Adding a second HDD to a Power Mac G5

[WalMan]

Anyone use a Mac who can help with this?

Acquired a 500Gb SATA II for the G5 at the weekend and it [i]should [/i]be a piece of **** to install [u][b]BUT[/b][/u] looking inside the case I can see sockets for the power and data cables but have no cables.

Now the manual says "use the proper mac cables supplied" but can I find where to get them? No, not even when I went into a dedicated Apple store on Sunday.

I found [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=96890&doy=11m10#overview"]THIS[/url] SATA to SATA power cable in Maplins on Sunday & have a standard PC SATA data cable, but am just a little wary of diving in with these. Stupid I know, because I am happy adding stuff to the PC but the MAC is a new thing to be dedicated to recording & I really do not want to screw up the G5 or new HDD with the wrong cables!!

I gave up in the Apple store when, having explained I am sure quite clearly a couple of times that I had a a new HDD I wanted to install internally but needed the cables, I was told firstly to contact the HD manufacturer because it would be a dedicated cable and then asked "does it have a 3 pin kettle socket?" GOOD GRIEF!!!

So any suggestions where I might try to source the cables chaps?

[Buzz]

Any PC shop will do the data cable (the smaller one), power cable will be a tad harder to come by as without pictures (or a G5 to prod around in, I'm not an apple user), I can't say what sort of cables you'd need for power (barring the 15 pin going into the HDD, just don't know what's on the other end).

Tried ringing apple support, as I suspect it won't be available in the shops*?


*Reason: Internal cables arn't on sale, and tbh, Apple don't expect people to be inside their cases. However you could bodge one possibly if you're a dab hand with a soldering iron and are prepared to buy a few different cables.

Thinking about it, might be able to order 2 "Sata -> 4 pin molex" converters, buy some really easy to come by 4 pin cable with molex's on both ends, then just stick the converters on.

So:

Sata connector to molex -> Standard 4 cable with molex -> Molex to sata connector.

Edited October 11, 2007 by Buzz

[WalMan]

Yes I sort of think the PC data cable will be OK and for the power it is 15 pin both ends so I think the Maplin cable should be OK. Just wondered really.

I do have to say though that the mac is both sleek inside as well as out. One lever and the side is off and everything is so easily laid out & accessible!!! No cramped case & faffing around trying to get something to fit like the PC

[nedsbeds]

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5-25-to-2-x-Serial-ATA-SATA-Power-Splitter-Molex-Cable_W0QQitemZ270174625066QQihZ017QQcategoryZ74941QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5-25-to-2-x-Serial-A...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url]
is that the sort of thing?

[WalMan]

[quote name='nedsbeds' post='73097' date='Oct 11 2007, 11:00 PM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5-25-to-2-x-Serial-ATA-SATA-Power-Splitter-Molex-Cable_W0QQitemZ270174625066QQihZ017QQcategoryZ74941QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5-25-to-2-x-Serial-A...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url]
is that the sort of thing?[/quote]
Not quite. It does not need the 4 pin plug in the middle.

More like [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1-2m-4ft-External-SATA-Power-Cable-Lead_W0QQitemZ110179081570QQihZ001QQcategoryZ45342QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]THIS[/url] but about 6 inches long max, not 1.2 metres

[thumbo]

The cable should be inside your mac. Have a good feel around the inside of the drive bay, they should be tucked into the bottom of it if you're fitting the drive into bay 2. I had to kind of pull the cable up for mine, it's hard to explain though. If you have no luck, let me know and I'll take a pic of where they were inside my powermac.