Mac Firmware on Hard Drive?

[superkdogg]

I just grabbed a couple of HDD's off of ebay for cheap. Two 80 GB SATA Hitachi's for $22 each and 10 more to ship. Pretty decent deal for new drives.

The catch is that they say they have Apple firmware installed on them. I'm assuming that they are overstock from Steve Jobs' sock drawer or something. Does anybody know what
Apple firmware means? I am pretty sure that Apples/Macs use standard drives, just different file systems so I doubt that it's a big deal. Even if it is, I guess I'll sell them to a Mac fan, but does anybody know anything about this?

 

[imported_Phil]

Format away.

 

[superkdogg]

Is that for certain? Just format and go?

I hope so. Any other opinions, or has anybody done this already?

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: superkdogg
Is that for certain? Just format and go?

I hope so. Any other opinions, or has anybody done this already?

There's no such thing as Mac firmware WRT harddrives, and never has been. They are 100% compatible across the board. The seller was probably referring to the file system, which is probably HFS+.

Format and go. WinXP will run it over like a bulldozer.

 

[superkdogg]

Originally posted by: TerryMathews

There's no such thing as Mac firmware WRT harddrives, and never has been. They are 100% compatible across the board. The seller was probably referring to the file system, which is probably HFS+.

Format and go. WinXP will run it over like a bulldozer.

That's what I was thinking all the way. The pics of the drive did have a little apple on the label, but I was pretty sure that it was just somebody misusing the terminology. That's probably why they sold so cheap though, so I ain't complaining! The seller had auctions up for everything from coat racks to car parts too- another indicator that they just didn't know what they were selling.

I'll update after they're set up and running.

 

[Tostada]

At the very worst you'll have the drive's ID string say Apple or something. I had some OEM Sun drives that would say Sun instead of Quantum when you booted up, but it worked like any other drive in a PC.

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: superkdogg
That's what I was thinking all the way. The pics of the drive did have a little apple on the label, but I was pretty sure that it was just somebody misusing the terminology. That's probably why they sold so cheap though, so I ain't complaining! The seller had auctions up for everything from coat racks to car parts too- another indicator that they just didn't know what they were selling.

The apple logo indicates that it either came out of a Mac, or was intended for a Mac. Doesn't make a difference though, it will work fine in a PC.

Read below if you want the technical explanation.

(I don't know if this is true today but in the past) Apple-branded HDs were the same as normal HDs, but with slightly different ID strings, that the Apple HD formatting tool was programmed to recgonize. Usually the program is called Drive Setup, but in the past it was called Apple HS/SC Setup.

You could patch the drive formatting program to recgonize all HDs, because it was just specific information in the ID string that the program was looking for. Sometimes it was as simple as the version number.

 

[mc00]

Originally posted by: superkdogg
I just grabbed a couple of HDD's off of ebay for cheap. Two 80 GB SATA Hitachi's for $22 each and 10 more to ship. Pretty decent deal for new drives.

The catch is that they say they have Apple firmware installed on them. I'm assuming that they are overstock from Steve Jobs' sock drawer or something. Does anybody know what
Apple firmware means? I am pretty sure that Apples/Macs use standard drives, just different file systems so I doubt that it's a big deal. Even if it is, I guess I'll sell them to a Mac fan, but does anybody know anything about this?

hey dude, the seller still has some ? hehe lol