Home » forums » Discussion » PowerPC Macs

Sigh. . . took a chance on a HD for my TiPower Book and lost. . . .?

Submitted by mutant_pie on September 29, 2005 - 12:21am. PowerPC Macs

But, but, it was such a good deal!

I purchased a new, Seagate, 100GB 2.5" x 9mm, Momentus 5400rpm harddrive (model ST9100823A) to upgrade from the 20GB that came with my Ti Powerbook 500MZ. I tried to install it (a couple of times to make sure I wasn't missing anything), but unfortunately, I think that it has too new of an interface requirement, as it is an Ultra ATA/100 (the old one is ATA interface), though Seagate customer support couldn't even confirm that it was incompatible. The new drive was quite a bit quieter than the old one, so at first I had difficulty even determining if it was spinning. It was. I'd return it to CompUSA, but I sent the UPC code in for the mail-in rebate.

Tech advice would be great, as I'd love to get it to go, but upon installation, the system restore software (from booting off the CD) just doesn't recognize the new drive is there. The spec PDF says it works with TiPowerbooks and OS 10.2.8, but I know that there were major changes made between the 500MZ model and the 667MZ and higer, so I think that I'm S.O.L.. However, does anyone think that system would recognize it if I booted off the OS 10.4 install disk instead of the restore disks that came with the machine? (Darn, should have tried that when it was installed).

Mutant_Pie

» login or register to post comments | previous forum topic | next forum topic

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
D2X's picture

Format

Submitted by D2X on September 29, 2005 - 1:24am.

Have you tried to format the drive? Pop in the install CD/DVD, run Disk Utility, and format the disk, then do a restart. If you havent tried this, it might help the PowerBook recognize the drive.

Hope this helps!!

» "It's better to be a Pirate than to join the Navy"- Steve Jobs

Intel iMac (2GHz Core Duo)
Powerbook G4 (12" 1.5GHz SuperDrive)
300MHz Clamshell iBook (rebuilt) 544MB/40GB/10.3/AirPort

login or register to post comments
dankephoto's picture

ATA-6 incompatibility?

Submitted by dankephoto on September 29, 2005 - 1:45am.

Some ATA-6 drives cannot "downshift" to ATA-5 or lower, and thus won't work in certain 'puters that cannot use ATA-6 drives (for whatever reason.) Dunno if this drive is one of those though. From what I've read, the TiBooks ought to be unaffected by this quirk, but I really don't know.

For more info, try searching through the database at xlr8yourmac.com for that drive/PB combination.

dan k

» || web page | Applish goodies servers Carracho (port9700) & Hotline (port9500) ||
ยป email macdan at comcast.net

login or register to post comments

Re: Format

Submitted by ianmeyer on September 29, 2005 - 4:50am.
rivegal wrote:
Have you tried to format the drive? Pop in the install CD/DVD, run Disk Utility, and format the disk, then do a restart. If you havent tried this, it might help the PowerBook recognize the drive.

Hope this helps!!

the installer won't show the drive until you use disk utility to format it, that may very well be the crux of the problem

occam's razor strikes again :-p

good luck,

~ian

» e to the pi i plus one equals zero

login or register to post comments

Success!

Submitted by mutant_pie on September 30, 2005 - 6:11am.

Yea!!

I'm writing this on the computer in question. . . with it's new 100GB HD! (Well, it's really 93 GB, and after installing everything, I've got 75GB free. But that's still pretty darn nice!).

It required;
-running Disk Utilities (booting up from the OS 10.4 install disk)
-Erasing the disk (with OS 9 install option checked)
- . . . and all of the usual installation work, starting with the Restore Disks.

BTW re the new drive;
-It's a little quieter
-It's noticably faster, especially for start-up
-It's a little cooler
-SRP $199, paid $170 with rebate at CompUSA

Thanks for the encouragement folks.

Mutant_Pie

»
login or register to post comments