Power Macintosh G4 DA (Digital Audio) 466/533/667/733 Supports Large Drives!

[DieHard]

Confirmed on 2 different DA G4s...

OK, so apparently the entire web has this fact 100% wrong ?!

We have confirmed that the Power Mac G4 DA (with Logic board 630T3523/630-3633) is 48-bit LBA compliant and can natively support huge PATA/IDE drives under Mac OS9.  This may not be a big deal for those who have Quicksilvers or SATA PCI cards, but for the current and future owners of the DA towers, this is a great find... especially for those who want to create an inexpensive DAW or graphics station and need a lot of storage.

This fact, apparently unknown to the web, was discovered by accident while testing SATA to IDE adapters, here:

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,6233.0.html

Again, so many years later, we are finding Easter eggs regarding the undocumented capabilities of ancient mac hardware.

[IIO]

the 533 should also have 64 bit PCI, and i cant remember anyone mentioning that when it came out. i only remember asking myself "why is it called digital audio?" when i saw it in a magazine.

[mopar300m]

I am testing with a 250 gig PATA drive in a G4 Digital Audio with the same board part number as DieHard's.  All 250 gigs seem to be available.  However System Profiler reports the drive as being 128 GB.  I've partitioned the 250 gig drive before on this G4 Digital Audio machine and was only able to use 128 GB of space.  It seems that in order for large drives to be used they must be partitioned with a controller that more fully supports 48 bit LBA.

[FBz]

Are you using Drive Setup 1.9.2 / OR Drive Setup 2.1 under OS 9?

[mopar300m]

Are you using Drive Setup 1.9.2 / OR Drive Setup 2.1 under OS 9?

I don't remember exactly but it was probably version 2.1 I used.

[FBz]

Here’s a 733 MHz DA with a Western Digital 320 GB (master) formatted
in two equal partitions of 128 GB with the leftovers going to “Space /3”.
AND with a 1TB Western Digital SATA (on top, as a slave - with a Bribge).



Apple System Profiler erroneously reports totals for both drives as 137.42 GB each although
their actual usable space is much greater. AND both were formatted / partitioned in the DA
with Drive Setup 2.1. (Which “Get Info” might note as Mac OS CPU Software 5.9 in the info’s
upper window. Look towards the bottom of that window and you’ll see Version 2.1.)



And yup, same numbered board here as DH’s… except for one digit.
630T3523/630-3633 instead of 630T3623/630-3633.
But it is a little difficult to distinguish between those sixes and eights.

[mopar300m]

I have the same board P/N that you do, and System Profiler is showing me the same thing with the drive space.  I'm currently filling my drive's free space with data to make sure all 250 gb is addressable.  That should take about an hour and I'll try partitioning the drive with Drive Setup 2.1 and see if I can break the 128 gb barrier.

[IIO]

this is strange that even OSX reports thew wrong volume size. what the heck did apple do to these ATA 5 / ATA 6 controllers.

[DieHard]

I am testing with a 250 gig PATA drive in a G4 Digital Audio with the same board part number as DieHard's.  All 250 gigs seem to be available.  However System Profiler reports the drive as being 128 GB.

Yeah... as FBz mentioned, the root level of the "drive" tree in system profiler is forever stuck at capacity 128GB; Obviously, a programming glitch via code that was never updated.

[DieHard]

And yup, same numbered board here as DH’s… except for one digit.
630T3523/630-3633 instead of 630T3623/630-3633.
But it is a little difficult to distinguish between those sixes and eights.

Yes, you are right, blew up my phone photo and indeed my motherboard part number is:
630T3523/630-3633

I better fix all previous posts