G5 3rd Internal Hard Drive

[auptown]

I stumbled across some posts on the Apple discussion board, and found out that it is surprisingly easy to add a third hard drive to a G5! This may be old information, and if so I apologize for the noise, but I did not find any references to this procedure when I searched around here.

Here's how to do it:

1) Obtain an IDE hard drive. I got a 250g ATA/IDE seagate at Compusa for $139.

2) Buy a 5-pin power splitter wire, and a master/slave 40-pin IDE wire (Try to buy a "round wire", 18" or so, instead of "flat wire", it makes wiring easier).

3) Get some velcro sticky strips.

4) Open the G5 and remove the optical drive. It's not hard, after you unlock it you reach around the back through the little cable opening and push the back of the drive with your finger. Unplug it and set it aside.

5) Remove the original 40-pin IDE cable.

6) Install the power splitter, and plug the new IDE cable onto the motherboard and pass it through the cable hole.

7) Set the hard drive for "slave" or "Secondary" mode with the correct jumper.

Plug the IDE slave connector and power cables into the hard drive, and using the sticky velcro, stick the new HD to the inside of the optical bay, above where the optical drive goes. (There is room!)

9) Now plug in the IDE master connector and power cable to the optical drive and slide it back into place. You kind of have to go over the front 2 mounting holes or the back tabs get stuck in the front holes. Look at the bottom of the drive and you will understand. Lock it down with the 2 levers.

That's it. You should be able to power up and see the new drive with disk utility, to partition it.

What I love about this is that now I have the magic "3-drive system", without using any firewire ports or IDE slots. This became an issue to me when I started trying to use both a Duende and a Liquid Mix on my G5. And, it allows me to lessen my Power Mac envy.

[HCMarkus]

Great tip! My only concern: does the new drive get adequate cooling and/or does it interfere with airflow to other components in the G5?

[auptown]

What I have read says that the placement of the new drive puts it in the path of the airflow in that upper bay, and the spacing that results from sticking the new drive to the top of the compartment allows space for airflow.