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How can I reinstall OS X on an iMac G4 with a faulty disc drive?

D

davidg4781

macrumors 68040
Original poster
My iMac G4 has the vinegar syndrome. More than likely, I'll try to find it a new home.

Before doing so, I'd like to wipe the HDD and reinstall Leopard (I don't think I have a copy of Tiger). I do have some external HDDs that I can make bootable but I'm not sure if I can boot from that and I don't know how I can set it up as a bootable drive.

I do have a PowerMac G5 in storage that I was planning to pull out and put where the G4 is. That disc drive should work.

Would I maybe be able to share the disc drive? That might be risky. I can also bring in my M1 MBP but I don't think that's doable.
 
davidg4781 said:
My iMac G4 has the vinegar syndrome. More than likely, I'll try to find it a new home.

Before doing so, I'd like to wipe the HDD and reinstall Leopard (I don't think I have a copy of Tiger). I do have some external HDDs that I can make bootable but I'm not sure if I can boot from that and I don't know how I can set it up as a bootable drive.

I do have a PowerMac G5 in storage that I was planning to pull out and put where the G4 is. That disc drive should work.

Would I maybe be able to share the disc drive? That might be risky. I can also bring in my M1 MBP but I don't think that's doable.
Click to expand...
I’d recommend getting a replacement IDE drive and doing something more permanent.
For 700MHz and 800MHz models you are limited to 128GB.

If you were keeping the iMac, I’d suggest maxing out the RAM and redoing the heatsink compound while it was open. These iMacs are a bit odd in that they have one SODIMM (laptop) slot and one DIMM (desktop) slot.
 
ADunsmuir said:
I’d recommend getting a replacement IDE drive and doing something more permanent.
For 700MHz and 800MHz models you are limited to 128GB.

If you were keeping the iMac, I’d suggest maxing out the RAM and redoing the heatsink compound while it was open. These iMacs are a bit odd in that they have one SODIMM (laptop) slot and one DIMM (desktop) slot.
Click to expand...
RAM is maxed and I replaced the thermal paste about 10 years ago. I think I installed a 250 GB HDD too, can’t remember.

I really don’t feel like opening the case back up.
 
I think I do have one of those!

And yup, I put in a WD Caviar 250 GB in 2014. Looks like I paid $120 for it. 🤦🏻‍♂️.
 
Another solution is to simply use an external DVD drive, normally USB-connected.
The Apple SuperDrive is a good solution.
 
I have a Dell external DVD-ROM Firewire drive which I used to install Tiger on my G4 Cube, so definitely boots. I found USB drives were detected in OS X, but would not boot. It was only a few quid on eBay.
 
eddjedi said:
I have a Dell external DVD-ROM Firewire drive which I used to install Tiger on my G4 Cube, so definitely boots. I found USB drives were detected in OS X, but would not boot. It was only a few quid on eBay.
Click to expand...
Ok I might need to look into that then. Glad I have some options! I just need to decide what to plan to do with this.
 
davidg4781 said:
Ok I might need to look into that then. Glad I have some options! I just need to decide what to plan to do with this.
Click to expand...
Well, the cdrom drive is a generic 5.25" pata drive - nothing special about it. Any standard pata cdrom drive would work & getting into one isn't too bad. I just replaced one in my 17" imacg4 with one from a dead Dell tower 🙂
 
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