I would be wary of used hard drives. Maybe you should just get a big external firewire drive, and keep the current drive as the boot drive. Either way, I would also invest in a back-up drive via firewire.
On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 10:00 PM, Richard Gerome <[email protected]>wrote: > > > Thanks for that info Andreas!!! I was planning on getting a new one... I > also have another question can I keep the orig hard drive in there too (is > there 2 plugs in the ribbon for them I didn't notice if there was)??? This > way she can save stuff on that HD too... I don't know of any Prize Search > Engs??? I use ask.com, google.com and yahoo.com and I come up with the > same types of websites (ebay always comes up in everyone)... I bought 2 hard > rives off someone from ebay for my clamshells and had very good luck with > them and her, she had me return the first one with no questions and sent me > a new one!!! It was my fault i didn't know it had to be formatted... I am > planning on buying this one from her as soon as she gets back to me with the > specs on the one for $79.95... > I think HD's may be going bad is because of leaving the computer running > all the time??? With my experience in knowing how things are made and the > way they build them to fail after x-#'s of yrs, I wouldn't expect a HD to > last that long but I am suprised that most of them do last that long??? > After yrs of spinning and collecting dust and dirt any kind of bearing would > ware out... The ones I replaced in my clamshells were not bad they were just > too slow, so I cleaned them and sold them on ebay!!! > > > > - > >> Ok I found this hard drive on ebay for $75 with the shipping: 7200rpm > >> 250GB Maxtor HARD DRIVE Apple Power Mac iMac G4|eMac... Is this a good > >> drive for the money and can I split it into 2 125g partitions??? I have > >> someone else sending me all the details for a simular one for $79.95... > I > >> will post that info when I get it... Thanks again everyone!!! > > > >Isn't there a prize search engine in the U.S. available? > > > >Here in Germany+Austria/Europe we have a nice search site called > geizhals.at > >(.de and .eu respectively). Searching for the cheapest 500 GB PATA drive: > > Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 500GB (HDP725050GLAT80) > >for around 60-65 EUR – that would be around 80 to 85 USD at the current > rate. > > > > > >When it comes to hard disk drives I have some rules I always follow: > >1) *always* buy it _new_ > >2) buy it from a store where you will get a replacement if the drive > should > >fail (when it is returned RMA to the manufacturer) > >3) HDDs _will fail_ after 5 to 10 years. NEVER BUY USED DRIVES! > > > >These are my rules, because I want to keep my files safe – and because of > >recent personal experiences. > >I had a couple of HDDs (IDE=PATA, 7 to 12 years old) which all failed one > >after the other, some completely, others while I was reformating and > >reinstalling a fresh Mac OS X. The failures ranged from sector read > failures > >(the least problem) to controller hardware failures to physical failures > of > >the drive itself (rare, but happend with one drive). This tells me that > these > >type of storage media only lasts 5 to 10 years and is very likely to fail > >thereafter. From 10 disks (4 of my own) 9 failed, and only one is still > >working. The one is 13 years old 30 GB original Apple from a G3 B&W and I > have > >a strange feeling every day because I expect it to fail anytime. This > >surviving drive was used when I got it. (Exception to the rule, so it > seems.) > > > > > >On the other hand, a drive will fail within the first year or doesn't fail > at > >all within the already mentioned 5 to 10 years. > > > > > > > >My advice to you: why not buy a drive at a local computer store? (if the > prize > >is okay…) > > > > > >And one other thing. For the partitions: make one, say 80 to 120 GB (I > always > >use 80 GB, has always been well enough for my applications) for the > operating > >system, and the rest for your individual files. That works well if you use > the > >Open Firmware patch to support LBA-48. And helps to keep things tidy. (who > >wants to work with more than 2 paritions? seriously, who?) Just remember > to > >put all your files on the second partition (and not in your users > folder!). > > > >http://4thcode.blogspot.com/2007/12/using-128-gib-or-larger-ata-hard- > >drives.html > > > > > > > >Whish you good luck with your project. > >Cheers, > >Andreas aka Mac User #330250 > > > > > > Scars only tell us where we have been, they do not have to dictate where we > are going... > > -- > You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for > those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power > Macs. > The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our > netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list > -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
