iMac G3 External Hard drive

[Derrick Velasco]

Hi! I was wondering how much external memory an iMac G3 1999 will accept!
And I'm looking for an external Hard Drive that uses the built in Firewire 400.
If you found another thread on this I'm very sorry!
Please help and thanks!

btw: it's blueberry. and 400MHz with 512MB SDRam

 

[strider42]

If I recall correctly, the only size limit is on the internet hard drive. An external shouldn't matter how big it is. The only caveat to that is that if you build your own with an empty case, you need to make sure the case itself supports the larger drives. The size limitation has always been because of the hard drive controller, which in an external resides inside the drive case.

 

[Derrick Velasco]

Okay! You answered my questions except just 1 that I didn't list,
If I go to Best Buy do you think If I tell them I need a Firewire 400 External Hard Drive do you think that will be enough information to tell them?

 

[strider42]

Yeah, that should be all you need to do.

 

[sickmacdoc]

And don't let them tell you that a USB 2 drive only will work "just as well and be cheaper" as I have heard them tell people- first because it is not true (they are cheaper though) and secondly because those Macs only have USB 1.1 ports which would result in ungodly slow use with a hard drive.

If you go to Best Buy, they have a pretty limited supply of FW compatible drives in the stores- but usually do have Maxtor One Touch 4 Plus, Seagate Free Agent Pro and sometimes some of the Western Digital MyBook series that have FW. Double check what you get as One Touch 4 is not the same as One Touch 4 Plus, etc.!

For a much wider selection and often better pricing, you might want to check OWC ( http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/ ) or newegg.com online as well.

 

[Derrick Velasco]

Yeah most of those people at Best Buy just wanna sell you anything..
Like "Will Bluetooth work if I install an external hard drive?"
"YES IT WILL!"
Thanks guys!

 

[Nick68]

Check out LaCie

Hi.
I've stuck by LaCie drives since i got my original Mac (an iMac 450 DV+) and they have been fine. If you can stretch your money to a Quadra interface you have USB, Firewire400, Firewire 800 & eSATA so you are pretty much future proofed.

 

[hughvane]

Okay! You answered my questions except just 1 that I didn't list,
If I go to Best Buy do you think If I tell them I need a Firewire 400 External Hard Drive do you think that will be enough information to tell them?

You should do plenty of research about the well-known Firewire Bug (a.k.a the Firewire Conundrum). Some OS X systems were not compatible with external firewire drives because of their chipset. It was found that the Oxford 911 or 922 chipset external drive enclosures were much more reliable. For example, I'm stuck with a Seagate 250 drive in an Ice combo enclosure that won't work via Firewire. I have to use USB, but at least it's USB2.

If it's not too late, instead of going to BestBuy, I would strongly recommend that you use OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/ which specialises in affordable Mac hardware. The Mercury Elite Combo enclosure would be my choice. If not that, the G-tech external drives use the Oxford chipset. Shop around.