iMac G4 Hard Drive swap?

[macnerd93]

Hello guys,

so when I got my iMac G4 the other day I put in the 120GB hard drive one of two which are in my quicksilver G4 tower so I know it works and the machine acted pretty bizarrely. It booted to the folder with a question mark fine (indicating it was formatted) and the drive showed up as "Backup HD" when holding down the option key during startup. However, the issue was I couldn't eject the optical drive to insert an install disk even when holding down the mouse. Target disk mode also didn't work and the computer just switched off when holding down t key. I put the stock hard drive in and all these features worked fine. So i'm pretty stumped.

The only thing I can think of is that its a Power draw issue is this 120GB 7200RPM drive drawing more power than the stock hard drive? The G4 is a 17'' 800 MHz model.

 

[Aameiel]

is this with a fresh install of the os ?

 

[chibiterasu]

Right a few things:

Are you sure you can't get the disc drive open by holding down the mouse, with the new drive in, because you say everything works fine with the old hard drive, if this the case put the disc in while the old hard drive is in before putting the new one in. Also looking at my sony super drive which has just come out of my iMac G4 there doesn't look to be any place where you can open it with a paper clip, but yours might be different.

Also with your power mac you could install osx to that 120gb drive and then put it in the iMac, that should work, you might have to tell it to boot from it by holding option but you already know that works on the iMac.

I don't know why target disc mode is doing that, it would be strange for it to be a power issue as I have a new 160gb 7200rpm WD in mine and it's had no problems getting the disc drive open and copying over my backup from the old hard drive in disc utility.

 

[macnerd93]

Right a few things:

Are you sure you can't get the disc drive open by holding down the mouse, with the new drive in, because you say everything works fine with the old hard drive, if this the case put the disc in while the old hard drive is in before putting the new one in. Also looking at my sony super drive which has just come out of my iMac G4 there doesn't look to be any place where you can open it with a paper clip, but yours might be different.

Also with your power mac you could install osx to that 120gb drive and then put it in the iMac, that should work, you might have to tell it to boot from it by holding option but you already know that works on the iMac.

I don't know why target disc mode is doing that, it would be strange for it to be a power issue as I have a new 160gb 7200rpm WD in mine and it's had no problems getting the disc drive open and copying over my backup from the old hard drive in disc utility.

Yep, can't get the drive open using the mouse. I even booted the iMac into open firmware and tried the eject command. It said "Cannot Eject Device" Once the old drive was put in, it all worked fine again. The drive boots and works fine in my Quicksilver tower, so I'm confused about it all. I also checked wiring and IDE cable no issues either.

I'll most likely clone the drive using disk utility whilst the hard disk is in the Quicksilver via target disk mode and see if I get any joy in booting it once fitted.

Once it is sorted would It be worth it putting Leopard on it? I am upping the RAM to 1GB. I do have Leopard on my 800 MHz Quicksilver model single cpu, but my understanding is that has better logic board than the one in the iMac which helps performance a lot, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it.

As a side note is it worth reapplying the thermal paste to parts which need it? Mine looks like it has been done relatively recently at some point.

 

[chibiterasu]

Yep, can't get the drive open using the mouse. I even booted the iMac into open firmware and tried the eject command. It said "Cannot Eject Device" Once the old drive was put in, it all worked fine again. The drive boots and works fine in my Quicksilver tower, so I'm confused about it all. I also checked wiring and IDE cable no issues either.

I'll most likely clone the drive using disk utility whilst the hard disk is in the Quicksilver via target disk mode and see if I get any joy in booting it once fitted.

Once it is sorted would It be worth it putting Leopard on it? I am upping the RAM to 1GB. I do have Leopard on my 800 MHz Quicksilver model single cpu, but my understanding is that has better logic board than the one in the iMac which helps performance a lot, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it.

As a side note is it worth reapplying the thermal paste to parts which need it? Mine looks like it has been done relatively recently at some point.

That issue with the disc drive is very strange even more so that you have checked the wiring and I take it that you have checked the settings jumper on the hard drive and disc drive, as it's all on one ide cable in that mac (if I remember correctly and that can mean that the iMac gets a bit fussy if there wrong)

Cloning should work if all goes well,

hummm from what I've heard some people say its fine on 800mhz some people say it's not, your right with your quicksilver it's has some better bus speeds and the graphics card should be better, your defiantly need that 1gb of ram for leopard on that iMac, but even if your not happy with the performance of leopard you can always go tiger.

I personally would even if it looks recent just for the fact that there won't be as good of contact between the heat sinks because the seal has been broken (if that make sense) meaning less thermal conduction, but I would only do it once your happy with everything on the inside of the iMac, so when the ram is done (you might also think about replacing the pram battery, if it's still the original one, why your there just so you don't have to bother when it does go)

 

[chibiterasu]

Yep, can't get the drive open using the mouse. I even booted the iMac into open firmware and tried the eject command. It said "Cannot Eject Device" Once the old drive was put in, it all worked fine again. The drive boots and works fine in my Quicksilver tower, so I'm confused about it all. I also checked wiring and IDE cable no issues either.

I'll most likely clone the drive using disk utility whilst the hard disk is in the Quicksilver via target disk mode and see if I get any joy in booting it once fitted.

Once it is sorted would It be worth it putting Leopard on it? I am upping the RAM to 1GB. I do have Leopard on my 800 MHz Quicksilver model single cpu, but my understanding is that has better logic board than the one in the iMac which helps performance a lot, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it.

As a side note is it worth reapplying the thermal paste to parts which need it? Mine looks like it has been done relatively recently at some point.

That issue with the disc drive is very strange even more so that you have checked the wiring and I take it that you have checked the settings jumper on the hard drive and disc drive, as it's all on one ide cable in that mac (if I remember correctly and that can mean that the iMac gets a bit fussy if there wrong)

Cloning should work if all goes well,

hummm from what I've heard some people say its fine on 800mhz some people say it's not, your right with your quicksilver it's has some better bus speeds and the graphics card should be better, your defiantly need that 1gb of ram for leopard on that iMac, but even if your not happy with the performance of leopard you can always go tiger.

I personally would even if it looks recent just for the fact that there won't be as good of contact between the heat sinks, meaning less thermal conduction, but I would only do it once your happy with everything on the inside of the iMac, so when the ram is done (you might also think about replacing the clock battery, if it's still the original one, why your there just so you don't have to bother when it does go)

 

[Intell]

Depending on which speed your iMac is 700-800Mhz or 1-1.25Ghz, it could have one or two IDE controllers. If it is the slower iMac, it has one and the new hard drive must be the exact same master/slave/cable setting as the old drive or it won't work. You can get the optical drive to eject when it's at the boot menu, option at boot, and pressing the eject key on the keyboard. From the description of your problems, it sounds like the new hard drive is not correctly configured.

It is extremely important that you reapply new thermal paste when opening an G4 iMac. Failure to do so will lead to overheating as possible welding of the two halves.

 

[macnerd93]

a little update on things. I swapped out the 40GB hard drive, (my understanding this isn't stock as it was Samsung branded) for a newer 80GB 7200RPM drive I had lying around. This works flawlessly I also upgraded the ram to 1GB and installed Mac OS X Leopard all is working fine now. I also reapplied the thermal paste.

 

[chibiterasu]

a little update on things. I swapped out the 40GB hard drive, (my understanding this isn't stock as it was Samsung branded) for a newer 80GB 7200RPM drive I had lying around. This works flawlessly I also upgraded the ram to 1GB and installed Mac OS X Leopard all is working fine now. I also reapplied the thermal paste.

That all sounds good, the hard drives normally are branded I pulled out a seagate from my imac g4, normally if you see a logo on the sticker that's a good indication of it being a stock hard drive.

Well done for replying the thermal past. intell is right, it is more serious than I made it sound.

 

[macnerd93]

That all sounds good, the hard drives normally are branded I pulled out a seagate from my imac g4, normally if you see a logo on the sticker that's a good indication of it being a stock hard drive.

Well done for replying the thermal past. intell is right, it is more serious than I made it sound.

the hard drive previous was dated 2005 so i assume it was added at some point later in its life, but still couldn't never the 120GB to work properly so I'm stumped. works fine in the G4 quicksilver though.

 

[mmomega]

I installed a Velociraptor 150GB SATA in my 17" G4. Working great with Leopard on but I may go back to Tiger so it runs a little smoother.
Replaced the stock 80GB that it came with, which still works.

I need to up the RAM to 1GB one day. Everything works great until you hit a website with flash on it.