[smilingyello]

Well I was helping my brother-inlaw, or my sister's husband, with a couple of things around his new house, wiring etc...and as we're going through some of his old stuff we find a Macintosh computer, I dont know much about Macs but maybe somebody in here does, well anyway, he didnt want it cause he is NOT computer literate, he knows how to turn it on and is proud... ...anyway, I got it home and tried to turn it on, it turns out that he took the Hard Drive out of it and sold it...yea...so I was able to come across a spare 40GB HDD and put it in the machine, and what I really need to know is, what kind of Operating system should I get on it? I think its a Power Mac 4, but other than not having any knowledge about Mac's, a free PC is a good PC Now what I need to know is, is the hard drive i put in it going to work? or do i need to get a different one, and also, what kind of OS should i get.

[davidflas]

As long at the HDD is an ATA drive, it should work without a problem. You should also buy a copy of MacOSX, the latest version, 10.4 should work just fine. Once you get the machine up and running, you'll be able to use the System Profiler app to find out what model you have and how much RAM, etc.. it has.

[smilingyello]

Originally Posted by davidflas

As long at the HDD is an ATA drive, it should work without a problem. You should also buy a copy of MacOSX, the latest version, 10.4 should work just fine. Once you get the machine up and running, you'll be able to use the System Profiler app to find out what model you have and how much RAM, etc.. it has.

okay thanks, is the g4 a good machine?

[davidflas]

Originally Posted by smilingyello

okay thanks, is the g4 a good machine?

That depends on which model it is, perhaps you could post a picture of it, that way I should be able to tell you what series it is from, that will tell how new it is. You could also go to http://www.everymac.com They have pics of the different models... There may be a label on the pack of the machine near that ports that tells what model it is as well.

[Lateralus]

There's also a sticker on the back, near the power supply, that summarizes the original hardware configuration of the machine.

[smilingyello]

thats the one, with the side that has a handle that makes it all come open i think thats cool



The Apple Power Macintosh G4/400

[Lateralus]

There were several versions of the G4 that used that case design. You might wanna dig a little deeper.

[Eriamjh]

It's either a PM G4 Yikes (PCI), Sawtooth (AGP), or a Shark (Gigabit Eithernet) or a Clockwork (Digital Audio).

You can run OS9.2.2 to Tiger on any of them. Do you have install CDs?

[Lateralus]

...or a Digital Audio.