New to MAC, HDD capacity issue...

Hello. Let me first apologize for my lack of MAC know-how, but this is my first time working with a MAC. I installed a 200GB Maxtor HDD into a G4 internally, and it's only showing 127GB. I did read the other thread in this area about the same issue, but there I did not see a resolution. My assumption is that this is probably a common issue and there is an easy fix, but I'm quite lost when it comes to MACs. So, I'm hoping that someone can tell me how to get this fixed.

Thanks for any help,

Dave

Dave:

A few items to begin with. Was the drive brand new, or moved over from a different machine? If the latter, was it a non-Mac machine?

Many brand new drives come formatted for Windows, and as long as you are running Tiger (OS X 10.4.x), you should run an application called Disk Utility. It is located in the Utilities folder that is inside of your Applications folder. It may be that the disk is partitioned in such a way that the Mac can only see a portion of it. As long as there is no vital data on the drive, Disk Utility should be able to wipe it clean and format it for Mac OS Journaled, which is what you want.

Good Luck,

Hi there Dave and welcome !

to add to CAS's excellent post...

Can you give the exact Model Mac you have...go to the Apple menu and select About this Mac then click the More Info button...this should give you the model number...

...some Mac's are limited to 128GB drives by the drive controller built in...

Can I also ask...is the drive the only one 'inside' the Mac ? If it isn't how have you got the 'jumpers' set on the drive ?

regards

Ric

Ric is spot-on...

There were many G4 Macs that had a firmware limit of 128GB for drive size. A few had a firmware update that was available to remove that limit.

We can dig a little deeper with more info about your Mac.

C

Ok, I'll try to give the best information off-hand, seeing as I am home and not sitting in front of it at the moment...

-- The drive was brand new, out of the box, never before formatted.
-- I did run Disk Utility to initialize the drive, but I'm not familiar with which actual format / partition was created. (I'm now assuming Mac OS Journaled is what it should be.)
-- I'll have to respond tomorrow about what the exact model is, I know it's a G4, but more than that, I'm not sure.
-- This is the only drive internally installed, and is set to master.
-- The OS is Panther, which I believe is 10.3. (?)

Thanks very much for the replies. I've never worked with a Mac before, and someone that works within our company had some problems. So, I was asked to do what I could to get things manageable for her, and I'm trying to learn as much as I possibly can. Thanks again, and I will respond tomorrow with more information about the machine.

~ Dave

Have you had any joy ?

regards

Ric