TITLE
    Macintosh: IDE Volume Sizes
Article ID:
Created:
Modified: 		17595
4/13/95
1/18/00
TOPIC

    What is the largest volume size that the IDE interface, which is used in the PowerBook 150, Macintosh 630-series, and Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC, can support?

    Does the IDE interface (ANSI proposal X3T9.2/90-143, Revision 3.1.) have the same limit as the ATA interface specification which I believe is approximately 500 MB, or does this interface support a larger volume size?

DISCUSSION

    According to Engineering, the IDE interfaces in the PowerBook 150, Macintosh 630-series, and Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC use a built-in driver that works with volume up to 2 GB in size. However, it's important to note that any IDE drive that is going to be used on these systems must support Logical Block Addressing (LBA). LBA is the method that drive manufacturers have adopted in order to go beyond the 520 MB DOS-BIOS limit.

    As long as the IDE drives support Logical Block Addressing, it should be possible to install drives larger than 500 MB in these systems.

Document Information
Product Area: Peripherals
Category: Magnetic Storage Devices
Sub Category: Hard Disk; General

Copyright © 2000 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.