I have a 1998 bondi blue iMac and I would like to put windows on it help

If you tear down this iMac, you have to be extremely careful around the Cathode ray tube.

These can keep in a lethal charge in them for a long time unless you have the right tool/device to drain of this excess charge.

This is why I never, ever did a tear down/reassembly of these style iMac or eMacs. Too much risk of accidentally coming in contact anywhere of the monitor.

That and you have to be careful taking these apart to get the power button assembly disconnected without damaging it and reconnecting it properly without damaging it.

If you follow the directions for hard drive replacement with the step-by-step photos at the link I provided, you'll find that you are never in danger of coming in contact with any high-voltage charge. The CRT and other components storing a dangerous charge are safely contained in the upper section of the computer's case. The same can be said for the slot-loading iMacs, in terms of hard drive or optical drive replacement. You access either by removing the lower part of the housing, which doesn't expose you to any shock hazard. Removal of the upper part of the housing is a different story. Even though P-A-V board failure is very common in slot-loading iMacs, I'd never suggest or recommend that the average user attempt to replace it, because of the potential for serious electrical shock.

Well, that's a good thing to know.

I am pretty sure the eMac's case is different because you have the remove the whole conical section of the eMac's case just behind the eMac's screen front and it exposes pretty much everything.

My question to you ( and this, probably, should've been asked up front) is why are you trying to go to all of these lengths to get a 15 year old iMac ( that you don't want to run native Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X with) to run a very old version of a Windows operating on in the first place?

Macs are not Window PCs to run Window on!

The performance of the Windows emulation software to be able to use Windows on this iMac will be an excersize in patience at best.

It will be slow. Very slow and dodgy.

As has been repeated over and over, this was the very first iMac of its kind and as such, as is ( without some major hardware replacement surgery), very limited in what you can do with this.

This is no way to run an external hard drive on this model. USB 1.1 I don't think will even see a hard drive connected to it.

You appear to be very much a "newbie" or novice when dealing with upgrading and working inside computers, so, there is a chance something bad could happen to the iMac if you really aren't used to working inside computers and you don't really know or understand what you are doing.

What is you end game with this iMac?

If you plan on using it regularly on the Internet, this will be a disappointing experIence for you as the Internet has changed quite a bit in 15 years.

There is a lot of content that won't be recognized by this iMac, it will run really slow on the Internet because of the many changes over the years.

If you run Windows emulation software and are planning to use Internet Explorer instead of a Mac browser like Safari or some other Mac-compatible web browser, your Internet experience on the emulation software will be even worse!

iMacs were never, ever designed to be internally upgradeable machines by the end user.

That is why later iMacs had better connectivity so you could add on external devices to make up for the iMac's shortcomings.

With everything you want to try and do, you'd be better off with a beige box G3 PowerMac desktop or Tower or later G4 PowerMac Tower. These have the capabilities of doing everything you want to do to it to get it to run reasonably well on the Internet and do a better job of running Windows emulation software.

My opinion here. Mileage may vary.

RAM for this iMac will be cheap.

It won't cost you $200 for RAM. I can guarantee that!

Here's a link to a place where you can order Mac RAM. I believe they ship internationally, too!

This is the RAM you need.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=iMac%20(G3-233%2C%20266%2C%20o r%20333)

There is no way to add any external hard drive. None. And you certainly couldn't run an OS off of it on USB 1.1 if there was a hard drive that would work. Again, far, far too slow with USB 1.1.

I do not understand why you want to run Windows instead of the Mac OS

Either Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X are much less of a security issue than Windows.

You're missing the point to having and running a Mac!

If you want to run Windows, buy a older used Windows Desktop Machine.

It doesn't have to be new! Something older or used from HP or Dell!

Windows PC boxes are a lot cheaper and even cheaper used than Macs and you'll find a newer model that will better suit your need/s.

No matter what you try to do with this iMac, this will never be a good computing experience for you.

my friend just said that ram can cost up to 200$

Sounds like he's assume everything Mac is more expensive? You can max the RAM for US$52 plus shipping:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac/G3_233MHz_266MHz_333MHz

Your best bet to get this running?

I am putting this all out there for you.

Jeff is correct. The iMac comes apart in two parts.

If you just disassemble the bottom, you can get at the RAM and replace that awful 4 GB hard drive and instal a 120 Gb internal hard drive. And install the extra RAM to get your iMac to 512 MBs of RAM.

The hard drive will be the more expensive hardware. Not RAM.

Here's one example of the hard drive upgrade you'll need and how much it'll cost.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST3120213A/

Instead of running Windows,

Find and purchase a version of Mac OS 9 on disc. You need a disc for OS 9.2, 9.2.1 or 9.2.2. install it! There is a software firmware updater that needs to be downloaded, installed and ran from OS 9 to update the iMacs firmware to be able to run OS X.

If you already have a disc of OS X 10.3 Panther with this iMac, Install this after the firmware update.

Once OS X is installed, you can check to see if the Software Update function will bring you to an area on Apple's website wher you can install the OS X 10.3.9 Combo updater.

If you can update to the version of OS X you have. Do it!

Forget Windows and run this iMac with its proper OS and use the Safari web browser or older versions of Camino or FireFox web browsers for OS X 10.3.9 and below.

This is the best and really only way to get the best performance out of this iMac. Period!

This is the way to have a decent experience with a Mac. Even a Mac as old s this!

Forget the whole running Windows thing. Not going to be a pleasant experience, AT ALL!

Get your friend to help you with the RAM install and hard drive replacement if he is more knowledgable than you about computers.

Duling1 wrote:

I understand your concern allan but I am going to buy an external hard drive and delete anything that uses up alot of RAM and try run my computer soley on windows XP

I misunderstood your original post.

Now that I see you want to run WIndows XP 100% of the time, I have to concur with MichelPM that VirtualPC's performance, while it WILL work, will be an exercise in patience and then frustration.

If you have NO prior experience using a computer, you may not realize how slow it is running. But once you have seen modern day performance, I will bet dollars to doughnuts that you would abandon the daily use of this iMac exclusively for Windows XP.

That being said, if the investment is not too large (and $15 to ship all the way to Australia seems like a bargain to me!) and you are the pioneering type, go have at it and see how you like its performance! There is always eBay to sell it off piece by piece if you are not happy with it.

If you decide to go my route, yoy might as we'll also, purchase the CD burner/writer we linked to on Amazon.

This will, at least, give you something to burn CDs with.