G4 Drives need reconfiguring

[Grosvenor]

Hi Guys,

I've an old PPC G4 mirrored door, the 1.25Ghz Firefire 400 version. USB 1. I've 1.5GB RAM in there.

I had it built in 2006 and obviously it's an antique now. My main problem is the system drive, only 6Gig free. I've used all the normal utils, (onyx, disk util, cache X etc) I cannot remove anything else from the drive. I've even removed the languages I don't need.

The drives are configured as such: 2 HHD, one is 76.7Gig with 3 partitions: 20.8GB for 'System & Apps', 50.1GB for 'Work 1' and 5.5GB for 'Scratch'.
I know it doesn't add up with 6.15GB free, but that's what Disk Utility says.

The other drive is 74.5GB just for 'Work 2'

I do have an external drive 1T that I use for 'Photography stuff', no programs on it just files.

So here's what I'm thinking, (apart from getting something new) would it be possible to somehow get the system on the external drive (only FW400 though), or can it be completely reformatted and partitioned?

Any help appreciated.

 

[orestes1984]

You will need an install disk for a version of OS X or at a pinch OS 9.2.2, but you will have no problems booting from CD and formatting the hard drive assuming you have backups of any important documents first.

On that machine you can run the classic OS 9.2.2 or OS X 10.2 to 10.5.8, grab a copy of OS X 10.5 unless for some reason you need classic support and format the hard drive as you wish making sure to use an Apple Partition Map, partition table to make it bootable.

 

[Grosvenor]

Thanks for the info.

I didn't realise the machine could use 10.5. I have the original 10.4 tiger install disc though.

When I reformat the main system drive, would you recommend not partitioning a 'scratch disc', just keep plenty space free? I rarely see it being used!

Also I'm not an expert with Mac OS installations. Do you know of any advice/tutorials for this. I'd imaging it's just a case of backing important stuff up and then wipe the drive and follow install instructions from the disc. Let me know if I'm wrong on that issue.

Thanks again.

 

[Cox Orange]

You could use Super Duper, to make an exact copy of your drive to an external drive, before installing new. SuperDuper copies those files, too you do not actually see, when you don't know how to make them seeable. You will have to have an extra partition on the external or create a folder and when SuperDuper asks from which drive to which you will have to choose the folder (not just the external drive), because otherwise SuperDuper will wipe the external first and the copy your internal drive.

Do you have an IDE drive in it? I did do two partitions just once with a 120GB IDE Drive. I do more like to have more drives instead. The Drive that had those two partitions was slower than without partitions. Couldn't you just make a folder for "Work1" and for "scratch"?
(If it is every little kb that helps you, then just having one partition will give you a tiny extra bit of space )

 

[orestes1984]

Unlike Linux there is no specific partitioning format for OS X. You can partition it however you see fit for your own usage.