I bought a 400 MHz Power Mac G4 that is running OS 9.0 on Craigslist tonight. I was given an iMac G4 a few weeks ago, but the graphics card is toast on it, and I don't want to spend the money to fix it. Im thinking about removing the ram and the hard drive from the iMac and putting it in my Power Mac. If I do this how would I go about choosing what drive to boot onto? I know this may seem kinda silly but I'd like to sacrifice the free iMac to make my Power Mac better. Basically I want to keep my Power Mac as stock as I can (OS 9) but be able to enjoy OSX. Sorry for rambling, but it is late and have been up for nearly 24 hours.
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Gutting a G4 iMac for a Power Mac. Please help.
- Thread starter ilovemyibook
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not really sure the question...but to pick what drive to boot at startup just hold down "option" key and pick the drive....
So I install the drive from the iMac with OS X and all of the files etc. and then just hold town the option key when I turn on the Power Mac?
would depend on osx version,firmware ect
read here for help
http://resale.headgap.com/osxnotesG4.html
read here for help
http://resale.headgap.com/osxnotesG4.html
If I update my firmware and then put the hard drive in and something horrible the worst thing that could happen would be my hard drive with OS X is ruined? It's an older iMac so I'm guessing it has 10.2 or maybe 10.3 on it. So I feel that my Power Mac shouldn't have any difficulties.
why not try installing drive (no firmware update) and see if it will boot...only that a couple min to do that
a firmware update should be np...but read directions carefully
a firmware update should be np...but read directions carefully
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I'll try that tonight after work. If it does work and I hook both up would it be as simple as pressing down "option" when I boot up to select my drive?
I'll try that tonight after work. If it does work and I hook both up would it be as simple as pressing down "option" when I boot up to select my drive?
yes
note: imac could be running leopard,in which case,depending on what G4 powermac you have it wouldn't boot leopard...but im guessing imac would be panther or tiger in which case your powermac should have no issues........with this in mind,try giving your powermac the max ram (1 or 1.5 gigs max...depending on model)
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If it's running Tiger I would be shocked because the lady that had it wasn't a tech person and it's been buried in her basement for atleast a year. I'm guessing it's Panther which I'd be more than satisfied with. I want to make sure it will work before I drop money on more, but I will definitely top it out if it works.
tom vilsack said:
If it's running Tiger I would be shocked because the lady that had it wasn't a tech person and it's been buried in her basement for atleast a year. I'm guessing it's Panther which I'd be more than satisfied with. I want to make sure it will work before I drop money on more, but I will definitely top it out if it works.
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Here's an update everyone. The drive from the iMac had 10.4 and I updated it to 10.4.11. It works surprisingly well on this old computer.
Here's an update everyone. The drive from the iMac had 10.4 and I updated it to 10.4.11. It works surprisingly well on this old computer.
nice! how much ram do you have?
here some tips and software that will work well with your G4
software:
-TenFourFox web browser (believe his server down right now,so you will have to search)
-camino (another good web browser,and there is a custom one just for G4's)
-itunes for G4 (update wont give you this version) 9.2.1
-vlc media
-mactubes (allows you to view and dl from utube)
-seashore (a lite graphics editor)
-paintbrush (another very lite editor similar to ms paint)
some speed tips to save ram:
-in dock use scale effects and no mag or animate...also turn wallpaper off and use colored
-turn off dashboard and turn off spotlight,if has bluetooth turn that also off
To turn Dashboard off: use terminal
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
You have to restart the Dock after making either change for it to take effect:
killall Dock
To turn Spotlight off: use terminal
cd /etc
sudo nano hostconfig
SPOTLIGHT=-NO-
ctrl-x
y
enter
Then to get rid of the existing index, run these two commands
sudo mdutil -i off /
sudo mdutil -E /
reboot computer
goodluck......
here some tips and software that will work well with your G4
software:
-TenFourFox web browser (believe his server down right now,so you will have to search)
-camino (another good web browser,and there is a custom one just for G4's)
-itunes for G4 (update wont give you this version) 9.2.1
-vlc media
-mactubes (allows you to view and dl from utube)
-seashore (a lite graphics editor)
-paintbrush (another very lite editor similar to ms paint)
some speed tips to save ram:
-in dock use scale effects and no mag or animate...also turn wallpaper off and use colored
-turn off dashboard and turn off spotlight,if has bluetooth turn that also off
To turn Dashboard off: use terminal
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
You have to restart the Dock after making either change for it to take effect:
killall Dock
To turn Spotlight off: use terminal
cd /etc
sudo nano hostconfig
SPOTLIGHT=-NO-
ctrl-x
y
enter
Then to get rid of the existing index, run these two commands
sudo mdutil -i off /
sudo mdutil -E /
reboot computer
goodluck......
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Sorry for the slow response. I had some extra RAM laying around, so I bumped it up to 512mb. It's not the fastest computer out there, but it is a rock solid computer.
tom vilsack said:
Sorry for the slow response. I had some extra RAM laying around, so I bumped it up to 512mb. It's not the fastest computer out there, but it is a rock solid computer.