Bringing my imac G5 on tracks

Question

Bringing my imac G5 on tracks

Hello,

So, for Christmas, I found my old yet beloved iMac G5 isight, that I did not use for a couple of years, and turned it on. I want to use it as a jukebox for music on a NAS. I heard the ticking noise from the hard drive that told me the HDD is dead. It did not boot up, and stayed on the ? blinking logo. The superdrive does not work so here is my question: how to bring it back to life ?

I have a mac mini (intel), couple of external HDD on firewire and a universal 10.5 copy (and 10.4 if needed). I also have an external DVD player (samsung) if needed (apparently, the iMac did not accept this as a solution to boot up). I am ready to open the iMac and change the HDD. Though, how to install the OS on the other HDD ? Could I use my mini (intel) to do that ?

A side question: is it worth doing an upgrade to a SSD rather than a HDD ? Also, which brand / model to order ?

I hope there is a Santa Claus out there that will help me !

Thanks a lot

Damien

Soon the iMac iSight !, Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Posted on Dec 25, 2014 10:23 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 25, 2014 10:27 AM in response to Frenchy Damien

Since the bus in the G5 iMac is so slow, you will probably not notice that much of an improvement with an SSD.

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Answer 2

Dec 25, 2014 11:28 AM in response to Allan Eckert

Thanks Allan, I also think that for a jukebox, speed is not key.

And how to install the OS on the HDD now that the superdrive is dead ?

Cheers

Damien

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Answer 3

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Dec 25, 2014 4:47 PM in response to Frenchy Damien

The external dvd reader needs to be bootable. You could disassemble the external and place in g5, if cables are correct.

I believe the bus speed for g5 is 1.5. Find hd that you can jumper to 3.0. From there g5, will auto select down to 1.5.

cd sharing across ethernet.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5287

Place dvd in mac mini, then bring mini up in target disk mode.

You could try target disk mode if you have another mac around.
http://www.dan-taylor.com/reinstalling-mac-os-x-without-a-dvd-drive-target-disk- mode/

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Answer 4

Dec 26, 2014 8:30 AM in response to rccharles

So here is the fix I got, finally.

I had the os X image installed on a firewire HDD, thanks to disk utility, then restore function. This is a usable copy of the installation program by my iMac.

I found another firewire HDD I had in spare, and plugged it to the iMac.

I started with alt pressed, and was given the possibility to boot from the first HDD. I selected the second FX HDD as the disk of installation of Tiger. Voilà !

I hope the speed will not be too disastrous..

BTW, found this from one of the comments of the link you provided.. Thanks for the help !

Cheers

Damien

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Answer 5

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Dec 26, 2014 1:05 PM in response to Frenchy Damien

Glad to hear.

I run my iMac g3-600 off of a firewire 400 port. Don't observe much difference. Max out memory if you want to run multiple apps at once.

Robert

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