Swapping HD from old machine to new(er). Help?

[Finnigan]

Hello all. I'm new to the forums, but not entirely new to Macs. My wife and I have been using one for several years now, but seeing that we are the only ones in our circle of friends and family, we are hardly experts.

We decided to upgrade, and this led me to a question. I was wondering if you could help me.

Basically we are upgrading from a 600MHZ G3 iMac DV (or SE. I forget which) running OS 10.3.9 and OS 9.2.?, to a powermac G4 MDD 867 mhz dual processor supposedly running OS 10.3.8 (I don't have the machine yet.)

So, I was wondering if it is possible to pull the hard drive out of the G3 iMac, and install it in the G4 powermac as a secondary drive slaved to the primary? This would be the easiest way I can think of to keep all of our files, music, etc.

I have done this many times with PC's and usually you just need to set the jumper on the older drive to "slave" and all is well. is it the same with Macs?

Any help or advice would be appreciated. thanks!

Brain

[Finnigan]

No one has done this before?

[Finnigan]

Well, I've been doing a bunch of reading online and I THINK I have found a good solution. It looks like I can put the old hard drive in the newer computer set to slave. Then, I should even be able to migrate over all of my Apps and files to the larger drive using Migration Assistant. If that is the case, then I can just reformat the old drive and use it as extra space!

My only concern is that the old drive contains OS 10.3.9, and the new computer is listed as having OS 10.3.8. I'm going to have to figure out how to update it. I don't remember if this is just a simple "Update System" or not.

[Mikuro]

It is that simple. You can upgrade 10.3.x to 10.3.9 for free with Software Update under the Apple menu.

I imagine you could transplant your disk easily enough. I've never done it myself, but I have transferred a G3 iMac's HD into an external FireWire enclosure with no troubles at all. However, if transferring your files is your main concern, you can simply hook up the two Macs with a FireWire cable and use the migration assistant.

And of course, a 600MHz G3 iMac is still a useful system. You might want to sell it or give it away instead of gutting it.

[Finnigan]

you can simply hook up the two Macs with a FireWire cable and use the migration assistant

My issues with this are 1) I'm pretty sure I don't have a firewire cable, and 2) I only have one keyboard and mouse. I was thinking I COULD boot the new system, then unplug the keyboard and put it in the old system, then boot holding "T", then move the keyboard back to the new system, but I wasn't sure it would work.

As for gutting the iMac, I DO plan to keep it. When I get a house (with more desk room) I was thinking of running them networked and use http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ to handle them. However, one of the reasons I am replacing the iMac is that I believe the CRT, or the video controller might be on its way out.

[MClever]

Originally Posted by Finnigan

My issues with this are 1) I'm pretty sure I don't have a firewire cable, and 2) I only have one keyboard and mouse. I was thinking I COULD boot the new system, then unplug the keyboard and put it in the old system, then boot holding "T", then move the keyboard back to the new system, but I wasn't sure it would work.

1. Firewire cable is worth having 2) Yes this will work. I do this all the time.

Originally Posted by Finnigan

So, I was wondering if it is possible to pull the hard drive out of the G3 iMac, and install it in the G4 powermac as a secondary drive slaved to the primary? This would be the easiest way I can think of to keep all of our files, music, etc.

If you plan on installing the drive into the G4, set the jumper on the drive to CS (cable select). Change it back to Master if you move it back to the iMac.