Substituting or Adding Mac Drives
Technically, probably, depending on the age and the size of the Mac Pro hard drive. Depending on the age of the G4, and its processing power, you might not be able to access more than a certain amount of GB. If the G4 is an older model, there might be a limit to the size of the drive it can recognize or access, but you will be able to get at least this much out of it.
Installation Tips
You are going to have to open your G4 to install the second drive, but first make sure that it is powered down and unplugged from its power source. You should also ground yourself because the inside of your computer is very sensitive to static electricity. You can get grounding mats for this, as well as bracelets to make sure you aren’t a conductor.
Is a Slot Available?
Once your computer is open, check that there is a slot for a second internal drive, which there should be if this is the first time you have added a hard drive. There is also an IDE ribbon that is connected to the drive that is already installed that needs to have a vacant spot to connect to the new drive. The ribbon is grey and might have either a red or a blue strip. The part that is already attached to your existing drive is called the primary IDE and on this part you can find a connector that looks the same as the one attached to the existing drive to connect to the secondary drive. This should all be there, either above or below the existing drive, along with a female power adapter with four prongs that you can find by following the power cords.
Installing the Drive
The drive should slide right into the slot and now you need to configure one a master and one a slave to organize the primary and secondary drives. For all this you will need to check some diagrams that are in the user manual for your G4. This will involve setting pins and adjusting jumper settings and should be relatively straightforward with the help of the pictures.
Recommendations
If you are adding a secondary drive, the installation process is not nearly as critical as if you were replacing the primary drive. However, you will want to be aware of the potential pitfalls.
Kate Dubensky | October 6th, 2008
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