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Sata to IDE for P640

Posted by: 360alaska on 2017-01-29 08:44:54 Hi all, I'm just wondering if anyone has ever tried sata to ide adapter with a 630 type machine? I would like to use a ssd for my 640.

Posted by: EvieSigma on 2017-01-29 09:30:59 I'm curious as well, was thinking of using an IDE to mSATA adapter in my IDE Macs.

Posted by: 360alaska on 2017-02-17 07:29:22 Update: I ordered and installed a sata ide adapter in my p640 with a 30gb sata ssd drive. It can see, partition, and transfer data to the drive but i can't boot from it. The Performa gives a happy mac then gives a blank white screen and then a question mark. I formatted it with disk utility, any suggestions? Otherwise I've already ordered a new 250gb hard drive for it.

Posted by: rsolberg on 2017-02-17 10:21:32 You might need to try a HFS (standard) boot partition for the System Folder and HFS+ storage partition for the rest of the capavity if you haven't already.

Posted by: 360alaska on 2017-02-17 10:52:13 Yeah, I did 6gb Mac OS standard for boot and the rest was an extended partition.

Posted by: Brett B. on 2017-02-17 14:58:46 The 630 is an odd machine.  I have had numerous issues with hard drives in mine over the years, among other things.  I wonder if maybe a much smaller partition would boot?  Or maybe a different driver?  LaCie or something else perhaps

Posted by: rsolberg on 2017-02-17 15:22:38 I figured as much, but it was worth a shot. Have you tried making the HFS partition 4GiB or less? The Quadra 630 and siblings (including the Performa 640) are not officially supported by SCSI Manager 4.3, which is required in order for Mac OS 7.6.x and 8 to deal with HFS partitions larger than 4GiB. Reference: https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/27346-volume-size-limits-under-hfs-and-hfs/

Posted by: 360alaska on 2017-02-18 05:59:45 Hmm, I thought the limit was 8gb? I'll give it a try and report back my results.

Posted by: 360alaska on 2017-02-18 07:12:59 Update: After partitioning a 3.5 gb partition it booted successfully. It seems to run pretty fast but I haven't installed the pc software yet. For anyone who is curious, here is the adapter I used: Also note: It has 2 470uf 25v ChongX caps which should probably be replaced.

Posted by: rsolberg on 2017-02-18 17:55:14 Hooray! Does the HFS+ storage partition seem to function well?

Posted by: 360alaska on 2017-02-19 20:51:43 It seemed to work but I ended up removing sys 8.1 and installlig 7.6.1 because I couldn't get pc compatibility to work under 8.1.

Posted by: LazarusNine on 2017-02-21 03:32:30 I've had a lot of issues with these sorts of IDE to SATA adapters. I thought I just got a bad one, but it's happened with a couple others as well. Basically, I find that the installation fails at some stage (with multiple OSes) or the computer hangs at the Happy Mac at boot time. This was my experience with a 5500, which I wanted 8.6 on so I could see the whole of the 160GB drive without partitioning it. I ultimately invested in a 9 year-old IDE drive. I don't really consider that to be a solution, given that THAT drive has a limited lifespan as well. Hmmm.

Posted by: johnklos on 2017-02-22 02:05:26 Perhaps some of the cheaper ones cause problems, but most do not. I've used many, even in production systems, without any problems. Many / most will even go to 80 MB/sec mode (tested with an SSD). I've used them with all sorts of machines - AlphaServers, Quadras (on both IDE and SCSI with SCSI-IDE adapters), PowerMacs (again, both IDE and SCSI) and so on.

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