WE'RE HERE TO HELP

Support for EIDE/SATA drives larger than 137 GB (128 GB binary) in Apple Macs

Published 08/20/2018 12:51 AM   |    Updated 04/25/2019 02:40 PM
I am considering buying an EIDE/SATA drive larger than 137GB for my Mac system. Are EIDE drives larger than 137GB supported in Mac systems?
Not all Mac systems can properly support EIDE/SATA drives larger than 137GB (128GB binary). In many cases, the system needs to be a newer Mac G4 or G5 system. According to Apple, there are two primary requirements that must be met to support these drives:
  • The computer must have Mac OS 10.2 or later

  • The system BootROM must provide support for the drive
    • Note: There are third-party controller cards designed for use with large EIDE drives and Macs. Please contact Apple or the card manufacturer to find out if a specific controller card will work with your Mac. According to Apple, you must still have OS version 10.2 or later, even with the controller card, to use the full drive capacity.