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

The only way for a PowerPC Mac of that vintage to run any version of Windows is by buying and installing emulation software. Those packages have been discontinued for years and will not run Win 7 in any form.

The emulators like SoftWindows and OLD versions of VirtualPC demanded a huge amouunt of RAM and consdierable hard drive space. The largest drive that shipped in a Bondi was 6GB, barely enough for an minimalist OSX installation. Your Bondi cannot use more than 512MB RAM, and that's about the min for even running SoftWindows 95. I ran SW95 on a G3 tower with 512MB RAM and a bigger hard drive (9GB) than you have and the performance was "just barely."

You would be better off finding a older version of Linux compatible with a G3 processor. They, too, are getting hard to find.

A Bondi will run up to Mac OS 10.3.9 if you find a full retail install version. You would still need to max out the RAM to do this.

So, this is definitely the original Bondi Blue iMac.

These iMacs are just plain too old for a lot of the modern computer hardware out there.

And as Allan Jones pointed out, the Windows emulation software you need will be next to impossible to find and if and when you try to find this, I am pretty sure you won't be able to run a more modern version of Windows, either.

These iMacs are 15 years old and it's the first generation of this iMac line.

They made a lot more improvements to this generation of iMacs over the 4 years that these were in production.

If your iMac is still running OS X 10.3.9 Panther, I located a source for a USB Bluetooth dongle that may work with your iMac. It will operate slower than a direct Ethernet connection to your Internet modem, but this may work to get you wireless Intenet on your iMac.

There isn't a lot of older Mac new hardware devices any longer that will run on OS X 10.3 Panther and it is getting to be slim pickings for new Mac hardware that runs on older Mac that are still running OS X 10.4 Tiger.

Here are two that maybe compatible with your iMac as you are still running OS X 10.3.9 Panther.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/IOGear/GBU421/

and this one

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/IOGear/GBU321/

For Windows XP, check out eBay, Amazon, etc. for VirtualPC, version 5 (comes with Windows XP) and run it in OS 9:

[click on images to enlarge]

My comments about RAM and hard drive space remain. Max out your RAM and be prepared to have issues with hard drive space uness you have installed a larger drive.

You've got to remember that your iMac has one of the first generation (slow) G3 processors. When an OS software-emulation product like "Virtual PC" lists the minimum system specs and your computer just meets the low-end processor requirement, the performance that you can expect won't match what you'd have on a newer Mac with a faster G4 processor. I run Windows XP on PCs with Pentium 4 (2.6 - 3.2 GHz) processors and I've also run it on PCs with slower 1 GHz Pentium 3 processors. The difference is quite noticeable. Also, your reference to purchasing an external hard drive is a non-issue. You can't run Virtual PC (or the Mac OS - for that matter) on an external hard drive connected to one of the iMac's USB 1.1 ports.

Before spending any $$ on Virtual PC 5, you should read the reviews posted here at Amazon's web site in August and September 2002. These comments reflect what Mac users have found when running Windows emulation software on their older Macs. The performance won't match what you've experienced, running the same Windows OS on a PC that's the same vintage as the Mac. For best (marginally satisfactory) results, your Mac should have a processor at the high-end of the listed system requirements - which in your case - isn't the case.

Review 1: "I have an 'old' Power Mac G4 dual 1 GHZ processor with 1.5G of RAM installed. I am running the software under OSX. I do not believe that the OS 9 version supports dual processors. The installation was a bit rough. I had to install and uninstall two times... Once things booted up, performance has been great. I would hesitate to wonder how well it would work with a slower processor. This version recognizes both processors. I would definitely respect the minimum system requirements listed. I am near the top as far as Mac performance and would wonder how well it would work with a G3 or a 500 MHZ G4.

Review 2: "I bought this program to run one Windows program for a Garmin GPS receiver. I have a newer model iMac with 1 gig of memory, so it's not short of resources. I was completely frustrated and finally gave up. It was only after hours of trying things that I finally got Windows XP to run at all. And that's when I discovered how slowly it runs. I mean crawling, not walking, slow. It took forever to draw a map, print it, etc. I gave up; just loaded the map program on the wife's pc. You do the same and you'll save the money and effort. What a waste of both.

Review 3: "I a recent Mac convert. I have used Windows machines for many, many years. When I bought my iMac, I had heard about this program and was very excited...just think the best of both worlds, OS X and Windows XP Home. I plunked down my hard-earned ... and boy am I disappointed. THIS SOFTWARE IS BEYOND SLOW!!!! The documentation is lacking, the installation took several hours, and I now remember why I switched to a Mac in the first place. Believe me when I say, PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS SOFTWARE!!!! YOU WILL REGRET IT IF YOU DO. IT IS MUCH, MUCH TOO SLOW TO BE OF ANY USE."

Just like Jeff has stated, you won't be able to use any external hard drives. Even if they are USB drives, if they work at all, they will be painfully slow on a USB 1.1 connection.

This model iMac was the very first of its kind and as a result, is lacking many modern, newer technologies we all take for granted, now.

No USB 2.0. No FireWire. No way to add/use and run from a larger capacity hard drive. You're stuck with a measly 4 Gb internal hard drive in that iMac.

The optical drive is only a CD reading drive. It can't write data to CDs nor can it read/write DVDs.

You can only install and max. of 512 MBs of RAM. Later iMacs of this generation could have 1 and even 2 GBs of RAM.

Jeesh, when I think about it my original Beige G3, which was only 2 years older than the iMac, could take 768 MBs of RAM max.!

And without FireWire, you can't add any higher speed peripheral devices like FireWire hard drives or FireWire CD/DVD reading/ writing optical drives.

This first iteration of this generation of iMacs is truly an extremely limited Mac with really no way to expand its limits via external hardware. When I had one of these generation iMacs, I waited for the 3rd wave of these models.

They were a big improvement.

I recall that this model did NOT have a fan, so you may be hearing the precursor to its hard drive dying... 😟

I purchased the SONY Supressa USB 1.0 CD-R external burner to use with this Mac.

It burned at 2X, but many times I burned at 1X to reduce the number of "coasters" that it produced!

From MacTracker:

[click on images to enlarge]

Duling1 wrote:

...It is 6 dollars on amazon

VirtualPC 5 is $6 on Amazon?!?

When I upgraded to an Intel Mac, I "extracted" the copy of Windows XP from this package and used it for years in Bootcamp (and Parallels) on my MacBook Pro. Now I still use this for XP on my Lion Mac Mac Mini with Parallels with its original Microsoft serial number (and it authorizes fine)! 🙂

$6!!! Maybe I will purchase a copy to have XP on both Macs...

MIchael,

You constantly amaze me!

While I don't think the Windows emulation software on this model iMac is a very good idea,

I did a google search for your drive to see if this can even be still obtainable, at this point in time, and found this on Amazon.

Would this work for the OP, too! It's a 4X Sony burner.

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Spressa-6x4x4-External-Drive/dp/B00004XOYV

The OP will have to be careful not to burn discs to read in this iMac past the 650 MB limit, though, if the OP wants to use this drive.

This is the exact look of my original Spressa (it came with sets of colored bumpers to match your colored iMac!):

But as I recall, this was the updated model that came out AFTER mine. Not having had any experience with this model, I cannot say for any certaintly, but for those prices, why not try!?!

Again, I had troubles burning at 2X, so burning at 4X with this model may also be a sketchy proposition (maybe they added hardware to control the flowthrough speeds). But I did use it for quite a while at 1X and in those days having the ability to burn CDs at any speed was quite a novel experience for me. 🙂 I can't recall what software I used to burn...

NOTE: It requires a proprietary cable to connect to the back SONY connector and of course had USB 1.0 connector at the other end. Be sure to purchase WITH the cable, too.

(I may still have my cable somewhere. I remember selling this at a garage sale, before I could find the cable, and the cable appeared years later).

Also note the headphones jack on the front left for listing to audio CDs without using the iMac.

Thank you for the compliment! 🙂

"Again, I had troubles burning at 2X, so burning at 4X with this model may also be a sketchy proposition (maybe they added hardware to control the flowthrough speeds). But I did use it for quite a while at 1X and in those days having the ability to burn CDs at any speed was quite a novel experience for me. "

In those days, CD-ROM/reading devices were the big thing and in the late 1980’s into the mid to late 1990’a stil a big deal. Having a CD writer was a big thing, but somewhat expensive proposition back then, too! Around the early 1990’s I purchased a serial connected rack mounted caddy holder 2X CD- ROM drive for my music studio to use with my sound sampling equipment. It was a dedicated, big and bulky( length, width and height of a standard DVD/Blu-ray player today) unit that was only a CD reading drive! That cost me nearly $1000 at that time!

"No way to add/use and run from a larger capacity hard drive. You're stuck with a measly 4 GB internal hard drive in that iMac."

You can remove the internal hard drive and replace it with a larger 3.5" IDE/EIDE drive. The onboard controller should recognize up to 128 GBs. Directions with photos for that and other upgrades can be found here.