New MAxtor Hard Drive

Question

New MAxtor Hard Drive

I just got a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 40GB hard drive from the computer guys at my school (they gave it to me), and want to put it in my computer. I have a 450 Mhz G3 iMac DV+ w/ 512 ram and OS X 10.4.6.
I remember trying to install a new hard drive last year and I never got it to work because of compatability issues. I vaguely remember the old drive being a MAxtor DiamondMAx Plus 8, and I'm thinking it might be the same drive, as I gave them the drive back after it didn't work.
So my questions is: will said drive work in my computer?
Also, b/c I have an external CD burner that is much faster than the internal CDROM drive that came with the computer, I'll probably want to replace the internal CD drive with the new hard drive. IS this possible? If so, what do I need to do? (pin configurations, etc..)
Also, once that is done (assuming it can be done), how do I transfer files between the two drives? What is the best setup? Is it possible to get the two drives to essentially act like one 60GB drive (the original is a 20GB)?
On an unrelated note, is there any way to speed up my computer? I haven't looked seriously into either CPU upgrades or overclocking, but is either (1) worthwhile? (2) applicable in this case?

Thanks a lot

Chris

Posted on Jun 16, 2006 11:06 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Jun 16, 2006 11:15 AM in response to Chris Hoffman

So my questions is: will said drive work in my computer?

It should.

Is it possible to get the two drives to essentially act like one 60GB drive (the original is a 20GB)?

No

Reply

Answer 2

Jun 16, 2006 11:27 AM in response to Duane

so how do I go about installing the hard drive in the old CD slot and setting it up so I can actually use it?
What choices do I have?
Which one is probably the best for me?

Reply

Answer 3

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Jun 16, 2006 11:49 AM in response to Chris Hoffman

so how do I go about installing the hard drive in the old CD slot...

I don't know that information. When I needed a larger hard drive I replaced my iMac 400 MHz's original drive with a 120 GB drive. The next best thing in my opinion is putting that drive in an external FireWire enclosure.

Reply

Answer 4

Jeff

Level 6

12,328 points

Jun 18, 2006 9:35 PM in response to Chris Hoffman

I wouldn't advise attempting to accommodate a 3.5" hard drive in the space designated for the iMac's (laptop form factor) optical drive, even if it could be adapted to physically fit into the space. Because that iMac uses convection cooling, I wouldn't want the additional heat of a second hard drive spinning continuously. Optical drives only spin when needed, so most of the time, only their logic board is energized. I'd install the second hard drive in an external (Oxford 911 chipset-based) FireWire case. As for processor upgrades, a logic board swap is the only option, and at that, you'd only be bumping it up about 200 MHz. The expense probably wouldn't be justified, given the minimal performance gain realized.

Reply