Apple OS questions from an Apple newbie

[santuitman]

Hello All
I'm being giving an old iMac all in one and I haven't used a Mac in years. This has no hard drive and apparently no OS disks. Be patient with me please


Can I use an old pc drive and reformat it?


Can I find an older OS version to download or will I have to buy an install cd?



Update... It is a G3 400 DV The slot loading drive is jammed or dead and I'll have to find another drive to see if there's power, I guess

Thanks in advance!!!

Brian

 

[TheStu]

Do you happen to know anything else about the machine? What processor does it use?

 

[santuitman]

Hello
I know its green... Sadly this really is all I know about it. It is the style that had a CRT and is probably year 2000 vintage but I don't have my hands on it yet. I'm supose to be picking it up in the AM.

Brian

 

[MovingTarget]

It'll probably just use a regular ATA hard drive IIRC. Older Macs used a SCSI drive. If you wanted to boot it up to see if it'll work, burn yourself a linux live cd for PPC architecture. I know ubuntu had one at one point. As far as old os discs, you should be able to find those somewhere.

 

[santuitman]

I love the internet... and google! Here's a ubuntu link in case anyone else is interested. Thanks for the info. My first foray into a mac product is still sitiing in a heap waiting for a lot of repair. It hasn't even gotten to the "what to do about an os" stage!

Thanks!

 

[CrackRabbit]

older ata hard drive should work fine.
For a bit more info on the hardware check out http://www.lowendmac.com
no matter how old it is it should run up to 10.4.x unless it is a tray loading one, then you are topped out at 10.3.9.

 

[umrigar]

You can look up all the iMac specs on this page:
http://www.everymac.com/system...e/imac/index-imac.html
It will also list what the minimum OS is for each model, if you're looking to get the Apple OS discs for it.
Here's another good page for that info:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25517

Typically you can put a regular ATA hard drive in these iMacs. Jumper it to Master. Anything over 128 GB won't be addressable by the system, IIRC, so don't waste a 400 GB drive in there.
5400 or 7200 RPM will help it feel faster, as well as maxing the RAM. If it's a slot-loader (350 MHz - 700 Mhz G3), you can put in two regular PC100 SDRAM DIMMs. PC133 will work if they are programmed to work as PC100; some are not. Also, good quality RAM is essential if you want to run crash-free. OS X is very picky about memory; not the brand, but the chip quality. Crucial is a safe bet, or try Other World Computing.

If the iMac only ran OS 9, then you'll need to update the firmware to install OS X, or you might turn it into a non-booting iMac.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117

I'd stay away from OS X versions 10.0 thru 10.2 if you can. 10.3 is great. 10.4 has some nice additions, but you'll want a lot more RAM.
Try to get at least 512 MB in there or you'll experience slowdowns in the form of a spinning rainbow-colored ball.

http://www.lowendmac.com/macdan/03/0307ek.html
http://www.lowendmac.com/hodges/06/1116.html

 

[santuitman]

Holy cow you guys are great! I've got it in the car but am waiting for the rain to end to see what I've really got. The fellow said something was odd about the firewire port so going by that and the lime color This page would lead me to think it's a 400mhz iMac DV. Again thanks everyone for the info!

BRian

 

[santuitman]

Hello
In case anyone was wondering the iMac is a 400DV. The hard drive is missing. It will start but just goes to a ? icon. The slot drive has a CD stuck in ity and it will not eject. I found the emergeny eject button info and some info about clearing it with a paperclip but neither work. I never heard the drive even spin. I tore it down and I can carefully free spin the cd in the drive. I don't know whether the drive is not getting power or exactly how to tell that so I gues I need to find another Apple drive to see if power is the problem. I don't know if any laptop drive would work or not. I'll have to get the cd going to try the rest. Any other ideas?

Thanks

Brian

 

[timswim78]

You can download OS 7.5.3 for free from Apple.
http://download.info.apple.com...tem_7.5_Version_7.5.3/

I have no idea if it will work on that machine.

 

[umrigar]

iMac DV has FireWire and USB 1.1 ports.
You can boot from an external CD/DVD drive in a FW case.
It doesn't have to be an Apple drive; most drives will "just work."
The CD-ROM/DVD drive inside the iMac might be disconnected from power inside. It uses a special bridge board to connect it to the IDE cable, which also connects to the hard drive.

Found a page with a step-by-step and GOOD photos!
http://www.sterpin.net/uk/imacslotinuk.htm

You won't boot an iMac with 7.5.3. The iMac DV shipped with OS 8.6 or 9.0.

 

[santuitman]

Hmm
I was able to strip it down to the CD drive. It was connected as far as I could tell. I unplugged and then replugged the drive. It still won't make a sound. I can even see the eject switch now so I know I'm hitting it. Not sure what else to try aside from another drive.
Umigar, Are you saying that another laptop drive may work if I change the bridge board to one? And hmm I've an old external CD drive around here somewhere. It's USB but Maybe I'll give it a shot.

Thanks!

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: santuitman
Hmm
I was able to strip it down to the CD drive. It was connected as far as I could tell. I unplugged and then replugged the drive. It still won't make a sound. I can even see the eject switch now so I know I'm hitting it. Not sure what else to try aside from another drive.
Umigar, Are you saying that another laptop drive may work if I change the bridge board to one? And hmm I've an old external CD drive around here somewhere. It's USB but Maybe I'll give it a shot.

Thanks!

The USB drive will work in OS, but if you want to boot, you have to have a firewire device.

 

[umrigar]

Some Macs will boot from USB. Intels, all.
PowerPC, some. It's gonna be slow, however.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58430


Universal Serial Bus (USB)

The Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) and iMac (Slot-Loading) incorporate a separate 12-Mbps USB controller for each USB port. Now there is the potential to connect up to 127 devices to each port, as opposed to earlier USB-enabled Macintosh computers that support up to 127 devices connected to both USB ports.

What's New to USB?

Beginning with the Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) and the iMac (Slot-Loading), two new features to USB are most apparent: support for USB audio devices and booting from USB drives.

USB Audio Devices: This includes any device also that supports the Isochronous USB protocol (which are mostly Audio in nature). This includes USB speakers, microphones, and other recording/playback devices.

Bootable USB drives: A storage device such as a SuperDisk, Zip disk, or other USB storage drive can be used to hold a valid system folder and used at startup.

 

[santuitman]

Well, I'm dying to try it but won't have the time today as I'm suppose to be working... Hopefully I'll get the chance this weekend. I'll try to put an old hard drive in and then see if I can run the ubuntu live CD off of an external cd drive. If it works that will (hopefully) give me an idea as to how the rest of the hardware is.

 

[santuitman]

Just an update incase anyone was wondering. This iMac has more problems then I have time for now. There seems to be some video problems and the hard drive will not fromat with the ubuntu cd so I'm giving up for now.

Thank you very much for all the help though!!!!!

BRian

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

What are the video problems?

 

[umrigar]

For one make sure the hard drive is set to MASTER, not Cable Select.
I would try a Mac OS 9.1 or 9.2 CD if you can borrow one or get one cheap.