Server upgrade - 128G disk limit!

[Donald Lee <MacPPC2%caution.icompute.com@localhost>]

Hi,

I am upgrading my server from NetBSD 2.1 to NetBSD 5.0.2.  Yes, you can
say "It's about time!".

I have run into a problem or two, and hope to get some information from the
list.

This machine is my "production" server, and it has been in production
since January, 2007.  It's time.  When I upgrade, I normally replace the
disks with new ones, to maximize my chance of surviving another 4
years without a crash.

I bought 2 160G drives, and 1 320G drive, and when I started working with
them realized that the G4 has a 128G limit on drives, because the on-board
controller does not support LBA48.  (Bummer!) (G4 AGP graphics)

So.... what to do?

I have two ways to go

1. Buy a PCI ATA/133 card, and plug the disks in there.

        problem: last time I tried this under NetBSD 2.1, the ATA card I
                had was unreliable.  I found that only the on-board
                ATA worked reliably.

        problem: booting will be a bit of a pain due to the naming of the
                PCI card and its ports.

2. Buy a SATA card, and either SATA->ATA adapters, or 3 new disks.
        Unfortunately, I have no experience at all with SATA and NetBSD.

        problem: Does PCI SATA work reliably with NetBSD 5.0.2? 

        problem: Will OFW "see" the drives?  Can I boot from them?

3. Only use the first 128GB on each drive.
        Yeah, I could do that........


I'm hoping that someone on this list can tell me that he has run with either
an ATA or SATA PCI card, and reassure me that the problems I saw in 2006-7
are no longer present.  Any special instructions or recommendations for
brands of PCI card?

Thanks in advance for any help,

-dgl-