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Maximum addressable size is going to be 128 GB, I think.

thanks for all the info! Yea I was thinking about that today. I actually unplugged them all and retried.. no good. I also found a hardware diagnostic CD that came with the Imac and it said "Error code ata 1/6/-1 Mass Storage-Error detected". I don't really like the sound of that..
before I found it I took an equally old external hard drive I no longer use. Opened it up, took out the old hard drive and attached the drive through the cords but was unable to get it to read.. I've never opened up any of my computers before so I very well may have done something wrong.

The screen on the old imac was acting goofy anyway... so I decided to move my logic board onto a working 500mhz model with a good screen.. I just wanted to mess around and learn a little (I wasn't expecting much of a speed boost. It was only $20 and came with a drive and ram) Well.. I moved the logic board ok, put it back together, and I was just using Itunes on it. A couple days later I left it on for about 3 hours just playing music went over to it to shut it down, woke it from sleep and the drive made some crazy noises and I got the missing system folder icon shortly after.

So figuring the drive was probably old, and the room wasn't ventalated well, and because I had another cheap used drive a friend gave to me for free a couple days prior. Maybe curiosity was the kicker... I hooked it up and that same night it started making some crazy noises and started dieing again after being left on for a while. I shut it off immediatly, don't know if there is any hard drive damage yet. I had the room well ventilated this last time, and changed the hard drive cables.. Is it the logic board or a component on it?.. That is the only thing that is the same with this computer. It's not really a big deal I just thought it was strange and it just can't be a coincidence now.

Anyway I'm considering putting the 500mhz board back together. If not I figure I'll start a hard drive destroying buisness. At any rate it was my first mac so it was sad to see him go... I tried.. at first. Now I'm glad that bastard is gone! I still have his old shell at least, it's gunna make a nice fish tank some day.

haha thanks. I still don't know half as much as most mac tinkerers.. but enjoy learning what I can. Reading this forum has been a big help and things i find online. Bought a few macs since, it's a lot of fun opening them up and trying to figure stuff out.

Apelock wrote:

How hard is it to open up an iMac? Harder or easier than the old SE or Classic?

To get to the HD, a bit harder than an SE/Classic (assuming you have the right tools. The iMacs use phillips screws, whereas the compacts were pout together with torx.)

But you still don't expose the CRT, which I guess means it's safer, even if there are a couple more parts to remove.

Pariah wrote:

Be sure to lay in a supply of bandaids before getting into a gumby iMac. The sheet metal inside those things have edges sharp as razors.

Nah, they're duller than razors - which just means they leave jagged edges and hurt more.

No, really.

dvpierce wrote:

Pariah wrote:

Be sure to lay in a supply of bandaids before getting into a gumby iMac. The sheet metal inside those things have edges sharp as razors.

Nah, they're duller than razors - which just means they leave jagged edges and hurt more.

No, really.

Ya, with some sort of surface protectant that seems to retard healing.