Largest Hard Drive for a Ti/800mhz

Question

I am thinking on replacing my 40g with a larger one or even replacing the superdrive with another hd, I was wondering if my Ti will only see a max of 120g like my PM/G4's, I know it will see larger ones using firewire but this is a laptop and using an external hd just don't make since,,,,

Answer 1

I found some new information on this question. I apologize for not discovering it sooner, but I only came across it on the Western Digital website. It appears that any model introduced after June 2002, and the listed models, can handle a larger drive. Mine was introduced in April 2002, and purchased new in September 2002. But...see my notes at the end of this post.
Apple article HT2544 addresses this issue (see (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2544?viewlocale=en_US#bootrom), as does Western Digital Knowledge Base Answer ID 927 (see http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=927).
+From Western Digital:+
Are EIDE drives larger than 137GB (128GB binary) supported in Mac systems
Question
I am considering buying an EIDE drive larger than 137GB for my Mac system. Are EIDE drives larger than 137GB supported in Mac systems?
Answer
Not all Mac systems can properly support EIDE drives larger than 137GB (128GB binary). In many cases, the system needs to be a newer Mac G4 or G5 system. According to Apple, there are two primary requirements that must be met to support these drives:
The computer must have Mac OS 10.2 or later
The system BootROM must provide support for the drive
For full details, please see Apple Document #86178.
Note: There are third-party controller cards designed for use with large EIDE drives and Macs. Please contact Apple or the card manufacturer to find out if a specific controller card will work with your Mac. According to Apple, you must still have OS version 10.2 or later, even with the controller card, to use the full drive capacity.
+From Apple+:
There are two primary requirements that must be met for higher capacity hard drives to be fully utilized within a computer.
1. The computer must have Mac OS X 10.2 or later.
2. The computer must provide support for the drives via the BootROM.
Products Affected
Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.3, Mac OS X 10.2, Mac OS X 10.5
Mac OS X 10.2 or later
The high capacity drive must be formatted using Mac OS X 10.2 or later in order for partition sizes beyond 128 GB to be recognized. If you plan to start the partition up from Mac OS 9.2.2, the partition sizes may be a maximum of 200 GB. If you have a drive that is larger than 200 GB in size, you will need to create multiple partitions with no single partition exceeding 200 GB in size. Once formatted, the drive will be recognized under the version of Mac OS 9.2.2 that comes with the Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors) and later products.
If the drive is not formatted using Mac OS X 10.2 or later, the maximum volume size available is limited to approximately 128 GB.
Support via the BootROM
The BootROM of Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors), Xserve, Power Mac G5, and any other model introduced after June 2002 can accommodate these larger drives.
For additional details on the volume and file size limitations under OS X, see:
Mac OS X: Mac OS Extended Format - Volume and File Limits
Mac OS X Server 10.0.3 and later: Maximum UFS Partition Size Is Less Than 1 TB
Note that the 2 conditions appear to be in the conjunctive, not disjunctive; i.e., both must be met.
My TiBook doesn't seem to fit the parameters required to recognize larger drives. It was introduced in April 2002, and is not a Power Mac with Mirrored Drive Doors, nor an XServe or Power Mac G5.
However, I bought a 160 GB external hard drive some years ago. Disk Utility recognized it as 160 GB when I connected it via Firewire 400, and successfully partitioned it into 34.44 GB and 114.35 GB volumes, totaling 148.79 GB. This is quite more than the 128 GB limitation that concerns us.
So I wonder: Is an easy test just connecting an external hard drive larger than 128 GB and seeing if the OS recognizes it?