Looking to upgrade my G3's hard drive to a bigger one and need some basic advice

[bryanambition]

Hey all--I'm planning to replace my current G3 10GB internal hard drive to a larger one. The best (and most affordable) one I found was 500GB, and from what I understand the G3 can only tolerate partitions up to 128GB. So my question is: can I just install the new HD as-is, and expect the system to either partition it for me upon OS installation, or is there another step I should be aware of first?
Thanks so much for your time! ;-)

 

[Kai Robinson]

Hi Bryan - welcome to TD!

What is your current G3? Is it a B&W model, or a beige? I'm guessing a B&W - if so - do you know what revision of ATA controller you have?

 

[bryanambition]

Hi Bryan - welcome to TD!

What is your current G3? Is it a B&W model, or a beige? I'm guessing a B&W - if so - do you know what revision of ATA controller you have?

Ah, sorry for leaving out such important info! It's an iMac G3 from 2001 (indigo, not DV edition). Knowing this, how would I confirm what ATA controller I have? (Sorry for so many questions--I'm a newbie but absorbing all the info I get!) ;-)

 

[Kai Robinson]

Aaah, gotcha - if it's an iMac, then no need to worry about my question, it's only pertinent if it was a B&W G3 tower.

As long as the drive is partitioned into multiple smaller volumes, you should be okay - it should recognise the drive as-is, but make the partitions 127GB or less each as that's the max addressable size.

 

[bryanambition]

Aaah, gotcha - if it's an iMac, then no need to worry about my question, it's only pertinent if it was a B&W G3 tower.

As long as the drive is partitioned into multiple smaller volumes, you should be okay - it should recognise the drive as-is, but make the partitions 127GB or less each as that's the max addressable size.

Awesome! And how would you recommend I partition the drive if need be? (Can I do it upon startup after installation?)

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

I’d boot into the installer CD & partition before installing. Tiger would be a great choice as it introduces non destructive partitioning. Under utilities drop down from the install cd you’ll find the partition tool disk utility that you can use to partition the new drive prior to OS installation. Another option would be to partition from an external enclosure or powerMac with empty drive sled.

 

[bryanambition]

I’d boot into the installer CD & partition before installing. Tiger would be a great choice as it introduces non destructive partitioning. Under utilities drop down from the install cd you’ll find the partition tool disk utility that you can use to partition the new drive prior to OS installation. Another option would be to partition from an external enclosure or powerMac with empty drive sled.

Thanks so much for the advice! I'll try the first option, as I only have one iMac G3-type computer. Fingers crossed it goes to plan! ;-)

 

[ScutBoy]

Aaah, gotcha - if it's an iMac, then no need to worry about my question, it's only pertinent if it was a B&W G3 tower.

As long as the drive is partitioned into multiple smaller volumes, you should be okay - it should recognise the drive as-is, but make the partitions 127GB or less each as that's the max addressable size.

Is the 128GB limit for all partitions, or just the boot partition? I thought it was just the boot partition, but I'm prepared to be wrong

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

For slot loaders the limit is 128gb for boot and storage, for earlier trayloaders, storage is 128, boot is 8gb. This changed/increased when Apple disco’d the HeathrowATA controllers in the Trayloaders for KeylargoATA controllers in the slotloaders.

and no worries - only reason I recall this was getting educated by lightbulbfun over on MR. That guy is a wizard of PPC knowledge. So I guess the difference between ATA4 & 5 & bios implementation maybe? Hopefully someone with more knowledge can enlighten us?