Swap G4 Hard drive with G5 Hard drive.

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Level 1

15 points

Swap G4 Hard drive with G5 Hard drive.

I was wondering if it were possible to swap two hard drives.

I currently work on a G4 and am upgrading to a G5. Can i simply take out the G4 Hard drive and swap it with the G5 Hard drive.

Then put the G5 Hard drive in the G4?

Will the OS and programs work as usual?

Both machines are running OS 10.4.9

Thanks

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on May 21, 2007 10:04 AM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

May 21, 2007 10:23 AM in response to Jacob Rath

G5s use SATA drives. However, G4s use ATA drives. They are not interchangeable because the interfaces are different as are the cabling.

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Answer 2

May 21, 2007 10:55 AM in response to Jacob Rath

The software may work but the drives use different connectors. The G4 uses ATA, the G5 uses SATA. You can buy an adapter to use a G4 drive in a G5, but you would have to buy a PCI card to use a G5 drive in a G4. It would be simpler to connect the computers with a Firewire cable and copy over the files you need. You can use the Migration Assistant (Utilities folder) to do it.

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