>maybe I need a better card, and not an ata 66 Certainly an option.
ATA/66 cards were probably the first to observe this problem, but the flaw certainly existed before. Doubtless because the same company, FirmTek, which developed the rather rare ProMax ATA/33 card's firmware, also developed the ATA/66 card's firmware [ * ] . Beginning with ATA/100 cards, many developers did their own firmware development. Certainly, ACARD did. Although, incredibly enough, some of ACARD's most capable products are really only ATA/33, internally [ ** ] , although these cards can do 40 MB/sec, externally . Since FirmTek made the first ATA firmware for Mac, and as this firmware had some notable flaws, most subsequent developers have found it prudent to duplicate, to the greatest extent possible, the flaws in FirmTek's original firmware, so that all ATA cards are essentially interchangeable. And they are, for the most part. That is, you can take a drive which was initialized on an ACARD product (which uses ACARD's firmware) and then move that drive over to an UltraTek product or a ProMax product (both of which use FirmTek's firmware), and they will interchange. FirmTek, apparently, "got religion", and now markets SATA firmware and cards, thereby keeping the majority of the profit for itself, and lets others develop their own ATA/100/133 firmware [ * ] FirmTek also went back and did an OS X version of its ATA/66 firmware, available through OWC, but it did nothing to overcome the 120 GB barrier in the process. [ ** ] ACARD even went back and put 48-bit LBA addressing (required for drives larger than 120 GB) in its ATA/33 products. which FirmTek never did even to its ATA/66 products. I have used 300 GB drives on ACARD's products with complete success. -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com
