Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (
More info?)
<posted & mailed>
Note that Windows has no 250G limitation, per se. Limits on the IDE disk
size have been based on the IDE controller chipset (the original ATAPI spec
set a hard limit of 8.4G that initial implementor's stuck to), or the BIOS.
When vendors started shipping >8.4G drives, they had to implement a work
around. That work-around the ATAPI spec was LBA and BIOS vendors started
shipping 32-bit LBA in the BIOS (which mapped the actual drive geometry to
something the BIOS and ATAPI controller could grok). As drives got bigger,
it came clear that a 48-bit LBA standard was needed (without, there was a
limit of 140G or so), or at the very least a 48-bit LBA overlay to the BIOS
that could be loaded after the fact. I think some Intel chipsets also
imposed arbitrary disk size limits for no good reason. Users of operating
systems that don't use the BIOS (Linux, FreeBSD, etc.) didn't notice the
limits, but Windows users were affected as were users of hardware disk
arrays and add-on cards. Regardless, nothing in Windows itself limited the
user to 250G or smaller disks. Today, the PC BIOSes universally support
48-bit LBA mode and can accomodate any currently available disk.
The Mac G4 with current OS/X should have no such limitation.
The biggest single drive you can purchase now (that I know of) is a 400G
Hitachi. There are several models in the 250G - 300G range from various
manufacturers that should be considered too. Keep in mind that the larger
data density drives are generally less reliable than smaller drives and
certainly perfom far worse than arrays of smaller drives.
LaCie makes a reasonably-priced external firewire 1 terabyte drive (actually
a shoe-box sized RAID array). It has various advantages over the internal
drives: more reliable than the largest IDE drives, better performance, and
portable.
Someone mentioned this before, but you panned it saying that it would
"complicate your editors" with "more potential to go wrong" and open
yourself to "firewire driver issues", "bandwidth limitations", etc. But I
don't know where those concerns come from. The bandwidth is greater than
the internal IDE support, and from an application standpoint the drive is
no different than any other. The drivers are rock-solid (Apple, of course,
being the creator of FireWire), the cost is only slightly higher than an
internal model, and the power consumption is comparatively low. I wouldn't
worry too much about Apple not "certifying" any firewire drive since they
simply don't certify simple disk storage devices and I don't know that they
intend to.
Personally, I use external firewire drives under Linux and Mac OS/X all the
time and the performance is generally better than the internal drives and
there have never been any issues with drivers with any model of drive (I
have not tried LaCie's, I'm using various off-name brands) under either
Linux or Mac OS/X. In both cases, every drive I've used is simple
plug-and-play.
Richard Ragon wrote:
> I have 3 IDE hard drives on my Mac G4 right now, instead of adding
> another (more heat), I was thinking of just replacing one with the
> largest drive I can get. What's the largest drive that I can safely
> install under OSX (10.3.3). Does the Mac OS have the same limitations as
> windows does (250 gig)?
>
> Thanks
> -Richard
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