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#1 2009-06-26 11:52 pm
- crazycsa
- Member
- Registered: 2009-06-26
- Posts: 3
PowerMac G4 HDD
I just got my first Mac, it came without a Hard drive I'm wondering if Mac hdd's are different from PC's because I have a lot of them
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#2 2009-06-27 12:47 am
- gd
- Junior Member
- Registered: 2009-04-06
- Posts: 839
Re: PowerMac G4 HDD
Reformat one of your pc hdd's to Mac OS extended (journaled). Not sure how to do this though. And there are specifications that the hdds must comply to be installed on a Mac. You'll have to wait till someone with more knowledge on the subject posts here.
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#4 2009-06-27 1:11 am
- dv
- Negusa Negest
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- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
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Re: PowerMac G4 HDD
crazycsa wrote:
I just got my first Mac, it came without a Hard drive I'm wondering if Mac hdd's are different from PC's because I have a lot of them
They are not - any old PATA drive will work, though some versions of the G4s used older ATA controllers with a 128 GB drive limit. The same limit is present in many older PCs. The minimum necessary to install the latest version of Mac OS is 10GB or so.
I hope you have an OS install CD.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
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#5 2009-06-27 1:23 am
- crazycsa
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- Registered: 2009-06-26
- Posts: 3
Re: PowerMac G4 HDD
The mac that I bought is a Powermac G4, 867mhz, 2mb cache, 128 megs of ram, I ordered OS 8.1 on e-bay.
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#6 2009-06-27 2:17 am
#7 2009-06-27 3:23 am
- crazycsa
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- Registered: 2009-06-26
- Posts: 3
Re: PowerMac G4 HDD
I didn't know, like I said, my first mac
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#8 2009-06-27 3:27 am
- knobtwirler
- Anthropocentric Temporal Chauvinist
- From: NYC
- Registered: 2003-07-28
- Posts: 3245
Re: PowerMac G4 HDD
Wow that's like 1995 when 8.1 came out right? Did you buy your computer for like $50? It may be very difficult to get that computer to do anything you want by today's standards.
If you look around the table and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you.
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#9 2009-06-27 10:01 am
- dv
- Negusa Negest
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- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 18103
Re: PowerMac G4 HDD
I don't think OS 8.1 will run on that machine - too old.
http://lowendmac.com/ppc/mdd-power-mac-g4-dual.html
Read this.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
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Get it
Stack it!
#11 2009-06-29 6:16 am
- Graphic Autist
- Scumdog of the Universe
- From: Antarctica
- Registered: 2003-06-08
- Posts: 1044
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Re: PowerMac G4 HDD
gd wrote:
Reformat one of your pc hdd's to Mac OS extended (journaled). Not sure how to do this though. And there are specifications that the hdds must comply to be installed on a Mac. You'll have to wait till someone with more knowledge on the subject posts here.
How was this of help?
Seriously, this sort of reply can be extremely frustrating to someone who needs an answer to a problem.
You may as well just answer every question posted on here with "I don't know."
Mac Pro 2.66 ghz Quad Core - 9 GB RAM - Mac OS X 10.6.2 & 10.5.8
MacBook Pro 2.4 ghz Intel Core 2 Duo - 4 GB RAM - Mac OS X 10.6.2
G4 MDD Dual 1.25 ghz - 2 GB RAM - Mac OS X 10.5.8
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#12 2009-06-29 8:59 pm
- lord_uranus
- Member
- From: Japan
- Registered: 2003-01-31
- Posts: 167
Re: PowerMac G4 HDD
You'll be able to do a lot on that machine still. Especially if it's run of the mill office stuff like email, Web, word processing, scanning documents, keeping your digital photos in order, itunes and so on. You should be able to do movie editing and music composition (garage band) though definitely slower than a new machine.
My G4 isn't much faster than yours but I use it all the time as my main machine. I can't believe it's "old", I'm impressed by it every day.
And you can put in heaps of HD's, I've got like 1TB, and you can extend it's life and versatility by installing things like PCI cards with USB2 ports.
Look for tips on how to get cheap speed: basically max out the memory, and have big HD and your machine should be good for a while.
My baloney has a first name.
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