> 1) What is the difference between a "retail" drive and a "bare" > drive? I see different stock numbers and the retail drive has a > warranty of 5 years vs the 3 years of the "bare" drive. The current > sata drive is a Seagate "bare" drive from OWC. That one seems pretty > good so far.
A retail drive comes in a box with cables, screws and manuals. Also a UPC code as it is a retail item. Also, a label which may have the drive's serial number. This packaging costs money, and might add $7 to the cost of the product. A bare drive comes in a static protective bag, with nothing else (although manufacturers ARE beginning to include screws in some cases. A serial number which may be scanned is usually seen through the bag. > 2) When I go to the "about this mac", the sata drive does not show > up. It is not not listed under "Serial ATA", "ATA", or the "PCI > cards". Yet they do show up in disk utility. About This Mac... gives you native ATA, native SATA and parallel SCSI as options. It is not likely to see media which is connected through a PCI card. However, Disk Utility can see media attached through PCI or PCI-e cards. > 3) Would there be any problem having no ide drive if I pulled them > all out and just ran two sata drives off the pci card? Certain PCI-based SATA controllers are indeed bootable, even on a G4 Mac. Initio's comes immediately to mind. LaCie's used the same chip. It was a 1.5 Gb/s card, though. -- 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
