Once More Into the Breach
CompUSA put a 160GB, 7200 RPM hard drive with an 8MB buffer on sale this week for only $99 after a rebate. Always needing more room and speed for editing video, I sprang for the deal. There was only one catch. I wanted to put the hard disk in my PowerMac.
I own a Quicksilver 2002 dual 1Ghz CPU model. The hard drive database at the Accelerate Your Mac! website indicated that most 2002 models had big hard disk support (>137GB hard drive) even though Apple claimed that only the Mirrored Drive Door models did. I decided to take the risk and installed it in my machine as the Primary IDE hard disk and put my old master drive (120GB with 8MB buffer) on as a Slave.
When I booted the machine, it booted up on my secondary hard disk, the one that had OS 10.2.6 on it. (I didn’t realize until this that Macs would search all hard disks for a bootable volume.) Under 10.2.6, I was able to easily partition and format the drive’s full partition. But just because the machine’s BIOS had big disk support didn’t mean that OS 9 or any other Mac installer would see it. And they didn’t. The Software Restore CD’s that came with the computer gave me an error message when I tried to use them. My OS 9 CD would install the OS 9 to the hard disk but only to 131GB of it. The rest of the hard disk was not recognized. The same held true for my Jaguar installation CD’s. They would partition and format only 131GB of the disk. I also found that when I ran Norton Disk Doctor on the new drive, it reported an incredible number of errors. Allowing it to fix them hosed the hard disk so OS X couldn’t even find it when I rebooted. Therefore, short of buying a new PCI card with large hard disk support, making the new drive my primary hard drive would be fraught with peril even if I could do it. For the moment, I decided to make the new drive my secondary hard drive. That way I could still utilize the hard drive’s extra space and speed in Final Cut Pro, my primary objective. If my system crashed, I could still do a normal restore
I’m still researching IDE PCI cards to see if I want to go down that road. Buying one might allow me to use the 160GB as my primary hard disk, the 120GB with an 8MB buffer as my secondary, and a third hard disk (120GB with a 2MB buffer) that’s just sitting around.
As rumored, Steve Jobs announced today that Apple would be releasing the long-awaited G5 computers. “G5” is actually a misnomer since the machines are not powered by a Motorola CPU but the IBM PowerPC 970. Apple has stated that these are the fastest personal computers ever. They better be. Yes, they have 64 bit CPU’s and incredibly fast bus speeds (1Ghz). But if the benchmarks, whether using industry standard benchmarks or application performance, don’t show them as truly competitive with today’s Intel and AMD powered machines, Apple will be seen as only executing another piece of marketing hype. This hit to their credibility could be serious, especially if the machines are priced at higher price points than current models, which is what the rumor mill has been saying. Assuming that is true, Apple cannot afford to take them a lot higher than today’s machines. Apple is on a roll, partially fueled by their innovation and partially due to their attempts to be more competitive with PC pricing. Apple can’t afford to forget that they’re competing against PC’s and not against their own past. If they do, there is no hope that they will ever grown above their current 3% market share; and that would be an injustice for everyone.
I own a Quicksilver 2002 dual 1Ghz CPU model. The hard drive database at the Accelerate Your Mac! website indicated that most 2002 models had big hard disk support (>137GB hard drive) even though Apple claimed that only the Mirrored Drive Door models did. I decided to take the risk and installed it in my machine as the Primary IDE hard disk and put my old master drive (120GB with 8MB buffer) on as a Slave.
When I booted the machine, it booted up on my secondary hard disk, the one that had OS 10.2.6 on it. (I didn’t realize until this that Macs would search all hard disks for a bootable volume.) Under 10.2.6, I was able to easily partition and format the drive’s full partition. But just because the machine’s BIOS had big disk support didn’t mean that OS 9 or any other Mac installer would see it. And they didn’t. The Software Restore CD’s that came with the computer gave me an error message when I tried to use them. My OS 9 CD would install the OS 9 to the hard disk but only to 131GB of it. The rest of the hard disk was not recognized. The same held true for my Jaguar installation CD’s. They would partition and format only 131GB of the disk. I also found that when I ran Norton Disk Doctor on the new drive, it reported an incredible number of errors. Allowing it to fix them hosed the hard disk so OS X couldn’t even find it when I rebooted. Therefore, short of buying a new PCI card with large hard disk support, making the new drive my primary hard drive would be fraught with peril even if I could do it. For the moment, I decided to make the new drive my secondary hard drive. That way I could still utilize the hard drive’s extra space and speed in Final Cut Pro, my primary objective. If my system crashed, I could still do a normal restore
I’m still researching IDE PCI cards to see if I want to go down that road. Buying one might allow me to use the 160GB as my primary hard disk, the 120GB with an 8MB buffer as my secondary, and a third hard disk (120GB with a 2MB buffer) that’s just sitting around.
As rumored, Steve Jobs announced today that Apple would be releasing the long-awaited G5 computers. “G5” is actually a misnomer since the machines are not powered by a Motorola CPU but the IBM PowerPC 970. Apple has stated that these are the fastest personal computers ever. They better be. Yes, they have 64 bit CPU’s and incredibly fast bus speeds (1Ghz). But if the benchmarks, whether using industry standard benchmarks or application performance, don’t show them as truly competitive with today’s Intel and AMD powered machines, Apple will be seen as only executing another piece of marketing hype. This hit to their credibility could be serious, especially if the machines are priced at higher price points than current models, which is what the rumor mill has been saying. Assuming that is true, Apple cannot afford to take them a lot higher than today’s machines. Apple is on a roll, partially fueled by their innovation and partially due to their attempts to be more competitive with PC pricing. Apple can’t afford to forget that they’re competing against PC’s and not against their own past. If they do, there is no hope that they will ever grown above their current 3% market share; and that would be an injustice for everyone.
posted by Andy Foster at
3:59 PM
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