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IDE Slave Drive Upgrade for the B&W G3 (WARNING: See the notes below on data corruption issues) Published: 1/27/99

Intro | Removing the Tray  | Mtg the Drive | Reinstall the Tray  | Prep. the Drive

Introduction:

Adding a 2nd IDE Drive to B&W G3 rev 2 Systems I've posted a Photo Illustrated Guide to adding an IDE slave drive to the rev 2 B&W G3 systems which have the stacked bracket and dual drive cable. This original article (below) was for the first B&W G3s without the stacked bracket. The new guide also applies to G4 systems which have the same dual drive/stacked bracket. [11/5/2000] Updates to the Original B&W G3 rev 1 Article Noting Important Issues: DATA Corruption Tester: Reader Tim Seufert sent his data corruption tester for download here. He thought his rev 1 B&W G3 was Ok with a replacement IDE drive (master only/single drive) but noted that he still discovered corruption was happening. This is why the safest way to add drives (or use a modern IDE drive) with a rev 1 is to use a PCI IDE card. See this FAQ Apple G3 section for Tim's comments and to download his tester. Intech Promises Cure for B&W Rev 1 HD Data Corruption: I'd commented last year that Intech's HD drivers solved the WD Expert corruption issues I saw in a rev 1 B&W G3. Their VP or Engineering replied to the post in the Feb 29th, 2000 news from an IBM Deskstar 22GB (master drive) owner's data corruption comments by saying their drivers should be able to address any master/slave corruption using their adjustable driver modes: "Mike Thanks for the mention about the DMA issues on today's news page [ Feb. 29th, 2000 news-Mike], and the release of our 2.7 HD update. I'd like to supply a little more info on the Blue & White Rev 1 IDE issue. We don't know of a single customer who has not been able to successfully add ANY brand of drive, (including master & slave configurations) to these computers on the Ultra 33 bus. In rare cases, however, one of the drives needs to have Ultra DMA disabled completely in favor of Multiword DMA. Since you can still achieve 15 MB/sec with Multiword mode 2, this does not seem like a terrible tradeoff to most customers, who just need the additional capacity and don't want to fork out the extra money for a new PCI controller card. And as you know, configuring DMA with Hard Disk SpeedTools is easily accomplished with simple pop-up menus. Best Regards Christopher P. Karr V.P. Engineering Intech Software Corporation http://www.intechusa.com/" Data corruption can occur with any drive (master or slave) with the rev 1's IDE chip. (The Rev 2 Blue and White G3 has a revised chip as shown on our "Rev 2 features" page. If you have a rev 1 B&W G3, the safest thing is to buy a PCI IDE controller card when considering adding/replacing the original drive with a modern, larger model. (See the IDE reviews/articles page for controller info/reviews as well as the FAQ linked there. The Drive Compatibility Database linked there also has reports from B&W G3 owners.) Data Corruption with IDE Drives in Rev 1 B&W G3s: SEE THE Frequently Asked Questions APPLE G3 TOPIC AREA FOR ALL THE INFO I HAVE ON THIS ISSUE. Please read the tips and info in that area before sending me mail (I typically have 3000 to 4000 emails in my inbox constantly). It has all the info on the subject I know to date. Save us both a lot of time and read the FAQ first - Apple G3 topic area has several questions related to this issue and suggests all the tips I know of for you to try (alternate drivers, safest drive brands, etc.). There is no way for me to suggest a drive with will be guaranteed to work in your rev 1 B&W G3 system. Only tests will show that (the tips and drivers in the FAQ may help however). The Maxtor 10GB DM Plus drive used in this article did not show any problems, but other drive models did. www.intechusa.com's hard disk drivers can help solve these problems in many cases using a lower speed DMA driver mode. The drive I used for this article is no longer available, but other readers have used later Maxtor drives in G3 macs (your results may vary - but Maxtor seems safer than any WD or IBM Drive based on my tests and feedback from readers). Owners of rev 2 B&W G3s (see my B&W G3 Rev 2 New Features page for identifying features including the revised IDE controller chip location and marking) are normally able to use most any IDE drive. Only the Rev 1 B&W G3s seem to have the IDE slave drive problem (due to the earlier IDE chip). Most B&W G3s sold after June, 1999 were rev 2s, but verify the features shown on my linked page to be sure (even the location and marking on the IDE chip is shown there.) This article used a rev 1 model - rev 2 systems use a different drive mounting bracket and comes with a dual drive IDE cable as shown on my rev 2 features page. Rev 2 B&W G3 'Stacked' HD Bracket: As noted on page 2 of this article, the side-by-side HD mounting of the rev 1 design makes cable fit (connector reach) an issue with most standard cables. A reader noted that he ordered the 'stacked' (vertical) rev 2 bracket from a local Apple dealer to add to his rev 1 B&W G3. *however* this only fits if your Rev 1 has the 'interim' HD tray change where there are 3 removable plates, vs. the single HD tray shown in this article (present in early B&W G3s like mine). Around April I think the 3 separate HD mounting plates change was made in the B&W G3 case . This allow using any standard dual IDE cable. The part number he said for the bracket is is 076-0778 and said his cost was about $10 plus tax. The rev 2 stacked bracket is shown in the pictures on the B&W G3 rev 2 features page. 6/14/99 DS 1.7.3 Update: Apple's Drive Setup 1.7.3 is claimed to improve reliability with UltraDMA IDE drives in B&W G3s, however it did not help with the WD Expert/B&W rev 1 G3 errors here - only Drive setup v1.6.2 did (part of OS 8.5.1 update) and the Intechusa.com drivers set to a reduced DMA mode. The revised IDE controller chip in the rev 2 B&W G3 solves the problem with IDE slave drive support in my tests (a WD Expert passed with flying colors, but showed severe data corruption with a rev 1). See my B&W G3 Rev 2 Features page for pictures and part number of the IDE chip, new dual drive bracket and cable. Other rev 1 owners reported WD Expert 18GB Drives installed in a B&W G3 rev 1 exhibit the .smi (Apple update file) checksum data errors noted in the 5/27/99 news and FWB's B&W G3 Compatibility page. The FWB 'fix' (changing DMA mode) dropped his peak rates from 28MB/sec to 12MB/sec he said. I have verified this problem on my B&W G3 with 18GB Western Digital Expert drive and a 14 inch long cable UltraATA cable. Even disabling ATA66 mode (via a PC) on the WD drive did not help. Only the TurboMax IDE card allowed the Expert drive to pass the data checksum test. [Note: www.intechusa.com's drivers also allow setting various DMA modes that can help solve this problem.] BTW - Performance was excellent with the TurboMax card/Expert combo, about equal to the onboard B&W G3 IDE. The Maxtor DiamondMax Plus (91000D8) 7200RPM, 10GB drive used in this article passed the checksum tests with no errors. Each system/drive/cable setup should be verified however as reports on some brands are mixed but IBM and Western Digital drives seem to be the most commonly reported drives with data errors on B&W G3s without the latest new IDE chip. The Original Jan 1999 Article Follows: Even before my Blue & White (aka Yosemite) 350/DVD arrived I was planning this follow-up to my popular (beige) G3 IDE Upgrade article. What made me even more determined were the stories that the Yosemite did not support IDE slaves. No IDE slaves? Say it isn't so! So far I've had no problems and it was plug and play all the way with this early 10GB model Maxtor Diamondmax Plus drive. (Due to the IDE chip used in the Rev 1 models, data corruption is always a possibility with aftermarket drives either in master or slave mode.) Total time to install the drive was about 15 minutes. Your mileage may vary. [Note: page 2 of this article has an update on UltraATA Cables, including tips for using a standard Belkin ATA/66 cable and lengths for ordering a custom made to fit cable. Also linked is a graph of performance tests with the standard IDE cable vs an UltraATA cable.] Since the DVD/350 prebuilt model comes with a fairly small by today's standards 6GB drive, I wanted to immediately add more storage and one of the best values today has to be the 10GB DiamondMax™ Plus drive (the same drive I used in the beige G3 article). As noted on the performance page of that article, this drive ran fast, affordable, cool running and an outstanding value. I'm not the only one that praises this drive, it was the fastest IDE drive tested in a recent NewMedia Magazine hard drive roundup, bettering not only the IBM and Seagate 7200 RPM IDE drives, but also about every 7200 RPM SCSI drive they tested as well. The icing on the cake is that Apple's drive setup works great with the drive, ensuring a trouble-free future OS upgrade path with no reliance on extra-cost 3rd party drivers. As noted in the previous (beige) G3 IDE upgrade article and main site news several months ago, I was fortunate enough to get a real bargain on the Maxtor 10GB DiamondMax™ Plus drive. Staples had a special (coupon required) offer on Maxtor's 10GB drive upgrade kit, offering the drive kit and a free IDE ZIP drive for $259.95 (and a $30 rebate) [it's now as low as $229!]. As noted before, the drive kits in stock were were in the "Y80xxxxx" serial number range, which seem to often have the faster DiamondMax™ Plus drive inside (denoted by model number 91000D8 on the anti-static bag inside the box). What's Required for the Upgrade: IDE hard disk (UltraDMA preferred) [The drive must be less than 1.5" high to fit (1" preferred)] Standard IDE dual drive 40-pin ribbon cable* (Included in many retail boxed drive kits, but not with OEM drives) Philips (+) Screwdriver Antistatic wrist strap (recommended) Apple drive setup (1.5 or later recommended) Adhesive backeded foam or velcro (recommended to secure IDE ribbon cable away from hinge) *Note: Some IDE cables may not fit due to too narrow a spacing between the drive connectors. Also beware of some older design IDE cables that have one pin blocked in the connector (punch it out if it's blocked). Many older IDE controllers had this pin removed as a keying scheme before the use of external keys on the connector. This page details the installation process, performance test results of the Maxtor was shown in part two of the original (beige) G3 upgrade article.

What's Included in the Maxtor Kit: Although the box says "Windows 95 required", the Maxtor 10GB drive works fine in every Apple IDE based Mac I've seen (G3s, 64/6500, etc.). The kit includes: 10GB drive (model may vary) Standard dual drive IDE ribbon cable 3-1/2 to 5-1/4 drive bay mtg brackets and screws (For standard PC chassis bays and some Mac clones only) Floppy Disk with Maxtor's MaxBlast Util. for PCs (not needed) Instruction manual (keyed to PC installations) The only items used in Mac installations are the drive and IDE cable. The Yosemite has a standard drive mounting tray with provisions to mount two additional drives adjacent to the stock disk. Note due to the location of the Power Supply connector on the motherboard (and the metal chassis in the case), the drive must be less than 1.5" in height (a 1.5" high 18.2GB drive would not fit in any position on the tray). As mentioned previously, the Maxtor drive is compatible with Apple's drive setup (verified with v1.5 and later) - I used the shipping version to prepare the drive (format and install a driver). DiamondMax™ Plus Drive Specs: Enhanced IDE/Ultra DMA interface 7200 RPM spindle speed 512KB cache 9ms seek time Claimed 21.9 MB/sec transfers UltraDMA compatible (theoretical 33MB/sec burst rate) Previous tests in a beige G3/300 with Atto Tools and FWB's Benchtest showed the drive was capable of 11-14 MB/sec Read/Write sustained rates, surpassing most high-performance SCSI drives in sustained rate tests. For general use, non-RAID applications the latest crop of UltraDMA IDE drives are outstanding values. Since no Mac utility exists to show CPU utilization, it is unknown how efficient the Yosemite's interface/drivers really are. Busmaster DMA IDE on the PC typically runs less than 20% CPU utilization, sometimes below 10% depending on system configuration. (The Gateway Solo Notebook 8GB IBM IDE drive tested at 6% CPU utilization according to HD-Tach, a popular PC disk benchmarking tool.)

Caution: Adding components to the inside of your Mac is not a job for the inexperienced. This article documents what steps I performed, and is not to be construed as a recommendation for those not qualified to attempt the same. Consult a local qualified technical or Apple service center for assistance with upgrading your Mac. CompUSA, etc. can provide the drive and install it for a nominal fee. You assume all risk of personal injury or damage to your computer for any work you perform inside your Mac. Modifications like this may void your Apple warranty. Void where prohibited.

Steps Required: A simplified list of steps to add the new drive are: Step 1: Disconnect IDE/Power cables and remove drive tray Step 2: Mount the new drive on the tray Step 3: Replace the drive tray back in system and reconnect cables Step 5: Boot and prepare drive (Format/OS install) Each page of this article has links to each of the steps at the top and bottom of the page, with red text indicating the current page. If you're ready to proceed, let's go to the next step.

Index of Yosemite IDE Slave Drive Article Intro | Removing the Tray | Mtg the Drive | Reinstall the Tray  | Prep. the Drive

Related Links: Maxtor vs Stock Quantum Performance Tests (in a beige G3/300) Maxtor's Web Site DiamondMax™ Plus 2500 Product page DiamondMax™ Plus Data Sheet (PDF File) Yosemite Performance page (Macbench 5 and applications tests) Yosemite Tips, Specs and Feedback Yosemite Compatibility Reports Other Site Disk Related Articles

For more Info on the new B&W G3 see the main Yosemite Page Back to G3-ZONE for more Apple G3 Info or Back to XLR8YOURMAC.COM for Daily News & Upgrade Reviews (CPU/Disk/Video/Games) (If you're trapped in a frames site - click here to clear frames)

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