getting my HD's ready for SFP

borg · Post by **borg** » Mon Apr 29, 2002 5:19 pm

hi all,

i'm planning to buy a new HD for my mac G3 B/W450. i'd like a barracuda. the mac dealer has them, but rather expensive, a PC dealer got them too, much cheaper, but he thinks it won't work on a mac??? i just did a quick browse and i could see some testing on a mac of the ATA III type. so will the barracuda IV work as well? it should, shouldn't it? thought i'd just ask to be sure.

ok, second part. i now have a SCSI HD, divided into three partitions (general, DAW and audiofiles). is it possible to keep the SCSI for my internet, graphic apps, every day stuff,... and use the seagate only for my music apps and audio? i'm sure it is, but if i'm working on my music system, the SCSI HD is not being used, so will it be inactive? rather important regarding extra noise and heating.

or should i simply take the SCSI HD out?

any help and suggestions welcome. oh, and btw... would anyone please be as kind as to send me OMS 2.3.7 via mail (see below)? wojtek?

i can't find it on the opcode site. everything you read concerning MIDI on mac says 'stay away from 2.3.8' !!! i've used it since the beginning, but never had any real problems with 2.3.8. but hey, i'm just using pulsar and cubase on my computer. it would be really embarassing for a program like OMS if it couldn't get just two apps to run together.

phew, i'm looking forward to spend some days away from my computer. off to england!!! i can hardly wait. maybe when i get back, SFP will be ready

what a homecoming that would be. i hope missing my first 'nestor class' won't bring me into trouble! off to the principal's office, and that at the beginning of the semester...

_________________
andy
 the lunatics are in the hall 

[ This Message was edited by: borg on 2002-04-29 18:22 ]

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 12:57 am

Hi andy,
some info, since I'm not a MAC user. SCSI is SCSI and ATA is ATA. They use different cables. ATA can be emulated by SCSI, as done in UNIX. So the chain looks like this: Program->Kernel->SCSI driver->ATAPI emulation->IDE controller (important! your controller is SCSI, no way for direct access, but look for a ATA controller card with MAC drivers)->Barracuda ATA IV. I never heard that PC SCSI is different from MAC SCSI. The cheaper Barracuda SCSI should do it.
Happy pulsaring
Micha

borg · Post by **borg** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 1:51 am

hi, micha

i just had a look inside my machine, and on this big green board which has my cards an RAM sitting on it (i suppose this is the motherboard),in between the powerconnections and the SCSI connector, i see a black thing with lots of little pins, and it says 'ultra ATA'

i guess i have SCSI as well as IDE, if i'm not mistaken, but i don't know s**t. this is a second hand G3, no manuals or literature of any kind on this specific machine.

please, fill me in...

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 4:08 am

sounds excellent. Ultra ATA is Ultra ATA. You should get a cable: PC store, ask for 80 pin IDE cable. Check if it fits. If yes, go and get a wonderful SILENT Barracuda IV (~160 Euros for 80 GB).

Happy pulsaring
Micha
P.S. don't get confused: normal IDE uses 40 pins the 80 is just Ultra and fits into the same socket! But for performance 80 is better. And, what is one Barracuda compared to two? a overloaded 40 pin cable and probably the end of your noisy SCSI drive? I hope so.

[ This Message was edited by: Micha on 2002-04-30 05:20 ]

borg · Post by **borg** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 5:09 am

sounds good so far! got a little confused with what you said here:

On 2002-04-30 05:08, Micha wrote:
And, what is one Barracuda compared to two? a overloaded 40 pin cable and probably the end of your noisy SCSI drive? I hope so.

[ This Message was edited by: Micha on 2002-04-30 05:20 ]

but it sounds good

ok, if someone could say something understandable about harddisks running or not while not in use, i'll commence my voyage to albion a happy man.

oh, yeah, i have four PCI slots, containing from top to bottom: display card, pulsar, and two SCSI ports, that's two different busses i think. i bought this computer from a pro graphics designer. maybe she could find a use for this overkill on SCSI, but i don't, so can i take them out, or at least one? and most important: can i just put the pulsar at the bottom, away from the display card? can i do it without too much trouble? i guess to completely start all over again, might be a good way to treat my pulsar as well with SFP comin' soon...

_________________
andy
 the lunatics are in the hall 

[ This Message was edited by: borg on 2002-04-30 07:15 ]

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 7:20 am

IDE cables can handle 2 devices. A master and a slave device. And with 2 Barracudas, the one with the OS as master, you could probably remove all your SCSI. That's the idea.
Enjoy albion
Micha

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 9:15 am

what about the cd is it scsi? if it is you will have to use SOME scsi, or they could have another ultra ATA bus somewhere else for the CDrom.

see how its connected

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 10:22 am

My suggestion is to take both SCSI cards out and just use ATA/IDE.
The G3 BW has ATA/IDE for the CD rom.
You can buy any "PC" HD. They are the same.
You just plug them in and format.
Finished.
The SCSI card(s) are taking prescious PCI resources from the Pulsar card.
You can add 3 HD:s to your system.
1 on the same bus as the cdrom and to on the other bus.
Just make sure that there is 1 master and 1 slave HD on either bus.
There is some jumpers on the HD where you change this.

I hope some of this (at least) makes sense.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 10:49 am

Agreed, if you can go completely IDE, you will be better off. Strange as that is the opposite advice years ago when slow IDE dominated the market and the only decent audio drives were SCSI. Times change.

Post by **garyb** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 4:49 pm

yep i have 3 hard and 1 cdrw drives all ide no problems.no need for scsi.

borg · Post by **borg** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 7:17 pm

thanks fellow planetarians!

that about answers all my questions. so i have cd-rom and Zip, both IDE... and that leaves me two more devices.

ideally would be to buy a seagate (the more gig the better) on which i install OS, pulsar and cubase (+partitions for audio/files). and add a second, not so expensive, small HD for internet, office,... does that sound about right? or is there a better way to organise the lot?

so, anyone got OMS2.3.7 ready to be emailed?

oh, and what about this? if i fire up my machine in DAW mode, will the second HD start running as well?

nightynight

wayne · Post by **wayne** » Tue Apr 30, 2002 7:55 pm

I think the large drive should be just audio, (or a partition of it) with everything else on the other drive. Also (correct me if I am wrong here those who are geekier than I) run them on different (primary & secondary) IDE masters, & slave the peripherals off them.

borg · Post by **borg** » Wed May 01, 2002 7:08 pm

wayne, if i'm right, you suggest:
-HD1 + CD-rom and HD2 + Zip
-HD1: all applications and non-audio files
HD2: audio data

i'll be off for a few days, and heading for the shop is one of the first things to do when i get back.

any suggestions for a good, but cheap second HD to go with the barracuda?

thanks all!

wayne · Post by **wayne** » Wed May 01, 2002 7:36 pm

you got it

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Thu May 02, 2002 1:33 am

indeed. And please buy another Barracuda. They ARE cheap. They are QUIET!!!!! and the 40GB is cheaper. (~120 Euro) The noise you'll get from another device is IMHO not worth the money saved.
Happy pulsaring
Micha

borg · Post by **borg** » Thu May 02, 2002 2:50 am

borg · Post by **borg** » Fri May 10, 2002 2:58 pm

number one (80Gb) is up and running.

number two (40Gb) will be here early next week.

they're faster...

some say they're really quiet, but what use is it if your fan spoils the fun. at least i don't hear this screeching sound anymore when saving or copying, or is that the big thing?

anyway, i'm happy, and it was even more easy than jupiter made it seem. i love mac. it is definitely THE machine for musicians who don't want to spend the rest of their lives fiddling with tweeks... ever since i got into digital audio and mac, all seemed to work on a decent level out of the box: pulsar, cubase,..., now this hard disk,...

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Tue May 14, 2002 9:47 am

It seemed complicated?????
I said: buy any IDE drive you fancy, plug it in and it will work!!
I'm sorry if i confused you but to me that's as simple as it gets.
Anyway....no hard feelings
<IMG SRC="http://klub.posluh.hr/sbacic/moon.gif" BORDER="0">

borg · Post by **borg** » Tue May 14, 2002 11:42 am

lots of people showing some butt these days

nonono, jupiter... i just wanted to say: 'jupiter made it seem so easy, and it was indeed very easy, even more easy than i expected).

back to the dark cave for some further experimenting...

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Tue May 28, 2002 10:30 am

I read your post again and now i see!!
I must have missed something.
It was'nt critisism.
You weren't dissing me.

Sorry for the butt.
Funny animation though.