Specs: eMac OS 10.5.8 PowerPC G4
I like to back-up via TimeMachine but cannot find the adequat external disc to match. Most USB's sticks who would match have Version 2.0 but are too small.(64GB) Most external Harddrives 1TB are Version 3.0 or higher.
Can anyone tell me were I can find what I'm looking for?
Thanks, Hubert.
MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), Beside: iMac 10.11.1 + eMac 10.5.8
Welcome!
First let's verify whether your eMac has USB 1,1 or USB 2,0 ports. There are eMacs variants with 1,1 and others with 2,0.
From your Apple menu, please do "About this Mac." When the "About" window appears, click the "More Info..." button. This is from one of our working eMacs
That launches System Profiler:
If the Model Identifier has the code PowerMac6,4 as in the example, your eMac has USB 2,0 ports. If the code is PowerMac4,4, it has USB 1,1 ports.
If it's 2,0, any USB 3 drive should be backwards compatible. My 2010 iMac with USB 2,0 ports is very happily backing up to an Other World Computing external drive with only USB 3 connectivity. Not completely sure about USB1,1 being compatible but I believe it is.
If you are looking at spending money, remember that a large group of eMac with USB 2,0 ports had a massive hardware flaw that is effectively impossible to fix today. One day they work, the next day they are dead. Those have the 6,4 code in Profiler and 1.0ghz and 1,25gHz processors. Affected units usually--but not always--fall in these serial number ranges:
If your serial number is among these, I would not want to spent a great deal of money on the project.
Welcome!
First let's verify whether your eMac has USB 1,1 or USB 2,0 ports. There are eMacs variants with 1,1 and others with 2,0.
From your Apple menu, please do "About this Mac." When the "About" window appears, click the "More Info..." button. This is from one of our working eMacs
That launches System Profiler:
If the Model Identifier has the code PowerMac6,4 as in the example, your eMac has USB 2,0 ports. If the code is PowerMac4,4, it has USB 1,1 ports.
If it's 2,0, any USB 3 drive should be backwards compatible. My 2010 iMac with USB 2,0 ports is very happily backing up to an Other World Computing external drive with only USB 3 connectivity. Not completely sure about USB1,1 being compatible but I believe it is.
If you are looking at spending money, remember that a large group of eMac with USB 2,0 ports had a massive hardware flaw that is effectively impossible to fix today. One day they work, the next day they are dead. Those have the 6,4 code in Profiler and 1.0ghz and 1,25gHz processors. Affected units usually--but not always--fall in these serial number ranges:
If your serial number is among these, I would not want to spent a great deal of money on the project.
Hi Allan,
Thank you for sending me the details. I use a MBA-Air OS 10.9.5 as well as an iMac OS 10.11.6. Now and then I TimeMachine these with a 2TB Lacie external disk. I would like to use this disk also for the eMac because I cannot find any USB stick with a capacity of 64GB version 1.1
As it turned out the specs on the eMac are on the lower side: Power Mac 4,4; 1Ghz; Mem: 1GB; Serialnumber: VM*****NLV which is aproximately from 2003. Apart from being very slow I still use this Mac for my book keeping and also for storage. After fifteen years I would have a problem to dump it.
Again thanks and regards,
Hubert.
[Personal Information Edited by Host]
Thanks. I still think you are OK. This is a USB 2.0 drive that is backward-compatible with USB 1.1 ports and is not very pricy:
OWC 1.0TB Express USB 2.0 Portable External Drive -... at MacSales.com
or, should you have an extra 2.5-inch (notebook size) SATA bare drive lying about looking for gainful employment, you can order the enclosure only and put your drive in:
OWC Express 2.5" Portable USB 2.0 Enclosure for... at MacSales.com
For US$5 more, you can get the USB 3.1 version that is also backwards compatible back to USB1.1 ports. It would be fast on your newr Macs if they ahve USB 3 ports, I own the USB 3.1 version of the same drive. For being so low-cost it works extremly well.
FireWire is always an option for older Macs but FW drives are getting harder to find and I've never seen any cheap ones.
After fifteen years I would have a problem to dump it.
Totally understand. We have Dear Daughter #2's first computer, a first-Gen eMac 700 from 2002. It is so old and slow it doesn't do much today but technically still works. However, we also have the last of the eMacs, a 1.42ghz G4 with USB 2.0 and 2GB RAM and 64MB VRAM that, as long as you stay off the internet, is a perfectly happy computer for routine tasks.
Hi Allan,
Sorry for not coming back to our conversation. I've got a message from Apple that I was too personal in my conversation so thay scrapped some sentences. In fact I like to tell you more about what I'm doing with my old eMac and the tasks he is doing for me. If you are interested please sent me a message via another medium. My address is:***
Kind regards,Hubert.
[Email Edited by Host]Hello Allan,
Thanks very much. I will investigate all your suggestions and I will let you know the result of it.
Regards,
Hubert.
eMac 10.5.8 TimeMachine.
