor SATA won't install Windows 2k

Hi everyone!
I have been messing with this for a few days now. I'm in the process of upgrading my machine to a K8T NEO, A64 3000+, 1gb Hyper X PC4000, 9800XT vid, and Maxtor Diamondmax 120gb SATA. The problem I am having is that I can not get Windows 2k to install on my machine. It is getting about 1/2 way and crashing. Even before it gets to that point it's really really slow after the first reboot during install. I have followed the instructions in regards to setting up the single SATA HD and the first bios screen shows it there. I have it connected to the (SER1) SATA connector which I believe uses the Promise controller.
During the initial install I hit F6 and then use the Promise 378 driver for w2k off of the driver floppy. It installs the drivers then I format and everything is peachy. It's after the reboot when it just runs like a chode and never finishes the install.
Do I need to disable the VIA controller and leave the PATA enabled?
To set it up to the VIA controller all I need to do is disable the PATA controller? When I've tried in the past to set it up to the SATA1 port the raid bios won't see the HD on the first boot screen.
I am very desperate in finding a solution for this. I want to run Final Fantasy 11 on this system!! :-)
Thanks so much guys!
Half

This may or may not help but I just purchased 2 OEM Maxtor SATA Drives which I plan to install in a new system I'm building around the MSI K8T FIS2R. I downloaded the CD-R ISO for MaxBlast 3 from Maxtor. Here is an excerpt from the readme file included on the CD:
" If you are installing drivers during a Windows NT4.x,Win 2K or XP
fresh Operating System install, you will need to copy the Serial ATA
and UDMA 100/133 driver files from the MaxBlast 3 CD to a clean formatted
floppy first.
From the MaxBlast 3 CD choose the create Maxtor ATA/SATA PCI driver diskette option and follow the on screen prompts.
On new build NT,2K, and XP systems without floppy drives, it will be
necessary to temporarily connect a 3.5 floppy drive to install the Serial ATA
or UDMA 100/133 host drivers.This is because the Microsoft operating system
doesn't allow browsing to CD ROM drives during a new install.
On systems that have NT, 2K, or XP already installed. Add the Serial ATA or
UDMA 100/133 host, and driver to the system first before connecting your new
hard drive to the system.
Serial ATA and UDMA 100/133 controllers report as a SCSI device in Windows:
During the Windows NT4.x,Win2K,or WinXP install you must specify additional
devices SCSI or RAID controllers, and choose other to install the driver
from the floppy when prompted by the operating system. "
Andy

How is the performance maxtor 300gb 16mb sata on neo2 k8n?

How is the performance maxtor 300gb 16mb sata on neo2 k8n? what bios should i use for this and does sata 3&4 port work with the oc speed over 240?
do i have to update to sp2 to detect all the space?

think it's this one New beta bios for s939 K8N Neo2 Platinum added (7025NMS.151) see syar's comment in next post.
If there are any more recent betas than that try them, the link to syar's d/load page is in thread.
don't know - check the threads
don't think so - check the threads
luck

Where can I find a 2.5" 100GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive with 16MB cache?

Are there any out? If so where?

I've not seen any with a 16MB cache, but here are a few models with an 8MB cache.
Joe
iMac Intel Core Duo 20", 2 GB RAM, OWC 300 GB FW HD Mac OS X (10.4.7) MacBook 2GHz, 2GB RAM; iPod w/ video 30 GB

How to Install Hitachi SATA Deskstar Internal Hard Drive?

I just purchased HITACHI SATA Deskstar 3/5" 500GB/16MB Cache/72RPM Internal Hard Drive, which said it was compatible with my Mac. I have a iMac mid 2007 2.4 GHz Intel Core Duo2 running OSx10.6.4. Is this a simple install or do you recommend I take it into repair? Any suggestions would be welcome, I am a bit of a novice.

Thanks for the feedback. BTW, you might want to roll your own ext HD. I did this one in April when I got the 27":
Macally GS350SUAB Hi-Speed eSATA/1394A/1394B/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD
Hitachi 1 TB Deskstar SATA 7200 RPM 32 MB Cache Internal Hard Drive HD31000 IDK/7K
Search around Amazon and you'll probably come up with larger HDs to put into it.

K8N Neo Platinum and Maxtor SATA II 250GB 6V250F0

Hi folks,
Having a bit of fun with this one. After first installing the new hard drive (Maxtor SATA II 250GB 6V250F0) , the BIOS immediately recognised it, I could boot into Windows, and Windows recognised it, and I thought I was in for a smooth ride. Sadly, the good news ends there.
Tried to initialise the disk, but this simply gave an error after a few seconds, and wrote a whole load of controller error messages to the system event log. Since then, I've done the following troubleshooting steps:-
(1) Tried in Normal Mode and Safe Mode, made no difference.
(2) Tried with the jumper on the back of the drive set to limit it to SATA I, as I'm connecting to SATA I controllers on the motherboard. Made no difference with it on or off. Tried a second jumper just in case the first one was faulty; still made no difference.
(3) Tried using different power cables and molex connectors; made no difference.
(4) Tried using different data cables; made no difference.
(5) Tried connecting to each of the four SATA ports; made no difference. Tested each port with another drive ((an older Maxtor SATA I drive, which has always worked fine), and they each worked fine.
(6) Tried with and without another SATA drive (an older Maxtor SATA I drive, which has always worked fine); made no difference.
(7) Checked the drive firmware (VA111630); apparently already the latest.
(8) Used the nVidia registry fix to disable NCQ; made no difference.
(9) Disabled write caching; made no difference.
(10) Ran powermax 4.22 to test the drive, and it reports no problems with the drive at all. Did the full surface scan just in case, and a burn-in test; these also reported no problems. Curiously, they also reported no problems when I did the same tests with the back jumper removed; i.e. running it in SATA II mode when connected to a SATA I port apparently didn't bother powermax. Go figure.
The only way I've got anything to happen with the drive so far is to set it to run in PIO mode(!), which I did briefly, and which enabled the drive to be initialised in Windows. Haven't tried much else in that mode yet, not least because I have no intention of actually using it in that mode for obvious reasons.
So...we have a perfectly functioning disk, attached to a perfectly functioning SATA port, with supposed complete compatibility between them, and with pretty much all other bases covered, and the end result is...it doesn't work.
Has *anyone* got this particular drive model (Maxtor 6V250F0) to work with a K8N Neo Platinum, and if so, how??? ??? ???

Latest Update (this is a real Twilight Zone one ):
LOL, well I should have known better than to be optimistic about anything where this drive is concerned. With Windows drivers installed, it seemed to work okay as a storage drive. So I then installed XP on it, and sure enough it hangs when loading the OS. As the next test, I did a clean install of XP on an IDE drive I have installed, which worked fine (could boot no problems). I then cloned that to the Maxtor drive (the clean OS had no nVidia drivers installed), and not only did the Maxtor drive fail to boot, but so did the IDE drive (even though nothing has changed on that drive!) Both would hang at the Windows loading screen. So then I deleted the partition on the Maxtor drive, so it was effectively back to the situation where the IDE drive booted okay previously (with a blank Maxtor drive attached), but now it continued to fail to load. If I unplugged the Maxtor drive, however, then the IDE drive would boot. If I then re-attached the Maxtor drive, the IDE drive would still boot, even though that would be exactly the same situation in which it didn't boot before the Maxtor unplug and replug. In short, it simply makes no sense whatsoever. ???
A summary of facts/findings:-
(1) System works fine; all components checked and pass diagnostic tests, no Windows problems in the event log or device manager, no random crashes or anything like that. The Maxtor drive passes Powermax tests fine.
(2) If the Maxtor drive is attached while using nVidia drivers, it cannot be used at all.
(3) If the Maxtor drive is attached while using Windows drivers (in UDMA6 mode), it can be used in some circumstances (described as follows).
(4) If the Maxtor drive has no OS installed on it, it can be used fine.
(5) If the Maxtor drive has an OS installed on it, it will hang at boot time.
(6) If the Maxtor drive has an OS installed on it, other drives (being booted from) will hang at boot time.
(7) If another drive has failed to boot because the Maxtor drive has an OS on it, deleting all data/partitions from the Maxtor drive will not enable the first drive to boot.
(8) If another drive has failed to boot because the Maxtor drive has/had an OS on it, unattaching the Maxtor drive will enable it to boot once again.
(9) Once another drive has managed to boot again, the Maxtor drive can be reattached (with data/partitions having been deleted), and it will boot again. If it still has the OS on it, however, it will cause the first drive to hang again.
(10) None of this highly abnormal behaviour is experienced using a Samsung Spinpoint drive (with the same SATA II interface) instead.
What really puzzles me about this is the apparent memory of the system for the previous boot. (7) and (9) above are identical in the conditions of the drives when the boot is made, and the only difference in the situation is that before (7) the previous boot has failed, and before (9) the previous boot has succeeded. How/why that should influence the current boot (after a hard reset, with power down in between to ensure no residual current effects), and why this should interact with the Maxtor drive but not any other drive, is a complete mystery. It's also pretty odd that an OS can boot when the Maxtor drive has ordinary data on it, but will hang if the Maxtor drive has an OS on it.
There is clearly a lot more going on here than any standard version of the way OSs boot and load drivers can account for.

8MB Cache vs 16MB cache HD

Following on my question about SATA and SATA II, will I have any noticeable benefits of replacing my internal HD with a HD that has 16MB cache over my current HD that has 8MB cache?
Looking on the WesternDigital website the specs state the operating temp is 5-55C, currently my internal can reach 60C.
Just how much does the storage capacity affect the tempreture?
Any recommendations for model of HD to replace my internal 250GB Maxtor, preferably with a capacity >300GB?
Thanks for the help,
Rich

How much you notice such things depends on what you do with your computer, Rich, and how full you generally keep it.
The Maxtor 16MB cache drive originally fitted to your Mac was one of the fastest 'standard" drives around at the time, - see http://www.barefeats.com/hard48.html
BUT, if , for example you have a choice between two drives , one of 300 Gig and one of 400 gig, and load it up with say 250 gig of stuff then the 400 will be significantly quicker, all other things being equal. (the "inner" , last to fill, segments of current HD's are "slower" than the outer ones - constant rpm with a smaller diameter).
Any temperature effects of size are likely to be indirect. If a drive is very full, then it is also likely to suffer from fargmented free space etc, and therefore to have to work gharder to do any given task - looking around for bits of space to put things and to read them from , too. Accordingly, in a situation like this, the larger drive is likely to run cooler because it will have more free space and suffer from less free space fragmentation.
Personally I'd be looking at something like a 400 GB Seagate to replace your existing drive. See http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/dsbarracuda_720010.pdf for full specs. It retains the higher temperature rating of your existing drive, which can be important in a "hot" computer like an iMac G5. It also has a 16 MB cache.
Cheers
Rod

Help with mega 865 pro and maxtor sata 6L300S0

i have a mega 865 pro i just install a new HDD model maxtor sata 6L300S0 300 GB and it is very slow on the mega i contact maxtor and they say i have to verify if i have correct SATA driver installed. but everything looks ok on the system. where i can download that driver again? any one can help me?
What im doing wrong?

I'm having the same problem with my Mega 865 pro and my Maxtor 6l200mo (200gb).
Seems to boot up fine, dosn't take any longer to load up startup items than my old system. Though using pretty much any program results in the system pausing and stuttering for a few seconds. I have noticed it most recenltly when watching video files (mpeg/divx). While i'm watching a video, it will keep pausing at random times.....sometimes every 5 seconds....sometimes every 5 mintues. It does the same when i'm not connected to the internet too, and does the same if I am simply playing mp3s or just on the internet! When it seems to do it most is like now! I have an mpeg playing (300mb) in a window, and while I am browsing the internet and even typing this post, it is pausing for a few seconds which is really frustrating! My old system was pretty similar spec to my current Msi system, though it wasn't a barebones system and was slighty lower spec. That worked flawlessly doing the same tasks so my guess is it must be an Ata problem. Another Mega865 gripe that is bugging me!
Any help will be much appreciated. Cheers!
P.s My hd Tach results were pretty much the same as centarlrocks

Fresh Windows7 on my SSD won't recognize my Maxtor Sata-Hdd

I've installed windows 7 freshly on my new Samsung SSD with AHCI in bios enabled. All is fine. However when I reattached two of my former mechanical sata-drives. 1 Samsung, 1 maxtor. The Maxtor drive would not be recognized. Explorer hangs for a minute when I try to rightclick-it, it won't show under device manager, windows disk managemnt wont always list it. though when it does it says it is healthy/online/active.
When I switch back to IDE in the bios however and boot my system, the maxtor drive is rocognized and can be used. it shows up under device manager as "Maxtor 6v320f0 ATA device", disk management sees it, truecrypt sees the first partition.
What could be going on?
My system:
MSI 785GM-E65
AMD Athlon II 64 x3
2 Gb Ram
Windows 7 x64
PS. I did however install catalyst install manager with new AMD drivers (AHCI driver and northbridge driver). Now I wanted to see if the previous (MS AHCI?) driver would be different. But this stupid catalyst software does not let me uninstall both drivers. i do not know how to roll back to me previous driver whichever driver it was.
I can;t seem to find any info if there maybe differen tcontrollers for different sata-ports on my mobo. Manual is not very comprhensive about that. And do not know how to look in device manager to see which drivers are currently used.
I would like to keep AHCI enabled in bios however for my SSD. Everyone says it is better. And be able to use my Maxtor sata drive. I have no clue what might be wrong other than AHCI might be to blame. or the AMD drivers for AHCI and maybe the northbridge driver? have no clue what it;s for.

First, I read that this problem with AMD-AHCI drivers have been persistent for a very long time. And AMD refuses to do anything about it. This problem is spanning multiple versions of AMD drivers. I have learned AMD is uslesss when it comes to support.
Second, the evidence for my claim is also that the problem is solved. I found out how to switch back to other AHCi drivers in my windows setup. And now all is well. No thanks to AMD.

How can i install a sata hard drive in my compaq nx6110

There is a rediculously small hard drive installe in my laptop 40gb. I want to install at least a 240 gb but only can find sata drives that size. How do I go about installing the sata drive.

You cannot install a SATA drive, and you can't go up to 240
because the BIOS is not "48 bit" compatible.
This limits you to 137 GB or less. There are plenty of 120 GB drives
on Ebay for pretty good prices; just search this phrase:
"2.5 PATA 120"
Good luck

Need help in installing a SATA hard drive with 865pe NEO2

Hello there
I need a help in installing a Sata hard drive ,it is WD 250 GB , my motherboard is 865PE Noe2 , the bios is the latest one
already I got another old hard drive ,not a Sata ,a regular IDE one installed as a master hard drive
I want to install the sata hd as a slave for the IDE hd for now to transfer the files and documents
I already physically installed the Sata hard drive yet the problem is that it was listed in the bios , I followed some of the steps here in the forum mentioned but all what I got is I found it listed as the fourth IDE master , not as the primary IDE slave
in Windows Xp Sp2 it is not listed of course in the windows explorer , but it is there in the device manager
look I am very confused and I tried most of the combinations in the ide configuration in BIOS
what should I do coz I am feeling so bad and stupid ,you can consider me a n00b in this hard drive thing

1st the sata drive cannot be listed as a slave drive to the ide master [key word=ide-can be configured as master OR slave, master IF only 1 hd, master and slave IF 2 hds], on the sata controler you can have master and slave, the ide cable has two connectors for the hds, sata has only 1 hd connector.
are you wanting to install the sata as primary master and move the operating sys to that drive, if so you will need an IMAGING software to move an operating system OR you could do a fresh operating system install to the sata drive then install your programs.

Mac Pro will not sleep properly after installing new SATA BD-CD-DVD drive.

Hello and thank you in advance for time reading this.
I have been using a Mac Pro for 4 years and it never happened to me before.
This started almost immediately after installing a new SATA BD-CD-DVD Drive.
When the Mac is ordered to sleep, It shuts down 3 out of 4 Hard Drives
(I guess the one that doesn't is the OSX Drive) and It will not shut down the fans
and the display has no signal.
During that (when it won't sleep completely) the Mac is completely paralysed and it's unable to wake up.
Now, I've tried being patient and giving the Mac a ton of time to sleep.
In some cases it actually worked and the Mac did sleep completely and it was able to wake up,
but that defeats the purpose (being able to sleep and wake up in an in a few seconds).
In these few cases, the Mac took about 30 min to sleep.
In the rest of the cases the Mac never slept and I had to emergency shut it off from the power button.
In simply words, Mac falls into a "coma", not asleep but not awake at the same time.
As I said, this started exactly when I installed an SATA LG CH10LS20 optical Drive.
You may say that the Mac Pro does not support SATA for optical Drives.
This is why you should know that there is a SATA port on the motherboard of a Mac,
and with the correct method you can connect a SATA Drive AND be able to use it with out additional drivers.
http://www.tomorrowland.com/guides/mac-pro-optical-drive-install-part-1/
Now, you may say that If I'm so sure that it's the new drive causing the problem, why don't I disconnect it?
Well, please try to understand me, it's an all new drive and it cost a good load of money...
and other users of the same drive do not have that problem... yet...
Is there a way for the drive (which otherwise works fine) and the Mac to coexist and work properly?
Do you really think it's the new Drive?
Is the motherboard bothered somehow by the new drive and wont go to sleep properly?
Any kind of help is welcome and
I thank you in advance if you can help me.

Thanks for taking the time to respond RedBaron, I don't have a USB aircard in this system but I do have numerous firewire drives. I haven't unplugged everything yet and restarted. That's a good tip. I think I will try that to see if that is the problem.
Thanks again
Chris

How do i install a SATA 150 HDD in MSI KT6.

How do i install a sata 150 HDD in MSI KT6.
I will build a new rig.
The HDD drive is virgin. I put windowns xp cd in the cdrom then set the bios to boot up from the cdrom, and then?
When will i install the HDD drivers? Or the SATA drivers? I'm confuse!
One more thing please... When should i install the mobo drivers? Are that drivers the: VIA_Hyperion 4IN1_V449vp2 ? And the sound driver, it's included in there?

Hi,
Read all this:
http://www.amdforums.com/showindex.php?s=57b7aa706298397fc255dfa84b1fdc1f&threadid=257841
and after that you will learn something.
Also, read the manual that came with the motherboard.

Can I install a SATA drive in Mirror Drive Door G4?

I am looking at a Seagate 500 GB SATA drive at a great price at MWave ($109.) but see that SATA may require a different cable connector from the IDEs that I normally use in my box. Can I buy some kind of adaptor cable, or do I have to get a card of some kind. Where and how much?
Or, could I install the SATA (it's a ST3500630AS) in an external enclosure that fits ATA 133 3.5 hard drives?
Thanks,
k
Dual 1.25 GHz PM/G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hi
You'd need a Mac compatible PCI card containing a SATA controller. The FirmTek SeriTek 1S2 or Sonnet Tempo is a popular two port choice (they're effectively the same card) and are available for around $70.
The Sonnet Tempo at least comes with a single SATA data cable, and a single power converter cable that allows you to use a legacy molex power connector (as found in the G4s) to power a SATA drive. Some SATA drives come with both power connectors anyway, hence the converter cable isn't required, but I don't think the Seagates do.
I use SATA drives in my G4 as they're marginally faster, the cabling is generally easier and more importantly they can also be moved to newer Macs in the future which support SATA drives natively. For me the extra cost of a SATA card was worthwhile.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Firmtek/FTST1S2/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technology/TSATA/
SATA cards are also available from ACARD and SIIG etc.

Installing Maxtor SATA 16MB cache

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