Move PC Hard Drive to Mac?

[AtHomeBoy_2000]

In October, I am thinking of buying a Mac for where I work. I currently have a PC with 2 hard drives (both 80 GB). I was wondering if it is possible to take the slave drive out and put it in a PowerMac. Obviously I would need to format it for Mac. I am not super knowledgable on the insides of a computer and I am even LESS knowledgable on how the insides of a Mac work. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[grapes911]

Which Power Mac do you have? Different PMs have different ways to connect hard drives. This goes the same for PCs.

 

[36183]

if they are sata drives and your on a powermac g5 you will have no problems.

if they are IDE you will need to get converters.

 

[AtHomeBoy_2000]

Which Power Mac do you have? Different PMs have different ways to connect hard drives. This goes the same for PCs.

I dont have the Mac yet.I wont be buying one until October. but the one i want to the low end 1.8 GHz Power Mac. As for the PC, (I am going to sound really stupid because i dont know what type of conection it is) but the hard drives are hooked up through the grayish color cable that is thin, but like 3" wide.

 

[grapes911]

I dont have the Mac yet.I wont be buying one until October. but the one i want to the low end 1.8 GHz Power Mac. As for the PC, (I am going to sound really stupid because i dont know what type of conection it is) but the hard drives are hooked up through the grayish color cable that is thin, but like 3" wide.

I sorry, I ment which mac you are you purchasing. There are a lot of used G4 out there.

That cable is probably an IDE connection. It won't work without an exta piece. I think you can get an IDE PCI card to make it work.


EDIT:
It might be easier to just purchase a new hard drive. Serial ATA drives (which the G5s use) aren't the cheepest, but I'd at least look into it.

 

[36183]

I dont have the Mac yet.I wont be buying one until October. but the one i want to the low end 1.8 GHz Power Mac. As for the PC, (I am going to sound really stupid because i dont know what type of conection it is) but the hard drives are hooked up through the grayish color cable that is thin, but like 3" wide.

hehe. all that tells me is that you got a 3.5 inch drive. it needs to have SATA connection to work on the G5 powermac without needing to get a SATA to IDE converter.

 

[Jo-Kun]

You can get a FireWire or USB2 enclosure and hook it up to your new mac or if you get a 2nd hand G4 you can just hook it up internally without any problem...

October is still far far away... so no problems to have right now ;-)

 

[topicolo]

yeah, the easiest solution would just be to get an external case for the hard drive. these range from as low as $20 (for a bare IDE to firewire converter) to $100 for a deluxe case with firewire, USB and even ethernet connectors.

 

[AtHomeBoy_2000]

EDIT:
It might be easier to just purchase a new hard drive. Serial ATA drives (which the G5s use) aren't the cheepest, but I'd at least look into it.

Well obviously that's the easy way. I am buying the G5 for my computer at church and I am on a VERY slim budget. If I can shave $200 off the price, then i need to. Hence why i figured I would move the slave drive from one computer to another.

 

[AtHomeBoy_2000]

yeah, the easiest solution would just be to get an external case for the hard drive. these range from as low as $20 (for a bare IDE to firewire converter) to $100 for a deluxe case with firewire, USB and even ethernet connectors.

where do i go about finding something like that?

 

[LeeTom]

The cheapest solution would be to just get an Parallel ATA to Serial ATA converter for your drive.
Like this one:
http://www.cwol.com/serial-ata/serial-ata-ide-converter.htm

 

[topicolo]

where do i go about finding something like that?

kazaam!







EDIT:my bad. It seems that newegg doesn't let you post searches. Try going to the site and searching for "firewire enclosure" they're all there and the prices are awesome