[electroJerm]

This may or may not be the best thread for this question, so my early apologies.

I've got an iMac revB, & im looking for more HD space. (4gb doesn't cut it). What's the most cost effective / best performance way to go - replace internal or buy USB external? What are the speed specs on both options?

Internal would obviously perform better, I know that, but could anyone explain or direct me to a website that explains how to safely upgrade the internal HD (and what kind of internal HD I can buy for the upgrade)

As great as I am as a mac "using" expert, I suck with any internal hacks.

[disectamac]

Popular topic, I haven't actually done it myself but this what I've heard:


40 Gig Drive: http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/Forum5/HTML/000764.html

there's a list somewhere of compatible drives but I don't know where

How to do it: http://www.theimac.com/drive_steps.shtml

How to do it 2 generation iMac: http://www.imac2day.com/installhd.shtml

I just stuck with a USB external 10 gig as my internal is already 13 and suits my needs just fine. Actually I run out of space as I speak but I'm waiting on a new iMac now.....there's a lot of hype of one comming soon.......hopefully sooner than later.

[electroJerm]

gee... that description on installing the internal looks like a challenge. maybe one of these days....

how fast does your external run, disectamac? Is it good enough to run programs off of? I was thinking of moving some large files to the drive - like my mp3 collection, music videos, Virtual PC's window's hard drive image, graphics, etc. Gotta clear up some space before OSX!

[jaguarandi]

One important thing to remember is the sloooooow transfer speed of USB - only 1.5 MB/sec maximum, assuming you have no other constant signals through that port. In contrast, the iMac's internal drive moves at 33MB/sec.

If you're looking for a place just to dump (archive) files, an external drive is great. Otherwise, I would upgrade the internal.

An Apple Service shop may or may not be able to do this for you. Call around!

/jaguarandi

[disectamac]

My external is a Lacie which I've had for quite some time now. I'm sure there are better ones than the one I have. At any rate, I store most of my MP3 and video on it. As far as the videos, all are as high quality as quicktime movie trailers that you download off the net, 15 - 30 megs each or so. I have most of my pics and archived (note: archived) software stored on it. All those things work perfect......no lag...instant access.
The Lacie HardDrive icon appears on my desktop just like any floppy, cd, or folder icon would and you browse through it just the same.
The kick back is when trying to run software from an external USB drive. I haven't purchased a Firewire drive just yet, but those are much faster and available widely also.
If you can't find a store near you to suit your Mac needs, try www.macmall.com .........they are reliable, have a huge selection of Mac things, discounts, and deliver overnight before 10 AM the next morning within the US. good luck.


[This message has been edited by disectamac (edited 06-02-2000).]

[Ca$h68]

I'd seriously just get an internal harddrive and switch them. They are LOADS cheaper (a 40 gig hard drive is only 300 bucks), a CRAPLOAD faster (someone said 33megs a second I think), and they are just better in general, because they take up less space, one less thing to worry about, plus you can boast you modified your mac. ANd it really is not that hard at all. All you do is pull the chassis out (6 screws total), disconnect some wires (dont worry, when you are putting back together you cant plug them in the wrong spot because it wont fit), take off the motherboard (5screws), pop it off, and blamo. There it is.

Ca$h

[electroJerm]

Ya, I'm leaning toward the internal option. I was searching through the CompUSA product inventory and found a nice Maxtor 40 gig 7200 rpm for $200!!! There's no way an external can compete with that. Now I just need to decide how to transfer the 4gigs of files to the new HD. I saw the topic on connecting two hard drives, but thats way beyond the effort I want to put into this. I guess I'll find another mac to store the files on temporarily.

Here's some more questions? Any problem with a 7200 rpm drive (rev B. has fan, so I wouldn't think so)? What about formatting? Can I just pop in my MacOS 9 CD after installation and run drive setup? Anyway of knowing if the drive WONT work with my computer? Opinions about CompUSA: has anyone had trouble returning OPENED hard drives to them (I've had trouble with just about everything else there)? Comments / Advice would be great.

[Kozmik]

Would a FireWire hard drive be good for an iMac DV SE? Would it actually transfer at 50 megabytes/sec?

yes, a fan-less iMac would have a serious problem with a 7200 rpm drive. those things run significantly hotter than the 5400 rpm ones

however, as long as you buy a 5400 rpm ide/ata drive, you really won't have any problem getting it to work

[tonymac]

As long as you're replacing your internal hard drive, you could consider buying an external USB case for your factory hard drive. That would also make it a lot easier to transfer your files to the new drive.

[Ca$h68]

internal is good... The USB thing imght be a neat idea. I'd try that. Also... I have a 7200 RPM drive in my 1 gen iMac, adn nothing has gotten hotter (CD Rom is a bit warmer, but not anything to even think twice about)

Ca$h

[atarirat]

Has anyone seen any external enclosures with a firewire hookup? I want to expand my SE hard drive space, but the firewire drives out there are still too pricey.

[disectamac]

ClubMac makes it's own external hard drives at an extremely low price.

20 Gig External Firewire

search for others here:
ClubMac Home Page


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-a little bird told me

[electroJerm]

has anyone seen any other installation instructions (for a 1st gen iMac) other than the one at "theimac.com"? The ones there are a bit complicated and the pictures are somewhat small. I've heard conflicting opinions about how accurate the instructions were. One guy told me that taking the motherboard out was not even neccessary making the process EASIER than it looks, others told me that its actually HARDER than it looks. So I guess I just need some second opinions.

I think there may be instuctions on www.imac2day.com dunno though...

I upgraded to a Maxtor 13.6GB and the iMac (bondi A) won't boot from it. I find out later that Maxtor made some drives that won't boot Macs.
They format fine and allow file transfers.-just no booting :-(

I think they may have fixed the problem in their newer drives. I have contacted them and they say the firmware update is too old and only one person ther has it and he isn't there when iCall. Does anyone have the updater?
Please???????

[Steph]

I just upgraded my iMac DV to a 30 Gb Maxtor, 7200 rpm. I'm going to monitor the temp over the next few days to see if there's any difference. To transfer the files I just took the iMac apart, removed the HD/DVD cable and replaced it with a standard IDE cable (I did have to modify the cable header to fit it into the iMac plug), and used a Y power plug splitter. Set the new drive as slave, and was able to run the iMac with 2 hard drives, to initialize the new drive and copy the data. Then it was simple to remove the old drive, add the new one, and put the cables back as before. I did the actual transfer with the computer upside-down and opened up, to save time. The whole operation took under 30 minutes. First impressions are: it's noticably faster, and a lot quieter.

-Steph

[electroJerm]

I'm looking forward to getting out of school and finally having some time to pop my mac open for the first time, take a look inside, and install the new hard drive. I read some reports at the xlr8yourmac compatability database about jumper problems and the MacOS CD not recognizing the hard drive. Anything I should be worried about? I'm still looking for a second opinion on the installation instructions. If anyone finds a site with detailed instructions and pictures for the installation (other than the one listed earlier in this thread) let me know.

[Steph]

I don't know about the earlier iMacs, but my DV model was a snap to swap the HD on. There are detailed instructions from iMac2Day's website which I followed, but I skipped everything about removing the HD&DVD unit, and just slid the HD out. I had no trouble with jumpers, the HD is master and the DVD is slave. I didn't try booting from the CD though, as I directly copied over from the original HD to the new one before the physical switching.

--Steph

p.s. there's been no noticable change in the temperature.

[electroJerm]

I'm not worried about the temperature, considering that I have a fan. I must admit, I've never completely installed a hard drive on my own before. I would assume that the master / slave would be the same since you are just swapping one for the other, but I was curious about people who attached two hard drives at the same time: how do you do the master / slave settings?

[Steph]

The master/slave arrangement works like this: There can be a maximum of 2 devices on one IDE ribon cable. New drives come with instructions on how to configure them to either master or slave, this is generaly done by means of little plastic jumpers. It varies from drive to drive, but basicaly you either move or remove a jumper to configure a drive as 'slave'. They typically come set as 'master' from the factory. In my iMacDV, the DVD drive is set up as slave and the hard drive as master. I imagine the 1st gen iMacs had the CD configured as slave. To run 2 hard drives you have to give up the CD or DVD. I did this just long enough to initialize the new drive and copy all my stuff over. I don't think you can run an iMac with 2 hard drives And a CD / DVD, because I haven't found another IDE interface. Hope this helps...

--Steph

[kokosnootje]

It is possible to have two hard disks at the same time as the cd rom drive in Rev A-D iMacs because the original HD and CDROM are on different IDE busses. Each IDE bus can have two devices. One has to be configured as a master the other as a slave. The Problem is that there is no space inside the iMac for the second HD. So the only way to do it would be with an extra long two position IDE cable that you bring outside the iMac. I know it has been done, even with IDE ZIP drives etc. I have the IDE cable in place myself. It is not easy !!! I still have to get the power splitter.

[electroJerm]

what about temporarily connecting a second hard drive - just to transfer the files - while the imac is disassembled? Is that a bad idea, considering that all of the parts would be suseptable to damage, static charge, etc. Also, how do I go about configuing the master and slave?

Oh ya... Any results on those heat tests? I talked to Apple Service rep who said he recomends against a 7200 rpm drive (even though my imac has a fan) I would prefer the spead increase, but am afraid to do it unless its safe.

[This message has been edited by electroJerm (edited 07-12-2000).]

[anothermacguy]

What happened to www.imac2day.com?

PLEASE HELP

I just bought a hard drive today, expecting to do this. Last I checked this site was up, but it was a while back. It had the exact instructions I needed for my DVSE400. Can anyone help?

Thank you Thank you Thank you

[electroJerm]

Wow... so funny that a full year after posting this thread, I get a reply in my email. Also funny that after all the advice I collected, I decided to forgo the process of putting in a new harddrive. Well, sounds like you got a problem. My only advice: do a search for the site on google. Hopefully they indexed it... if so, then you can view google's cached version, which should be identical to what you're looking for. Good luck.