Hard Drives - stupid questions?

[nomad01]

Okay, bear with me because although I've had a Mac on and off for a few years, I've never upgraded one and I'm considering getting a new PowerMac so...

1) Is there anyway of getting an Ultra ATA drive working with a new SATA Powermac?
2) Do I have to look for a specifically Apple compatible SATA drive or should they all just slot in and work?
3) When the new drive is installed how does it appear in Tiger? Is it just another mounted drive on the desktop?

My upgrading has always been done in the windows world so I'm used to seeing a C drive and a D drive etc. I'm trying to switch over to Mac full time now though... leaving the darkside behind. God I sound like a geek. ;-)

Thanks in advance for any help.

Steve

 

[robbieduncan]

1) Yes adaptors exist that present Ultra-ATA drives as Serial-ATA.
2) No. Any drive should work.
3) Until it's been formatted (using Disk Utility) it won't be usable or appear on your desktop.

 

[nomad01]

1) Yes adaptors exist that present Ultra-ATA drives as Serial-ATA.
2) No. Any drive should work.
3) Until it's been formatted (using Disk Utility) it won't be usable or appear on your desktop.

Thanks very much for the response.

As for point 3... I kind of knew I'd have to format it... I really just wanted to know how it would appear when it was all set up. So it will appear on the desktop. That's great.

Thanks again.

 

[gojira59]

Along similar lines

1) Yes adaptors exist that present Ultra-ATA drives as Serial-ATA.
2) No. Any drive should work.
3) Until it's been formatted (using Disk Utility) it won't be usable or appear on your desktop.

Are there are any special cables required to add a SATA HD to a G5?

Thank you,
gojira59

 

[CanadaRAM]

Are there are any special cables required to add a SATA HD to a G5?

No, the cables and mounting screws are included in the G5. You have only room for one additional drive.

Best G5 solution for a Parallel ATA (IDE) drive is a firewire external case.

 

[gojira59]

No, the cables and mounting screws are included in the G5. You have only room for one additional drive.

Best G5 solution for a Parallel ATA (IDE) drive is a firewire external case.

Perfect, thank you!