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#1 2003-01-20 11:44 am
- ztorner
- Member
- Registered: 2003-01-20
- Posts: 2
Can I use my G3 tower as a monitorless HD?
I was wondering if anyone could help me...I just got a Powerbook G4, and would like to use my old G3 tower purely as an external HD for it and would like to put the monitor into storage. Im not very good with networking and stuff so I don't know if this is possible or if I would have to just network the macs together to use the storage space. My main concerns are that I do a lot of design work and Final Cut Pro, so all the extra space I can get is helpful. Thanks to anyone who can help me out.
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#2 2003-01-20 11:54 am
- pottymouth
- Uncreative
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- From: JP, MA
- Registered: 2002-02-06
- Posts: 17410
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Re: Can I use my G3 tower as a monitorless HD?
Nope. You have a couple options but you're talking about something like firewire target disk mode. The G3s don't support that. You could set it up like a file server. Problem is, you'd need the monitor every once in a while to reboot or clean up or do whatever.
I think your best bet would be to invest in an external firewire case. (~$100) Then you could just take the HD from the G3, slap it in there and use it as an external hardrive for your powerbook.
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#3 2003-01-20 2:31 pm
- BehindEnemyLInes
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- From: Issaquah WA USA
- Registered: 2002-01-28
- Posts: 20
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Re: Can I use my G3 tower as a monitorless HD?
Firewire/USB cases are all over on Dealmac for 40-100 bucks, easy as can be to set up, and extremely portable, I use a 100 gig external in a case, and I take it everywhere I go with my laptop.
If that isn't how you want to go, a simple Netgear hub, two cables and set up the G3's hard drive as a shared volume, turn file sharing on on both machines, and voila! Access in a flash, and a simple little network, if you're on a cable or dsl modem, hook it's cable into the uplink port on your hub and you're set...good luck!
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#4 2003-01-21 2:04 am
- abacsalmasi
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- Registered: 2002-06-05
- Posts: 77
Re: Can I use my G3 tower as a monitorless HD?
I did the exact thing you want to do. All you need is a router really, and set it up to share and so fourth. It is usefull to be able to manage the machine, tell it to go to sleep, update it and so fourth, so for that I use Remote Desktop and it lets you take control of the machine and do all the necessay things to it. If your looking to use it as a HD that you access frequently this way is no good for you because the file sharing speed isn't all that great, but you can dump data to it for storage, but I wouldn't "save" to it.
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#5 2003-01-28 9:00 pm
- ztorner
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- Registered: 2003-01-20
- Posts: 2
Re: Can I use my G3 tower as a monitorless HD?
thx for the help...I will look into what you guys suggest. (sorry the thank you comes a week later...its busy around here!) Appreciate it!
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#6 2003-01-28 9:32 pm
- jdsmith575
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- From: Texas Tech Univ.
- Registered: 2001-04-09
- Posts: 741
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Re: Can I use my G3 tower as a monitorless HD?
Actually, if all you want to do is network the machines together and use the G3 for file storeage, get a crossover cable. It will cost you less than $20. It looks just like an ethernet cable, so make sure if you buy one.
If I'm remembering correctly, the network cards in the G3s only did 10base-T. You might invest in a PCI network card if you want faster speeds.
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