I have a snow 500-mHz slot-loading iMac from summer 2001 with an
incredibly whiny hard drive which I have finally gotten up the nerve to
replace myself (twice replacing memory chips being my only prior
experience inside a computer). Needing quiet, a little research
steered me to consider Seagates; a couple of days ago I bought two hard
drives to bring home and consider: a Seagate 120GB Barracuda Ultra
ATA/100 7200 RPM w/8 MB cache ($99 after rebate), and, because a rebate
made it so cheap, a Maxtor 160GB Ultra ATA/133 7200 RPM w/8 MB cache
($119 after rebate), both at Best Buy. Twenty bucks more for 40 GB
more seemed like a good idea, and a tech guy there (who really only
knew Windows PCs and seemed afraid of Macs) said that the 133 Maxtor
would step down to run at 100 mHz. But the Maxtor box says "Drives
larger than 137GB require Mac-compatible ATA/133 PCI card (not
included, [of course])." A couple of other things I've seen in my
research seem to indicate that getting over 137 GB makes a big
difference for some reason. What's the reason? Would the Maxtor work
with the native controller, or should I just stick to the Seagate and
be happy with 120 GB (better than 20)? Controllers that fit the iMac
seem hard or impossible to find without going with a new processor,
too, but I know I could be wrong about that. Yet if the Maxtor would
need a new controller I'd probably just go with the Seagate anyway.
Secondly, is putting the new drive in a Firewire enclosure (temporarily
to transfer), then removing it and putting it in the iMac, a safe way
to transfer my data? Enclosures cost more than I would have guessed,
but maybe it's worth it.
Thanks, anybody.
Steve Hammond
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