Maximum Hard Drive Size for Older Macs
From Alfred:
I have been reading your columns at Low End Mac for the last
couple of years - and all I can say is that I enjoyed &
benefited from.
I recently acquired a Color
Classic & a Power Mac 9600.
The Color Classic was moved to 7.6, but the hard disk is 80 MB
only. Do you know what is the biggest capacity that 7.6 can see and
use without partitioning? Also do you know if it's full size, what
"kind" of SCSI?
The Power Mac 9600 is under 9.1, has 128 MB RAM, a disk around
4 GB (partitioned). I plan on increasing the memory & as
above any additional details about the disk will be helpful.
Thanks in advance.
Alfred
Hi Alfred,
I'm not sure what any drive capacity limit that OS
7.6 can address might be. The biggest 3.5" SCSI drives I see
advertised these days are 18 GB.
We Love Macs have a nice selection.
Do you have something against partitioning? I've
partitioned the drives on every Mac I've ever owned, including the
little 20 MB drive of my old Mac Plus.
Charles
Editor's note: Every Mac using a version of the Mac OS
supports 2 GB partitions, and Macs running System 7.5 and
later support 4 GB partitions. Later Macs with PCI
architecture and System 7.5.2 or later support partitions to
2 TB - larger than any PC hard drive you can buy today.
For maximum compatibility, it makes sense to keep
your partitions under 2 GB on the Color Classic, since that is
the largest size supported by System 7.1, the minimum version of
the Mac OS this computer supports. dk
12" PowerBook G4 'the New Pismo'?
From Tom Gabriel:
Charles,
Interesting article in the 'Book Review! As a Pismo owner who regards ownership of said
laptop (er, notebook) much like owning a great original Mini
Cooper, I don't see the comparison - rather like comparing an
excellent modern car (say, a new Mini) to its one-of-a-kind
ancestor.
The Pismo is upgradeable in a lot of ways that will see it
through some more years as a viable machine for those of us who
need less than bleeding-edge speed and capabilities, and most of
these can be accomplished by nonprofessionals with a little care. I
have been led to believe that the 12" G4 doesn't have that
capacity, but maybe I'm wrong.
A great machine - but is it the "new Pismo"?
What are your thoughts?
God Bless,
Tom Gabriel
Hi Tom,
I think in the sense that the 12" PowerBook will
remain in demand and in use long after the usual service life
envelope for notebook computers is a valid point. The selling price
of refurbished 12" PowerBooks (more
than some MacBooks) is a case in point. The same dynamic was true
of the PowerBook 2400c when Apple
dropped it and didn't replace it with another subnotebook
immediately.
If the rumored Macintel subnotebook (possibly with
flash memory) materializes, it will alter the dynamic.
The 12" PowerBook shares with the Pismo better
then average reliability, and it is processor upgradable with
Daystar's faster G4 upgrade products. What it doesn't have is
the Pismo's wonder expandability - no PC Card slot; no removable
device expansion bay - so I doubt that it will have the staying
power of the Pismo.
As for automotive Minis, I drove the original ones
and worked on them a lot. I even one time participated in building
a full-race Mini Cooper (the 998 CC Cooper; not the 1,275 cc Cooper
S) for circuit racing. I was a consummate British car fan and owned
nearly 30 various Austins, Morrises, MGs, and Rileys over the
years.
The original Mini was a blast to drive, but the
current, BMW-built new Mini is a vastly better car.
Charles
WiFi Cards for PowerBook G3
From Alex Kickham:
Hi Charles,
I have a PowerBook G3. I was just reading your post on WiFi Card for OS X PowerBooks with PC Card
Slots, and you recommend the Netgear WG511T PCMCIA Card. Are
there versions that don't stick out the side of the computer? I am
currently weighing up the options between the AirPort card (fits
neatly into computer - no protruding parts) or the card mentioned
above (a lot faster, etc.).
Please help
Thanks,
Alex K
Hi Alex,
I've never run across a CardBus WiFi adapter that
didn't have a protruding antenna. An AirPort card is probably your
best solution if the protrusion is problematical for you.
Charles
Problem Typing in Cocoa Apps
From Mark Bakken:
Dear Charles,
I am looking for an answer to a problem that I am experiencing
using Mac OS X 10.3.9 with all updates applied that I find
essential. (Nonessential include iTunes, iCal, iPod, and
QuickTime.)
I am having trouble typing in any Cocoa app. I get double spaces
and hyphenation all the time. I cannot use Mail.app or Text Edit.
Mail.app is a nice app, and I wish I could use it correctly. At
this time I need to type a note in another application and copy and
paste to use it.
I tested this repeatedly over the past few months. I don't have
this same problem with Carbon apps or Classic apps.
Maybe one of your readers has experienced the same symptoms and
have a solution.
Sincerely,
Mark Bakken
Hi Mark,
That is an interesting problem. I've not seen any
other reports of similar behavior. Since all is well in
Carbon/Classic programs, we have to assume it is some sort of bug
or incompatibility with Cocoa support.
Something to try is to create a new, clean user
account and boot into it. Try typing in Text Edit or Mail and see
if the problem persists. If it doesn't, that would indicate that
the issue is cause by some sort of conflict or corruption in your
main account. If it does, that would point to something in the
operating system. A clean system reinstall might be in order.
Charles
Video Problems with B&W Power Mac
From Jack Curry:
I recently "adopted" a B&W PowerMac
G3 in the hopes of turning it into some kind of on-the-cheap
Apple TV solution. It came with an upgraded processor (400 MHz
overclocked to 500 via jumper settings), 256 MB of PC100 RAM, a 16
MB Rage 128 video card (which was quickly replaced with a Radeon
7000 Mac Edition with 64 MB of VRAM), and an 18 GB hard drive. The
IDE controller is not of the 402 flavor.
It came initially loaded with [Mac OS X] 10.2.8, which I
upgraded to the latest build of Tiger (which is a story in and of
itself - long story short, Target Disk Mode didn't work, so I had
to take out the entire drive and hook it up to an external IDE
FireWire enclosure on my Power Mac
G5 and install from there). Everything runs smooth; sometimes
if more than one thing is running, things can get choppy, but
overall it's been a good system.
Until I try to run video. Oh boy, is this an issue. Dropped
frames, 100% processor usage (with less than 50% RAM usage, which I
find odd), audio comes through just fine, but the frames on the
video are killing me. This blow essentially shattered my hopes of
making this a media hub which I could hook up to the TV and pipe
through shared content via iTunes. To boot, every once and a while
if I have both the TV and a monitor hooked up simultaneously, I get
kernel panics. I installed the latest ATI drivers and the most
up-to-date (August 2005) ROM, so now I'm thinking that Tiger may be
the culprit for the panics (I haven't had time to check the panic
logs, so this is just a guess as everything ran okay under
Jaguar).
Essentially, I'm looking for ideas, as I'm fresh out of them.
How to make the system more optimized to possibly run the video
content I've been wanting to run from the outset, and, if that
isn't possible, how else could I put this system to work? With so
much time invested, it'd be a shame to just relegate this capable
system to the closet.
Any and all ideas are welcome.
Regards,
Jack
Hi Jack,
I'm surprised that the video performance is so
poor given that you have 64 MB of VRAM, but the RADEON 7000 is
getting pretty long in the tooth.
Tiger does put a greater strain on system
resources than older versions of OS X, but it runs decently on
my 700 MHz G3 iBook with a RADEON
7500 and just 16 MB of VRAM, and decently well on my Pismo with a
550 MHz G4 and a RAGE 128 Mobility GPU and 8 MB of VRAM.
However, I'm not doing anything with video on
either machine. Come to think of it, using a TV tuner with my
1.33 GHz PowerBook G4 with a RADEON
9200 and 64 MB of VRAM bogs it down significantly.
Charles
Installing Tiger via NetBoot?
From Michael Ackerman:
Charles,
Can't DVD-challenged B&W G3s install Tiger with a net boot? Find a buddy with a
DVD-equipped Mac, mount the volume, boot, and do the install over
ethernet. Am I missing something?
Mike Ackerman
Hi Mike,
I'm not sure. There does seem to be an issue with
Tiger installs on B&Ws (see letter above).
Charles
The Best Browser for Archiving Pages
From DFS:
Unfortunately, because they are obsolete in many ways, Safari
and Internet Explorer are the best for saving a Web page, as it
results in a single file. I do this all the time to save web
research. IE still has the best Web page save options.
Best,
DFS
Hi DFS,
Yes, the Explorer page save is very good. iCab also has an excellent page save
function, although - like IE - it has fallen behind the pack in
performance.
Charles
The following letters are follow-up to those
published in Pismo Spotlight Woes
Solved with Simple Fix.
10.4.9 Update Improves iBook Performance
From Robert Crane:
Mr. Moore:
I have updated the iBook G3 to 10.4.9 a couple days ago, and
things have been very smooth, including a great improvement in the
wake from sleep mode that I run it. Perhaps they fixed the
Spotlight problem, too.
RKC
Hi Robert,
I'm looking forward to installing 10.4.9, probably
the ultimate Tiger build.
However, I prefer to use the Combo updater even
for incremental updates, and 165 MB is beyond reason for
downloading over a 26.4 kbps dialup connection.
A kind benefactor has burned the updater to a
disk, and I await its arrival in the mail.
The Spotlight "problem" turned out to be that
somehow all of my hard drive partitions had been added to the
Spotlight Privacy exclusion list (see Pismo Spotlight Woes Solved with Simple
Fix). Simple "fix" once I got clued in to what the issue
was.
Charles
From Robert Crane
Charles,
Yikes! Dialup! I have not had that since 2000. My current is
Verizon 768k/256k. Last night I finally got around to downloading
the Java, iTunes, and QuickTime updates. System after reboot was
very smooth, and after laptop was woken from sleep it took only
about 60 seconds to go from completely dead to fully up. Controls
were active within 30 seconds. I can say that 10.4.8 took a lot
longer than that always.
I suspect that 10.4.9 will be the last for this G3 system. There
is a rumor that 10.5.0 will leave the G3 behind, as the G4 math
processor can handle the fancier graphics but the G3 math processor
cannot. But that was true for Tiger anyway. The system update
optimizes for the processor and detunes certain options. I am more
than satisfied on the usability of the system and plan on keeping
the laptop for several more years, as I am going to get its hard
drive upgraded and more RAM installed by a service, after I acquire
a newer system. Probably iMac 17".
Back to work
RKC
Hi Robert,
I agree that 10.4.9 is probably the end of the
road for G3 processors. I will be interested to see if Leopard will
install on my G4-upgraded PowerBook Pismo - but I'm in no rush,
having just gotten around to (re)installing Tiger.
Charles
Re: Pismo Spotlight and Find Woes
From Robert Emslie:
Hi Charles,
Well, it figured, didn't it? Real happy to have solved your
quirk.
Actually, I don't at all recall having put my hard drive in the
Spotlight privacy tab. Maybe some freak incident with the Spotlight
prefs (preferences can be weird like that) or maybe some OnyX
cleanup procedure flipped the switch. I really don't know.
FYI, I do a lot of OS X troubleshooting and out-of-warranty
laptop repairs, so I try least expensive and simple first,
"expensivest" and most complicated last. Works wonders.
Cheers,
Robert
Hi Robert,
Some glitch must have added the three partitions
on my hard drive to the Spotlight Privacy list. It's not something
I can imagine myself doing, even in a bad lapse of
absent-mindedness.
Anyway, thanks again for the solution.
Charles
Spotlight and Privacy
From Christoph Trusch
...is there a keyboard shortcut for adding the partitions to the
Privacy pane which you might have accidentally hit? This just came
to my mind when the Bluetooth panel popped up unexpectedly while I
wanted to create a new folder in the Finder.
At least now you know what the problem was.
Christoph
Hi Christoph,
Not that I'm aware of. It seems unlikely that all
three hard drive partitions could have been added to the Privacy
list that way - and simultaneously - although stuff happens.
Yes, I'm delighted to have Spotlight and Find
working again, and OS X 10.4.8 is running very nicely on the
Pismo.
Charles
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