Hi Elliot, OK, pack a lunch for this one. First, this is a tremendous resource for info: <http://home.earthlink.net/~supermac_insider/> in particular: <http://home.earthlink.net/~supermac_insider/support/gt/S900gt/index.html>
>I'm getting ready to install a 120 GB EIDE drive in my S900 w/ G4 processor >and was wondering if anyone had any particular thoughts about which bay to >use. I have a USB card in my bottom slot and am planning to install a new >ATA controller card in the slot right above that. BTW, for this purpose EIDE is equivalent to ATA. I don't know how hot that HDD is, but heat dissipation and ATA cable lengths are two factors to consider in its placement. The vertical bay at front bottom of the case is where I put my hottest one, after mounting a fan in the housing associated with that bay. It is secured there by removing the front bezel and using the two screws that pass thru the case aligned with standard threaded holes on the the drive. The screws should be there already unless a prev ious owner removed them. The fan should blow inward and will draw air in at the front bottom of the case while the top rear fan blows air out. >I have a USB card in my bottom slot and am planning to install a new >ATA controller card in the slot right above that. That's a great location for the USB card but the ATA contoller will need to go into ane of the top two slots to avoid the PCI-PCI bridge problem associated with the lower four slots. I don't care to repeat the details that I learned here from Jeff W.'s posts on it, but in general PCI cards containing their own firmware or pci-bridge shpould go in the top two slots (dual function USB/Firewire, controllers, most video cards for example). >I1m also planning to >install OS 9.1 on the new drive and make that the boot drive, retaining the >original 2 GB drive that came w/ the computer as a secondary drive. Do I >make the old drive the last link in the internal SCSI chain of the S900 and >exactly how do I do that? It probably already is the last device on the SCSI chain and is already terminated. If so, you don't need to do anything except change boot disk designation in the Startup Disk control panel after installing your new OS on your installed ATA disk. Tip: a benefit to doing nothing to your old boot disk is that if your ATA card/ATA disk/new OS installations are not quite correct, the boot sequence will seek out a valid System volume and use that old one. Otherwise you're likely to get the flashing Question Mark screen at bootup. >Also, as per instructions that came w/ the new >drive I have to check the jumper settings on the old drive to see if it1s >configured for Master or Cable Select and then set the jumper on the new >drive accordingly. Anything I should be aware of regarding these jumper >settings? Those instructions apply only for systems with pre-existing ATA drives. That's not you. SCSI doesn't have Master/slave/CS jumper settings. Once your ATA controller is correctly installed and the new ATA HDD is attached to the END of the ATA cable, you will probably be OK and won't need to touch the ATA disk jumpers. Most new ATA disks come with jumpers already configured for Master (you're buying the ATA disk in an install kit, complete with screws and cable, right?). A tip: don't screw the ATA disk into a bay at first. Leave it outside the case flat on a the desk but attached to power and the ATA card. Boot from your OS CD, run Drive Setup to see if your ATA disk is found, then initialize and maybe partition it, then install the OS, restart, change startup disk to the new one, finally restart. After all is confirmed OK, secure the disk in its bay. And get that secondary fan. If Drive Setup does not find the new disk, come back here and describe your situation and you'll get help to finish successfully. ATA66 speed is sufficient for the S900 bus speed but I know an ATA133 card is needed for very large capacity HDDs for MacOS. I don't know if 120GB falls into that category. Someone else can speak to that. Best of luck, Bruce -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
