Connecting a Notebook to an iMac: Possible?

To use the iMac's display, no. To share files and such, yes.

Squire said:

The new 12" PowerBook is calling my name but I don't want to ditch my beautiful 17" iMac- the screen is great, not to mention the 80 GB hard drive and Superdrive.

So...

Can you connect an Apple notebook to an iMac? If so, how? If not, why not? Sorry, I'm not an engineer, but there must be a way. It just seems like it would be a really cool and practical feature, especially considering the selling price of a 17" iMac versus Apple's 17" display.

Thanks in advance.

Squire

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On the old CRT iMacs, you could do this if you disconnected the internal VGA connector and jury rigged a way to run a cable into that port. I don't know if the new one's are set up that way, but if it was possible, you'd probably be jsut as well off selling the iMac and getting a new screen. doing it would rpobably require a lot of soldering, highly inadvisable for such an expensive computer.

The reason is simple. the iMac is an all in one. Its a computer, not a display. I don't see anything practical at all about being able to use a very expensive computer as a mere monitor for another machine. you'd have to have an external input, which adds cost in terms of component and motherboard design, and adds yet another port to the machine you have to design around.

If its the hard drive and display that you like, sell the machine, get an external hard drive and buy a new display and you'll still end up ahead.

Target drive

Squire said:

I was aware of the file-sharing ability.
How's that done, by the way? Firewire, Bluetooth, or both?
Maybe I'll just end up setting it up with my stereo and using it as an 80 gig jukebox when I replace it. Squire

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You could access your laptop hard drive from the iMac & its screen, by connecting the 2 by firewire cable.
Restart your laptop holding down the T-key, which will run the laptop as a Target Drive for the iMac and its HD will appear on your iMac desktop. Suggest you color the laptop HD or give it a distinct icon so you don't confuse it with your iMac's "Macintosh HD"

Remember to plug in your laptop to its power adapter so you do not drain and abuse the battery.

Squire said:

Thanks for the responses. I was aware of the file-sharing ability. How's that done, by the way? Firewire, Bluetooth, or both?

I don't know. It just seems a waste to have such a beautiful screen on a soon-to-be outdated machine. What about the folks who opted for the 20" iMac? I'm certain it would be an extremely practical thing for them to be able to do in a few years. I realize, though, that it wouldn't be in Apple's best interest. I just thought that a 3rd party developer might have created some sort of adapter.

Oh, well...I'd probably never sell this thing. It doesn't take up much space and it's aesthetically appealing. Maybe I'll just end up setting it up with my stereo and using it as an 80 gig jukebox when I replace it.

Squire

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the connectors are not physically there, so no adaptor could possibly work. Like I said, it could probably be jury rigged up, but also like I said, your better off selling the thing and buying a new monitor. the only way to do it would be to tear into the machine. if people are seriously worried about such issues, they should never have bought an iMac to begin with to be honest. If you're just going to use it as a jukebox, I would consider selling it, taking the thousand bucks or so you get for it and using it for other purposes. even if you wait a few years to upgrade, you'd probably be much better off selling it.

On the other hand, nice as new computers are, sometimes its better just to use them till they die. My 233 mhz iMac still works fine for what I need it for and I'm happy to save my money for the time being.

strider42 said:

On the other hand, nice as new computers are, sometimes its better just to use them till they die. My 233 mhz iMac still works fine for what I need it for and I'm happy to save my money for the time being.

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I would agree...I have used my computers until they are maybe close to dying (at least 4-5 years) or at least until they probably will have something fail such as a hard drive, etc. and have always upgraded when I saw the real need.. when my current computer couldn't do what I needed (not wanted) it to do. I always start looking quite a while before I need one though so I can get one that is a new revision or when a new revision comes out I buy the one that it just outdated...which definately saves some cash.

Squire said:

What about the folks who opted for the 20" iMac?

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heh. . . yeah a reason i would not purchase an 'all in one' machine. its a great simple idea for those people who just want to plug it in and turn it on. but think about it, monitors last much longer than the rest of a computer. i still use an old CRT monitor from back in the days that i used windows. if it were still adheard to an intel PII computer it would be useless. but stand alone i can use it until smoke starts to rise out of the back of it. monitors and computers age at a much different rate. apple just needs to make a stand alone iMac minus the monitor and a couple hundred dollars, and they would be set!

Squire said:

Again, thanks for the responses. Don't get me wrong- I do not regret buying this machine one bit. Thanks to MacRumors, I heard about the (at the time) imminent jump to 1 GHz iMacs and grabbed it as soon as it came out. A great machine. In addition, I don't think it would be worth my while to sell it. Macs are almost non-existent over here in Korea so I might have a hard time selling it anyway. I could use it in my office (currently using a Pentium 166 MHz laptop) or put it in my kids room. No, this Mac won't be wasted. I'll use it until dies completely.

Wpod, I know firsthand about monitors outlasting computers. My PC uses a 15" Samsung CRT and, as much as I want it to have an "accident" so I can grab a new LCD, I just can't justify the purchase yet.

MacRand, if I could access the laptop's HD on the iMac, would that essentially let me run any of the laptop's programs on the iMac (as opposed to simply being a file-sharing solution)? For example, if I had a laptop with iLife '04 and connected it to my iMac as you suggest, could I run iLife off the iMac's screen? Are there any disadvantages to this? If it's as effortless as you describe, it sounds like a good solution to my future problem.
Thanks,
Squire

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You should be able to run any OS X application on your iMac whether it is resident on your iMac hard drive or your laptop.
Remember, to use the iMac LCD screen, the iMac cannot be the Target drive, the laptop has to be. However, why not simply transfer onto the iMac any application that you need from the laptop.
I have a 19" CRT attached to my G4 Quicksilver dual 1GHz, but I don't attache my iBook to it just to use the CRT. I make sure all the programs I want are on BOTH and at home, I simply use the G4 tower, and on the road the iBook.

While the laptop is the Target drive for the iMac, you can simply transfer applications and files by Drag & Drop from the laptop to the iMac's Application folder. Why would you not put iLife '04 programs on your iMac directly. Remember, the hard drive in the iMac is a full 3.5" drive and likely heartier and faster than the 2.5" laptop drive.

If you want to upgrade your iMac, the first thing I'd do is determine if the iMac drive needs to be faster (is it below 7200 rpm?) or larger (have you less than 25% empty space left on its hard drive?).

Squire said:

Thanks, again. My original question was simply a hypothetical one. I'm considering the new 12" PowerBook as my next Mac and I thought that, in the future, instead of having an LCD at home, just hooking up to the iMac's 17" screen would be cool. Of course, if I bought a PowerBook next week, I would sync both computers.

I don't know what the speed of my iMac's drive is. I do know that I'll need an external HD soon as mine only has 9 GB remaining.

No matter what I end up doing, it sounds like transferring programs and files between Macs is an idiot-proof process.

Squire

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Well, you could use VNC, but that would be much much slower than a normal display.

why not use apple remote desktop?

connect both computers trough ethernet
run apple remote desktop from your iMac and you take over your iBook or PowerBook, or any mac you want, even an old OS9 or less machine is possible

the only disadvantage is off course that nor the iMac nor an iBook have gigabit connections wich will make it slower probably...

But this is the one and only real solution if you just want to use the iMac as display for the iBook, and not as a computer wich uses only the data from the iBook...
This is only an advantage when your iBook has more speed in general than your iMac otherwise its foolish to run the programs on a slower machine while you let your faster one only control it...

replace small Hard Drive in iMac with larger and faster drive

Squire said:

Thanks, again. My original question was simply a hypothetical one. I'm considering the new 12" PowerBook as my next Mac and I thought that, in the future, instead of having an LCD at home, just hooking up to the iMac's 17" screen would be cool. Of course, if I bought a PowerBook next week, I would sync both computers.

I don't know what the speed of my iMac's drive is. I do know that I'll need an external HD soon as mine only has 9 GB remaining.

No matter what I end up doing, it sounds like transferring programs and files between Macs is an idiot-proof process.

Click to expand...

Squire, before worrying about either a new PowerBook or how to use its LCD screen, I'm concerned about the 9 GB left on your iMac.

Looking at that drive in your System Preferences, how large is it?
Who is the Manufacturer, and what is the model (we can look it up and see how fast it is)?

Depending on the relative size to the open space left, and the speed of your original hard drive (current iMacs have 80 GB drives), it may really be worth it to you to buy a 3.5" full size hard drive, 7200 RPM 160 GB 8 or 16mb cache Hitachi/IBM or Seagate drive, to replace what you have installed now by yourself. The old hard drive you remove could be placed into an empty FireWire enclosure to act as a backup or secondary external hard drive for your PowerBook, providing extra storage space.

Also, since you are going to be buying a wonderful PowerBook and you have concerns about the size of the 12" screen being large enough, have you considered a 15" instead which would let you get the backlit keyboard and other options not available on the 12" PB?
Be sure to compare a loaded 15" PB to a 12" PB to make sure you are not going to miss any of the differences.

Let us know what you think.

My brother and I just connected to each other via IP over Firewire. Quite slick I must say. Zero config and fast.

It is an option in the networking button of system prefs of Panther. In fact, we used my wife's ipod firewire cable. Worked beautifully.

LaCie d2 7200 rpm HD @ MacMall is the best combo of price/quality for EXTERNAL

Squire said:

MacRand,

Here's what I got from System Profiler:

ST380023A:

Capacity: 74.53 GB
Model: ST380023A
Revision: 3.31
Serial Number: 3KB0X357
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Protocol: ATA
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
OS9 Drivers: Yes

Hard Drive:

Capacity: 74.53 GB
Available: 9.19 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s9
Mount Point: /

Funny you mention getting a new drive. I was looking at LaCie, Maxtor, and Western Digital online today. A lot of people seem to swear by LaCie but I can't seem to find a Korean reseller. I was considering a 160 GB Western Digital external hard drive.

Click to expand...

Squire, while LaCie d2 7200 rpm HD @ MacMall is the best combo of price/quality for EXTERNAL, you should probably move your current drive into an EXTERNAL ENCLOSURE like Wiebetech FireWire, and put in a new 160 or 180 GB INTERNALLY.

Your current drive is an excellent Seagate Barracuda hard drive, well worth keeping and putting into a premium $99 external enclosure:

• Model Number: ST380023A
  Capacity: 80 GB
  Speed: 7200 rpm
  Seek time: 9.4 ms avg
  Interface: Ultra ATA/100
  Buffer: 2 mb

The only problem with your current Seagate (area for improvement you will want in its replacement) is the small size of the drive itself (only 80 GB) and the buffer of just 2mb. You should at least double the size of your drive, and the buffer should be at least 8mb instead of only 2.

Either get another Seagate just bigger and better, or an Hitachi/IBM - either is excellent. Western Digital is ok (I have several), but it is a Chevy compared to a Cadillac or Rolls Royce, and the cost should not be significantly different between any of them. So, why not go for quality technology?

Do not pour Pepsi inside your open iMac...

Squire said:

(Just woke up.)

Thanks for the info. So I'm looking for a drive basically identical to the one I have except with a larger capacity and a faster buffer speed, right? Buying an enclosure and a larger Seagate drive shouldn't be too difficult. Pulling my hard drive out and throwing a new one in is something I'm not sure I want to try, hence the interest in a firewire/USB 2.0 external drive. Can yu point me to a Dismantling Your Mac site where I can read up on the procedure? (And to think, I was proud of myself after throwing in a stick of 512 MB RAM. )

Squire

Click to expand...

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/iMac_g4/imacg4_takeapart.html
It should be easy to do. really. Just check the list of tools and supplies you will need to acquire before you start.

Lighten the Hard Disks load

Actually, the PHOTO above is the combined brain of R2 - D2
That's the Rational "R2" on the right, and the Data bank "D2" on the left.
(NOTE: LaCie currently employs the "data bank" concept in their D2 models. )
(SUB NOTE: their Porsche version is about as "rational" as a blonde Hollywood starlet)

Squire said:

That looks like brain surgery on C3-PO! Thanks for the link, though. I'll read up on it as I watch my 9 remaining gigs dwindle.
Squire

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9 GB sounds like a lot of room, and it is, but taken percentage wise to the whole drive, you have a dangerous situation when the drive has less than 20% room left to "play" with. If your hard drive stops "saving" documents or starts acting funny, the reason is that it is filled to capacity. A Hard Drive is not like a milk bottle that you can fill to the top then cap it off. Understand what I mean? It has to have room to work with - percentage wise.

In the interim, there has to be a lot of UNUSED DATA that you can dump on a few DVD blanks at 4.7 GB at a time. 3 DVDs nearly full (filling is ok with CDs & DVDs) would be a good start. DVD/CD discs are perfect for "static" storage of rarely used, archived data. You need Hard Drive space for OS X (and 9, if you still use it), Applications, and useful DATA. The rest can be loaded onto ROM discs and removed (trashed) from your Hard Drive.

It's kind of like cleaning out your closet or storage room, look at each item and determine
When is the last time I used it?
When will I ever use it again?
Why am I keeping this thing anyway?
Will I really miss it if I either TRASH it right now, or
Should I put it on a STORAGE disc?

Be ruthless.
If you do not really NEED the data, store it or dump it. Period.

six or one half dozen, they are both the same

Squire said:

MacRand,
I'm really reluctant to tinker too much with the innards of my Mac.
What's your reasoning behind taking my drive out and using it as an external? The buffer size?
I mean, wouldn't it be simpler to just buy a big 160 GB hard drive and throw that in an external case? (Please don't misinterpret the "tone" there- I'm legitimately curious about that.)

I was pricing Seagate hard drives online and found an ST3160023A 160 GB drive with 8 MB buffer and 7,200 rpm.

The best price I found was approximately 130 US dollars. Add to that the price of an external case and it doesn't look like I'd be any further ahead than just opting for an external drive. Thanks, again. Squire

Click to expand...

Thinking about it for awhile...you are right. But, then...???
Since I have a G4 tower, I have plenty of room and have therefore added 3 additional drives to the original, one pair are configured as a RAID.

On the otherhand, an iMac can only have a single drive.
Adding drives means externally instead of internal.

There are three approaches, all of them have already been discussed, now it's time to label them.
1. Add space externally - LaCie d2 160 HD 7200 rpm 8mg buffer with solid aluminum enclosure
2. Increase internal space - from 80 GB to 160 GB, then placing old 80 in an external enclosure.
3. Cleaning "house" by removing stagnant data from a nearly full drive, creating more free space.

Three will work if it is not just postponing the inevitable.
One works but means the new large, better drive is external.
Two works by placing new large, better drive internally.

Probably the best solution is a combination of 3 first followed by 1, because regardless of what you do, you must decrease the burden on the primary internal drive down to 50% full, 50% empty space.
So, you either dump data onto CDs or DVDs, trash it and don't save, or move it to the new larger, external drive.

Squire, you need a plan.
If you don't want to replace the internal drive, then you are left with options 3 and 1. Since your internal 80 GB is already a fast 7200 rpm drive and the size of the buffer is only a nominal improvement, keeping it makes sense. You just have to formulate a plan to lighten its load, reduce its burden, open some empty space.

I have no reluctance to opening up an iBook or an iMac to increase funtionality...but you are not me. So, trust your instincts and leave the internal drive alone except for taking stuff off.

It's up to you, but I recommend that you do some heavy planning soon.

Rand

do not forget that the disk drive in an iMac is not a user servicable part -- trying to take the disk out will void the warranty (if you still have any left)

there's not much advantage to putting the disk internal anyways.. so long as you don't move the drive around you can put your system on the firewire disk and use the internal as a file store. in a laptop that would be impractical, in a desktop not so much.

one advantage of the old drive in external case, however, is that you can load it full of dvd's, mp3s, etc.. and throw it over to another machine.

if i were you, i'd get a larger ext. disk and use it externally, keep system on the internal 80GB, and use the large ext. disk for storage, the smaller internal disk for apps. you will not notice a big issue with a 2Mb buffer vs. 8Mb buffer, really.

To get back to the original question, you could possibly think about using VNC (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/osxvnc.html)

I haven't used it on the Mac (I don't have an Apple yet) but I am a software engineer (Solaris, AIX, Linux programs - not Windoze) and I use it to access my development machines from home, work, on the road, wherever I can get an internet connection.

You run the VNC server on your PowerBook and access it using the client on the iMac.

This of course isn't the same as using your iMac monitor on the PowerBook, but it's the closest without hacking your iMac.