Q: Snow iMac G3 internal optical drive with issues
Hello
I have an old iMac G3 Snow 600 MHz.
The issue the optical drive has is that it reads fine but discs are almost always stuck after inserting them and the mechanism struggles to get them out, most of the time unsuccefully unless I help with a paperclip.
I will be opening up the iMac to investigate the issue but in the event that I need an external optical drive, what is recommended. I do prefer a drive that will let me boot to the original discs. Now, I also have a PowerMac G4 quicksilver and a firewire cable. Can I use the powermac G4 as an external CD ROM?
I actually want to resintall from the original discs.
What are my options?
I understand that the G3 can only boot from firewire due to PPC so if this is the case, what external optical drive can I purchase. I can only find USB optical drives.
Thank you in advance for your reply.
iMac, Mac OS 9.2.x, Snow 600 MHz
Posted on Dec 17, 2014 3:24 PM
In answer to your question about the use of the G4's optical drive, you can connect the G4 and iMac via FireWire in "Target Disk Mode." As the target computer, the iMac's hard drive will appear on the G4's (host) desktop, the same as an externally-connected drive. When running the OS installer program, select the iMac's hard drive as the destination disk. This solution doesn't involve investing any $$ in new hardware for the iMac, which may be preferable if you don't plan on using it much.
Posted on Dec 18, 2014 12:41 AM