Intel iMac hard drive and RAM into G3 iMac - is it possible?

[mrsir2009]

My intel 2006 iMac recently died, and I'm wondering if I could one of the 1GB RAM sticks into the a G3 iMac I own. And more importantly: If I could put the hard drive from the intel iMac into the iMac G3.

The intel iMac was made in late 2006 and the iMac G3 was made in 1999, 1998 or 2000.

If I can't, would you please explain why not 😀 Thanks!!

 

[iBookG4user]

No, you can't. They use different technology.

 

[mrsir2009]

No, you can't. They use different technology.

Ok. So then can I copy the entire contents of the hard drive (including the OS) to the G3 imac's hard drive. Then proceed to boot off the OS I copied?

 

[Hrududu]

Ok. So then can I copy the entire contents of the hard drive (including the OS) to the G3 imac's hard drive. Then proceed to boot off the OS I copied?

You can copy all your documents, pictures, movies etc off, but your 06 iMac has an intel processor which means it has an Intel version of Mac OS installed. Since the G3 is a PowerPC, you can't boot up from an Intel OS.

 

[mrsir2009]

You can copy all your documents, pictures, movies etc off, but your 06 iMac has an intel processor which means it has an Intel version of Mac OS installed. Since the G3 is a PowerPC, you can't boot up from an Intel OS.

Can the iMac G3s not boot up from Tiger either? 🙁

 

[iBookG4user]

You can copy all your documents, pictures, movies etc off, but your 06 iMac has an intel processor which means it has an Intel version of Mac OS installed. Since the G3 is a PowerPC, you can't boot up from an Intel OS.

This.

You'll need to put a fresh install of OS X on the G3 and copy over the data manually by getting an external enclosure if you can't get the intel iMac to boot into target disk mode..

 

[old-wiz]

And if you have files in iPhoto on the Intel, then they won't be usable on the older iPhoto.

 

[iBookG4user]

Can the iMac G3s not boot up from Tiger either? 🙁

It depends upon the iMac G3 that you have, if it has a 400MHz or faster processor, then you can put 10.4 on it. If not, Panther is the highest you can go.

 

[mrsir2009]

It depends upon the iMac G3 that you have, if it has a 400MHz or faster processor, then you can put 10.4 on it. If not, Panther is the highest you can go.

Thanks for the replies guys!

I will install Panther or Tiger, but first I need some install CDs, as my other ones got mysterious heatdamage... Guess I'll have to grab some off TradeMe.

 

[mrsir2009]

Does anybody know of any good ways to wipe the hard drive? Because I can't remember the password for it 🙄

(by the way, reinstalling does not do anything 😱)

 

[Sun Baked]

Yes, quite possible (if you know how), just have to travel to the correct galaxy/dimension where you can get it done. 😱

 

[iBookG4user]

Does anybody know of any good ways to wipe the hard drive? Because I can't remember the password for it 🙄

(by the way, reinstalling does not do anything 😱)

You could use Disk Utility and zero out the data using that.

 

[mrsir2009]

Yes, quite possible (if you know how), just have to travel to the correct galaxy/dimension where you can get it done. 😱

Yes, that seems like an ideal solution.

[EDIT]: OMG, it actually worked! Thanks-a-million!

 

[Sun Baked]

Beside the drives having different connections ATA vs. SATA,

The Intel drive is formatted with an Wintel scheme (GUID) which has an Apple File System bolted on top.

The PPC machines need a HFS+ formatted drive to boot off of.

---

You can take the drive out of the dead machine and buy a cheap case at the local computer store, and use it as an external drive ... this will give you access to a lot of the data on the drive.

If you also have a new enough OS on the PPC, and the apps are universal you should be able to run them off that drive.

 

[mrsir2009]

This is what happened just now:

•I reset the password using the password reset option in the Mac OSX installer.

•It worked, and I got into the machine. But everything is screwed up. I mean, all the applications are just folders, and I can't seem to open any files or applications. I can't even stick anything in the trash... 😕 Its a bit weird...

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

The Intel drive is formatted with an Wintel scheme (GUID) which has an Apple File System bolted on top.

The PPC machines need a HFS+ formatted drive to boot off of.

This isn't quite correct. Drives for Intel and PPC are both formatted HFS+. Intel uses GUID scheme, and PPC uses the Apple Partition Map scheme. If all you needed was HFS+ then PPC Macs would be able to boot from a GUID schemed drive.

 

[mrsir2009]

Thanks, I've solved pretty much everything with the machine, except the fact that it takes a few tries to successfully start it up 😱