[supermacgirl]

I removed my Hard Drive and placed it in a 3.5" eSATA external case when the power supply fried & needed to be replaced in my iMac G5 20" early 2005 PowerPC computer, so I could access the info on my hard drive until I could afford the repair. Now I'm ready to put the HD back in and have lost the bracket and screws which seat the HD in the iMac case. I'm also afraid I may have a logic board issue, as my original LED diagnostic indicated one when the computer 1st went down. Since the power supply was replaced, and with no HD in it (since I can't find the installation bracket & screws), I plugged it in and checked the LEDs again with no indication of a logic board problem (LED 1 on, all other LEDs off). Not sure if the test reads accurately if done with no HD installed. Anyone know? Don't want to spend $90 to get the HD back in and then find I have a $800 logic board problem. Also any advice on where I could obtain these on the cheap, as in used, discarded, recycled mac parts source? I'm an artist, flat broke and need low cost option, if there is one!

[olePigeon]

The cheapest I could find it was for $80, not including tax + shipping. You could try eBay. I think I found your Craig's List post through google.

[supermacgirl]

Yeah that was me on Craigs (they flagged me for posting in the wrong forum - who looks in "Items Wanted" anyways?!), and $80 is the cheapest I could find it online too. Hoped I could just get one used. Maybe I'll post a WTB in the marketplace. Didn't think it would be such a hard thing to find cheap. I'm already broke as a joke and with a possible logic board issue I don't want to throw away $80 I could totally use on bills etc. Thanks for the reply!

[supermacgirl]

Still can't find online, been monitoring sites to find someone parting out, called all the parts places online, no luck - the one match I found for around $80 is not guaranteed compatible with my June 2005 model iMac g5 20" 1.8 MHZ PowerPC. No choice, it seems but to take it to an Apple Authorized Service Center to be charged for labor and parts I can screw on myself, I took 'em off easy enuf. I think I put them in the retail box for the external case and my boyfriend unknowingly threw it all out cleaning the garage.Who knew it be such a pain to replace?
Any workaround for this? Do I gotta have these specific rails and screws or it won't work? Can I boot up the G5 sans internal hd and instead access the hd from an external case designating it as the startup? Can I buy/obtain some other generic mounting cage that would work? I'm not trying to be a cheapskate, just a broke artist trying to save much needed bucks and get my big machine running again.

[Waragainstsleep]

I believe Apple only ship the brackets with replacement drives, which would make them a little more valuable. What you need is an Apple repair shop who may have some written off units. The drive brackets are likely to be leftover in such a case. If you don't have any repair centres nearby, you might try hunting for dead machines on eBay. A dead whole unit will still be way more than $80, but you could email the buyer to see if they need that particular part. If you see any sellers shifting lots of dead or refurb units, chances are they may have leftovers in stock too.

[4JNA]

Originally Posted by supermacgirl 

...Can I boot up the G5 sans internal hd and instead access the hd from an external case designating it as the startup?

that should work fine. you need an external firewire drive case, power on the external first, and it should work. if it won't boot, start by booting from the restore/os optical disc, and choose the external as the startup device.

second idea was to make a mount. original wraps around the outer edge of the drive with a few tabs that go to mounts. easy aluminum project. only downside to that is that you are missing the temp monitor that was attached to the bottom, and i don't know how not having that would affect the imac.

i would go with the external idea myself. cheap easy, done! best of luck.