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Embracing Obsolescence
Old Power Macs and SATA Not a Marriage Made in Heaven
- 2006.11.03
"I needed another hard drive for backup storage, and I had this Power Mac 7600 sitting here just begging for some higher capacity drives."
So the story began.
I decided to take a chance that the US$50 OWC 2+2 SATA PCI card, with two internal and two external SATA ports, was indeed compatible with Macs older than the Blue and White Power Mac G3 (as listed on the product page, B&W G3 through early generation Power Mac G5s were supported).
I spent a decent time researching the card before making the purchase. While I did not discover concrete evidence that some intrepid Mac aficionado had tested this particular configuration, I did uncover enough peripheral evidence to indicate the possibility of success.
After purchasing the SATA card, it took a few weeks to find a SATA drive that matched both my price point and storage needs. I also spent a little time shopping around for SATA data and power cables. MonoPrice.com came through with some of the best prices I've seen, along with reasonable shipping rates.
I finally collected the necessary parts to put my plan into action. I see no reason to lavishly detail my testing procedure and the resulting irritants that were to foil my best intentions, as that story can be found on the AppleSwitcher blog (see SATA Hates Me and Here's a Little Story About It).
I'll give a concise report here and then meander into my course of action since the initial testing. I installed the OWC SATA card into the Power Mac 7600 and connected my drives as shown in visual aid #1:

Summary: Mac OS 8.1-9.1 all recognized the 30 GB PATA (parallel ATA) drive and the two formatted volumes on it, but they could not mount the 320 GB SATA Seagate connected to the OWC SATA card. XPostFacto would not boot into OS X 10.3.9 from it's volume resident on the PATA 30 GB drive. Connecting an OS X 10.3.9 SCSI drive to the internal bus allowed XPostFacto to boot the 7600 from the internal bus into OS X. 10.3.9 could not see the installed SATA card nor the drives connected to it's bus (SCSI bus 2).
Drive Setup in the classic Mac OS could not format the drives connected to the SATA card. I had no success, whether booted from the SATA card or from an installation CD. Any Mac OS volume already formatted into HFS or HFS+ before being placed in the Power Mac 7600 could be formatted via the Finder's "Erase Disk" command.
However, I was not able to discover a way for whole drives or individual partitions that weren't already formatted as HFS or HFS+ partitions with classic Mac OS drivers installed to be recognized by the Finder (no luck with a drive formatted in OS X without the Mac OS 9 driver option checked). Also, the Finder utility only allows the volume to be erased; the whole drive cannot be formatted and partitioned.
This article may seem short, but the next installment (planned for Monday) will look at the various findings I have uncovered between my initial test and now.
A quick note before I go: The OWC SATA 2+2 Internal/External PCI
card has given every indication that it is operating within
specifications. As you will see next time, the issues I have most
likely (98% chance) pertain only to unsupported setups like my own.
Further Reading
Recent Embracing Obsolescence articles
- Steve Jobs stirs up the DRM hornet's nest, 02.12. Stripping DRM would level the playing field for players and allow digital music services to compete on price, quality, and selection.
- SoundApp an audio workhorse for PowerPC, 680x0 Macs, 12.22. For those using the classic Mac OS, SoundApp can convert tracks, play music, and look up CD tracks online.
- The iAudio G3: More features than an iPod nano at an iPod shuffle price, 12.14. The iAudio G3 lets you avoid DRM lock-in while providing multiformat support, more features than an iPod nano, and a price lower than Apple's iPod shuffle.
- Does Zune improve the DRM landscape or just increase confusion?, 12.08. Microsoft has forsaken backward compatibility with its own PlaysForSure standard to take on the iPod. Won't that just further confuse potential customers?
- More in the Embracing Obsolescence index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: Power Mac G5 Quad, Oct. 2005 - With two 2.5 GHz dual-core G5 CPUs, the G5 Quad was the most powerful PowerPC Mac ever and introduced PCI Express.
- Group of the Day: Mac Network deals with all aspects of Mac networking.
- November 20 in LEM history: 85: Windows 1.0 - 00: Mac dreams - 01: Stop the upgrade insanity - Good people, good software, good business - The digital lifestyle: Text - 06: To AppleCare or not? - One year with my 'free' Mac mini - 07: Why you want to avoid integrated graphics - Problem with Leopard on a MDD
- Support Low End Mac
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Apple's Tablet an End Run Beyond Netbooks, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 11.20. Whatever Apple has planned will leverage existing technologies while going beyond what its competitors can offer.
- NASA Chemical Sensor for iPhone, Smartphone Death Match, iPhone Earrings, and More, Ian R Campbell, 11.20. Also mobile phone dangers, new apps, GPS solution for iPod touch, new iPod and iPhone cases, and more.
- Apple #4 in Reliability, Apple Tablet a Gadget for All?, HP's i7 Notebook Outdoes Mac Rivals, and More, The 'Book Review, 11.20. Also Flash 10.1 improves video on Hackintosh netbooks, thin-and-light notebooks impress, Windows XP finally on the way out, and more.
- i5 iMac Benchmarked, Mac mini 'Shouldn't Be Overlooked', Twitter Client for Classic Mac OS, and More, Mac News Review, 11.20. Also why Apple leaves the low end to others, 10.6.2 fixes video playback problem in 27" iMac, 3D Leopard and Snow Leopard performance, and more.
- Replacing the Hard Drive in a Clamshell iBook, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing, 11.19. Yes, it is one of the most difficult Apple notebooks to disassemble and reassemble, but a 10 GB hard drive just will not do.
- IBM Model F: A Great Old Keyboard with an Outdated Layout, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 11.19. Although it used a different technology than the revered IBM Model M keyboard, the Model F was a great keyboard in its own right.
- Soft Touch Keyboards, Wireless Mouse Options, Loving SeaMonkey 2, and More, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.18. Also the future of browsing with PowerPC Macs and the multiple mouse input bug introduced with OS X 10.5.8.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best eMac Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz Combo, $100; SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 GHz Combo, $119; SD, $319; 1.42 GHz Combo, $289; SD, $498.
- Best Mac OS X 10.6 and Mac Box Set Deals, 11.18. "Snow Leopard", single user, $25; 5 users, $45; Mac Box Set, single user, $139; 5 users, $180; Server, $414. Shipping included.
- Best Xserve Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $649; 2.3 dual G5, $795; 3.0 4-core Xeon, $1,899; refurb 2.26 4-core, $2,499; new, $2,888; refurb 8-core, $2,999; new, $3,449; more.
- Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.17. Used 1.83 GHz, $750; 2.16, $800; 2.33, $900; refurb 2.4, $1,299; 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,899; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
- Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.17. Used 400 MHz, $50; 933 MHz, $80; 500 dual, $60; 867 dual, $90; 1 GHz dual, $150; 1.25 GHz dual, $225; 1.42 GHz, $499.
- Best Mac OS X 10.5 Deals, 11.17. "Leopard" upgrade, $80; single user license, $135; 5 users, $173; Mac Box Set, 5 users, $230; Server, 10 users, $340; unlimited, $850. Shipping included.
- Best Mac mini Deals, 11.16. Used 1.42 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.66 GHz Core Solo, $419; 2.0 Core 2, $450; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $769; Server, $990.
- Best iBook G4 Deals, 11.16. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $210; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz, $479; SuperDrive, $498.
- Best iPod shuffle Deals, 11.16. Used 1 GB, $35; 4 GB, $65; refurb 1 GB, $39; 2 GB, $59; new 2 GB, $55, 4 GB, $75. New and refurb prices include shipping.
- More deals in our archive.
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