[joeswell]

My Rev B iMac's Hard Drive is almost full. Can I use an USB external (like the one's from VST) to store programs? I know I could store files on an external drive, but is USB fast enough to run applications, especially games, like The Sims, Madden 2000, Tomb Raider, etc?

[MacNZ]

You can but it will be really slow. I would suggest getting a new internal drive and mounting the old drive in an external USB case. Then you can put apps and files or whatever onto the new drive and just use the old one for backup. You can get 20GB drives or bigger for a really decent price so it is cheap too. iMac2day and other sites show how to install a new internal drive.

[Rave]

I just replaced the HD in my Rev B with a 15 Gig 7200RPM Western Digital Hard Drive. I love the new drive, I just wanted to pass along a couple of things I ran into.

First off, http://www.theimac.com has a good install guide for Rev a-b iMacs. But it seems like they added some steps you would need to follow for adding a mezz card. You do *not* need to remove the mother board to replace the Hard Drive on your machine. Once you remove the cd-rom drive & the four screws holding the HD in place, you can slide it out.
Second, for some reason (might have been the way I did my initial installation) I had to do a low level format before I could boot to my OS 9 partition. It would boot fine to 8.6, but trying to boot to 9 brought me to open firmware. The "mac-boot" command and a PRAM zap did nothing to help either.
Oh well, I'm diggin all the new real estate. Hope this helps.

Peace

I went the route MacNZ suggested buying an IDE to USB external HD case to house my old HD and installing a higher capacity drive in my iMac. The case is awsome. I love it. I bought mine from Bottom Line Distribution. MacAlly and other make them, as well. My replacement drive is a 30GB Maxtor Diamond Plus that I bought from Staples for around $200. It rocks for the money. I used the install guide at theimac.com that Rave noted. It's a good way to go. My only problem has been extentions and OS 9 at startup. Other than that - space - lots of space and a little more speed.

Additionally for the HD install I followed the recommendation of a Apple Forum reg named Strider. He has a great homepage that beautifully deals with Macintosh issues: http://homepage.mac.com/strider/
go to "Mac Stuff", "Tweaks & Upgrades", then scroll down.


[This message has been edited by Brooklyn Steve (edited 08-07-2000).]

[shmerek]

Anyone have a link as to where you can get a cheap ide to usb case?

This is where I bought mine: http://www2.blol.com/bld_desc.t?meth...=73237133&ecm=