I need to add a second HD to my G5 Powermac (dual 1.8Ghz) and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations? Should be SATA IIRC. Thought I might get it from OWC or newegg? Something in the 500G or so range I think, but open to suggestions. The PM has an 80G and I haven't filled that up yet (kids are working on it though).

I went back 4 pages and didn't see a similar topic, so thought I would just ask.

Powermac isnt a laptop is it? I dont know much about previous apple designs.

If its a desktop midtower, I'd go for a WD 640gb drive. 2 platters, quiet, cool, and now fairly cheap. Usually can be had for ~ $70 iirc.

I also have a Seagate 500gb drive in a ziplock bag in my freezer. I'm going to try to grab a few things off of it tonight and you can have it after that, no charge

Yeah get something from NewEgg, personally I'd recommend a Western Digital HD. I'd avoid Seagate's unless you don't mind updating the firmware when you get it. 500gig should be pretty cheap now, well under $100.

Powermac isnt a laptop is it? I dont know much about previous apple designs.

If its a desktop midtower, I'd go for a WD 640gb drive. 2 platters, quiet, cool, and now fairly cheap. Usually can be had for ~ $70 iirc.

I also have a Seagate 500gb drive in a ziplock bag in my freezer. I'm going to try to grab a few things off of it tonight and you can have it after that, no charge

It should still be under warranty, right?

The drive? Doubtful. I bought that one a long time ago, and probably don't even have the paperwork for it anymore. I took it out of a computer thats been sitting unused in my parent's basement. I don't think I've used that computer at all in practically a year.

the seagates have 5 year warranties, you should check the serial number at their website

actually, I guess thats a good idea. I suppose if they honor them without paperwork, I could get a new one.

edit: Its definitely not 5 years old yet. Probably 3 or so.

if it was bought as an oem drive the warranty might only be 3 yrs

Hmmm, I don't remember if I bought it at Newegg or Best Buy. I guess I'll find out tonight....

Powermac isnt a laptop is it? I dont know much about previous apple designs.

If its a desktop midtower, I'd go for a WD 640gb drive. 2 platters, quiet, cool, and now fairly cheap. Usually can be had for ~ $70 iirc.

I also have a Seagate 500gb drive in a ziplock bag in my freezer. I'm going to try to grab a few things off of it tonight and you can have it after that, no charge

Yeah, its a tower (case like a Mac Pro now). So, Seagates aren't any good now? I always used to think of WD as crap, but apparently not anymore? I guess I'm more used to Quantum HDs (can't remember who bought them). How about Hitachi?

NewEgg has the 640Gb 7200rpm WD for $69.99 with free shipping (god, that is cheap!). I just need to open the puter up and make suree it already has the cables, etc. I should add some RAM to it while I'm at it (has 1G now). Thanks for the recs.

Seagate got a bit of a bad rep recently when a manager pushed out a firmware update before it had been properly tested. Otherwise, I'm fairly impartial to manufacturer preference. The G5s tended to use Maxtor HDs (who have been bought out?) which ran hot, so much so that if you put them in a non-well-ventilated case they'd die. The G5s are very well ventilated.

I'd google for "Powermac G5 hard drive issue" to see if anything interesting comes up. Occasionally you might get some incompatibility between drives and machines, but it's quite rare. The last one I recall was between MacBooks and certain WD models, where a feature on the WD drives would cause issues with the controller in the MacBooks.

I met the QA manager for apple storage a few years back. They had just switched to sata drives at the time because they couldn't find any reliable IDE drives. I think now SATA has caught up in terms of reliability with IDE. I buy my drives based on the warranty. I didn't get bitten by the seagate firmware bug, and have a few of their 500gb and a few 1tb drives.

The drive? Doubtful. I bought that one a long time ago, and probably don't even have the paperwork for it anymore. I took it out of a computer thats been sitting unused in my parent's basement. I don't think I've used that computer at all in practically a year.

So the 500GB was dead? Wow.

So the 500GB was dead? Wow.

Yeah, surprised me, since it was working flawlessly last I knew.

Ehh, a dime a dozen these days, no biggie.

When I get some initiative I'll go grab it out of the freezer and see if I can salvage the few excel docs I think I need off of it. Work history and stuff.

Yeah, surprised me, since it was working flawlessly last I knew.

Ehh, a dime a dozen these days, no biggie.

When I get some initiative I'll go grab it out of the freezer and see if I can salvage the few excel docs I think I need off of it. Work history and stuff.

That blows. I have my new 500GB Sata waiting for the mothership.

Good luck salvaging the information.

I also have a Seagate 500gb drive in a ziplock bag in my freezer. I'm going to try to grab a few things off of it tonight and you can have it after that, no charge

It should still be under warranty, right?

The drive? Doubtful. I bought that one a long time ago, and probably don't even have the paperwork for it anymore. I took it out of a computer thats been sitting unused in my parent's basement. I don't think I've used that computer at all in practically a year.

the seagates have 5 year warranties, you should check the serial number at their website

actually, I guess thats a good idea. I suppose if they honor them without paperwork, I could get a new one.

edit: Its definitely not 5 years old yet. Probably 3 or so.

if it was bought as an oem drive the warranty might only be 3 yrs

Hmmm, I don't remember if I bought it at Newegg or Best Buy. I guess I'll find out tonight....

So the 500GB was dead? Wow.

Yeah, surprised me, since it was working flawlessly last I knew.

Ehh, a dime a dozen these days, no biggie.

When I get some initiative I'll go grab it out of the freezer and see if I can salvage the few excel docs I think I need off of it. Work history and stuff.

That blows. I have my new 500GB Sata waiting for the mothership.

Good luck salvaging the information.

WHY THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE A HARD DRIVE IN YOUR FREEZER?!?!?

I can't believe this many posts have gone by with no-one asking that question.

WHY THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE A HARD DRIVE IN YOUR FREEZER?!?!?

I can't believe this many posts have gone by with no-one asking that question.

It's an old trick to recover data from a bad drive.

lol

yeah, its a last-ditch effort.

No luck this time though. I sit here typing as I listen to the drive's swan song.

Oh.

Thanks.

yup, no need to ask that one

After reading this, I just backed up twice.

yup, no need to ask that one

Well I obviously needed to ask...

right, but that's why we didn't

I prefer skipping the freezer and just going straight to the cryo chamber. duh.

right, but that's why we didn't

Ah, you are explaining why the question wasn't asked before. Got it.

I can be so slow sometimes.