May I use a HDD in place of a CD Drive? (iMac G3, Tray Loading, 233mhz)

[MaxSolar0713]

Hello,

I am trying to restore my iMac G3 to run either Mac OS X or Mac OS 9. Due to some confusion when ordering a new 40gb HDD for it, I got a Hard Drive that will not fit into the HDD PATA cable, but will fit into the PATA Cable for the CD Drive.

My CD Drive (its the drive, not the cord) doesn't work, so is it possible that I could replace the CD Drive entirely with an HDD and do one of two things:

1. Use it as a normal HDD.

2. USe it as an installer for Panther of OS 9 in place of my CD Drive.

Thank you all,

Max

 

[alex_free]

Yes

 

[rampancy]

I'm a little confused by your question. When you say it doesn't fit into the HDD PATA cable, what exactly do you mean? Did you get a 3.5" IDE hard drive, or a 2.5" IDE hard drive?

 

[DearthnVader]

I'm a little confused by your question. When you say it doesn't fit into the HDD PATA cable, what exactly do you mean? Did you get a 3.5" IDE hard drive, or a 2.5" IDE hard drive?

That is odd, never owned the first gen iMac, but I assume it just has one ATA cable that runs boot HD/CD, and those cables should be interchangeable.