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Salty · Aug 1, 2005, 05:15 PM

Hey... you know those days when you say, I should move things between my back up machine and my main machine? And then you ignore them... and then you're fubared?

Yah... anyway my iMac Rev D just died, or rather, a part of it that controls going on and off died. I was browsing online with it because I forgot the power adapter for my PowerBook at a friend's house. Well, I was browsing around, and suddenly everything freezes hard. Mouse still moves that's it though. I felt too lazy to go find a pin to restart the way you're supposed to, so I just unplugged (I know I know, bad bad bad.) and well after that... I get a very unresponsive iMac. IE the light behind the power button won't go on, and it won't turn on. I hold it in for a while still nothing. That said I have long since lost the keyboard that had the power switch on it, so I can't see if that would work.

Sooo anyway... aside from the fact that this is my first machine... I'm more screwed because... I have about 10 gigs worth of video footage shot on it's HD

and I need to get a lot of that off so that I can finish a project I've been working on.

Now the HD in there is a 60 gig... Western Digital I THINK, but looking at Apple History.com it shows that ti used an EIDE HD... I've never even heard of that kind! So I'm just wondering, are there any companies out there that make FW enclosures for HDs that would work with the HD in my iMac? Or is my only option to buy a working Rev D iMac and swap some parts?

For right now I'd preffer an enclosure option because the transfer would be faster... and as well I don't know how much time I want to put into fixing my iMac right now... beyond that though I may decide to buy a Rev D iMac and fix my iMac up just so that my first iMac still works.

Chuckit · Aug 1, 2005, 05:27 PM

As far as I know, Rev D iMacs used pretty normal hard drives. I'd get an enclosure from someplace with a good return policy and give it a try.

Salty · Aug 1, 2005, 06:10 PM

Are you sure... I wonder if maybe it was just a typeo on Apple-History... I've never heard of EIDE before... so you might be right... sigh... things are frustrating...

residentEvil · Aug 1, 2005, 06:40 PM

Originally Posted by Salty

Are you sure... I wonder if maybe it was just a typeo on Apple-History... I've never heard of EIDE before... so you might be right... sigh... things are frustrating...

Well, google then:

Short for Enhanced IDE, a newer version of the IDE mass storage device interface standard developed by Western Digital Corporation. It supports data rates of between 4 and 16.6 MBps, about three to four times faster than the old IDE standard. In addition, it can support mass storage devices of up to 8.4 gigabytes, whereas the old standard was limited to 528 MB. Because of its lower cost, enhanced EIDE has replaced SCSI in many areas.

EIDE is sometimes referred to as Fast ATA or Fast IDE, which is essentially the same standard, developed and promoted by Seagate Technologies. It is also sometimes called ATA-2.

There are four EIDE modes defined. The most common is Mode 4, which supports transfer rates of 16.6 MBps. There is also a new mode, called ATA-3 or Ultra ATA, that supports transfer rates of 33 MBps.

Salty · Aug 1, 2005, 11:31 PM

Ahh... so... will just about any Firewire HD enclosure work with this... or is there anything else I need to know?

Captain Obvious · Aug 2, 2005, 12:15 AM

Originally Posted by Salty

Ahh... so... will just about any Firewire HD enclosure work with this... or is there anything else I need to know?

60 gig drive? Yeah any new enclosure on the market will work

Salty · Aug 2, 2005, 12:29 AM

Great... some things I"m super confident with, but I have done so little work with anything HD related I'm just a bit paranoid I'll pick the wrong something or other. But great... looks like I'll be adding an extra 60 gigs of storage to my PowerBook. By the way... is it just me or is it kinda dumb that PowerBooks only come with one Firewire port? I wanted to get a Firewire drive... but the more I think of it USB 2 would be smarter since my Firewire is commonly used for my iPod and then the Camcorder when I'll be using it. So I wouldn't be able to capture straight to the external drive.
That said... I'm not sure with the latency if it'd be good to capture DV from a camcorder over Firewire to a USB HD. I imagine it's smarter to do it to the internal drive in my PowerBook and leave my important to have stuff on the external drive...

Railroader · Aug 2, 2005, 01:45 AM

Here's one for US$29. I've never used them. Found the link at http://www.dealmac.com/

Salty · Aug 2, 2005, 02:18 AM

Thanks for the help... though now... sadly I must confess as I have occationally had to in the past... apparently... I'm an idiot

Just because I had it lying around... I decided to check another power chord with my iMac. Thinking you know, just maybe it was that chord and nothing more. I figured, nah how often does a power chord go... can one go? Well... either that or that part of the outlit is cooked... I'm gona fiddle tomorrow... but anyway... I'm typing this on my very much alive and kicking... my trusty Blueberry iMac... dang... I feel like an idiot...

Railroader · Aug 2, 2005, 02:20 AM

It happens all the time. Easy to do.

You have to be careful though. A friend blew the firewire port on his iBook with a bad firewire cable.

Salty · Aug 2, 2005, 02:49 AM

Really? Anyway... but yah we had another standard power cord here... and it was pluged in too... so I was like. hmmm let's plug this in and see what happens. Sure enough I hear the fan kick in, and the DUNG of the start up... and was like... HOLY FRICK.

That said I've got to say this machine has been a tank! Never had a single hardware problem. One corrupted file system under OS 9, and several extension problems sure. But... these iMacs were great. Actually I think in a few years I might buy whatever the equivilant of the mini is of that time, rip off the case and see if I can frankinmac it together into the worlds most tricked out and awesome revision D iMac

bstone · Aug 2, 2005, 08:47 AM

wrong forum.

suvsr4terrorists · Aug 2, 2005, 08:52 AM

They use a totally normal IDE hard drive. I took my old frankeniMac apart tons of times, and had a lot of different drives in it. Anyway, if you're looking for a cheap firewire enclosure, look no further!

Ca$h's very own Bytecc Firewire External HD enclosure!

Worked great for me!

Salty · Aug 2, 2005, 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by bstone

wrong forum.

Meh the lounge has always been a more catch all forum. Sure the PM is often more general technology but this hardly fits. And there are about all of 2 intelligent posters in the iMac/eMac/Mac mini forums most times...
I stand by my decision.