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Upgrading Hard Drive - Questions....
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Fullthrottledesigns
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Lorton, VA
 
2009-07-22, 07:38

I have a 20" iMac G5 and I love the computer but my hard drive is full and it is a little slow lately. I plan on upgrading the HD with a WD 640GB hard drive up from the 250GB HD I have now unless there is a better option out there.

Here is what I plan on getting: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=551

Now my problem is how can I get all of the data off of my current hard drive without having to buy an external HD just to transfer everything to?

Last edited by Fullthrottledesigns : 2009-07-22 at 07:41. Reason: Snow Leopard is Intel only!!!!
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Yontsey
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Cleveland-ish, OH
 
2009-07-22, 08:35

Why not just get an external anyway? You have a desktop so portability shouldn't be an issue.
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SpecMode
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: El Dorado County, California
 
2009-07-22, 09:23

Well, you could always buy a HDD enclosure (without a drive installed), put the new drive into it, and transfer the data from the old drive while it's still installed in the iMac. You can then test the new drive by booting from it before you actually perform the drive swap.

This has been my standard procedure with every Mac drive upgrade I've ever done.
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Fullthrottledesigns
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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2009-07-22, 09:40

Should I just go with an external drive? I was hoping a new HD with more space would help speed up the computer.
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Yontsey
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2009-07-22, 09:41

How much RAM do you have in the computer? RAM upgrade would speed it up depending on what you do.
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Fullthrottledesigns
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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2009-07-22, 09:46

I am maxed on Ram with 4GB
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MacLahoriya
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Join Date: Jan 2007
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2009-07-22, 09:51

Just a random thought: how easy is it to replace a HDD in iMacs?
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Fullthrottledesigns
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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2009-07-22, 09:52

I found a tutorial and it looks pretty easy you just need a few small screwdrivers and that's about it.

link: http://www.ehow.com/how_4969125_repl...ve-imac-g.html
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Yontsey
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2009-07-22, 09:56

What are you doing on the iMac that you require more speed?
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SpecMode
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Join Date: Feb 2005
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2009-07-22, 10:07

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yontsey View Post
What are you doing on the iMac that you require more speed?
General responsiveness? He mentioned that the HDD is getting full and the system is getting sluggish. A full HDD will do that, between filesystem fragmentation and, if he doesn't have much RAM, lack of contiguous space for the swapfile (which goes back to point #1).
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Yontsey
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2009-07-22, 10:11

Quote:
Originally Posted by SpecMode View Post
General responsiveness? He mentioned that the HDD is getting full and the system is getting sluggish. A full HDD will do that, between filesystem fragmentation and, if he doesn't have much RAM, lack of contiguous space for the swapfile (which goes back to point #1).
touche
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Fullthrottledesigns
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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2009-07-22, 10:39

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yontsey View Post
What are you doing on the iMac that you require more speed?
I am a graphic designer and I am constantly running multiple CS4 applications at once.
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alcimedes
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Join Date: May 2004
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2009-07-22, 10:58

Actually all the more reason to get an external drive case as well. Use the external drive as your scratch disk. You'll notice a boost by having a clean drive as well as being able to write files to both drives at once instead of the single, internal drive.

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Caveat Emptor - Latin for tough titty
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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2009-07-22, 11:00

Well there you go. No Scratch Disk space = sluggish.

Personally I'd go with an external FireWire HD. You can find a TB w/enclosure (full-sized) for under 100 bucks these days. Use that as your Scratch Disk and/or project files and you'll free up a little breathing room on your iMac.


[edit]; Beaten!

So it goes.
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Fullthrottledesigns
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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2009-07-22, 11:53

Thanks, do you recommend any particular external drive??
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alcimedes
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2009-07-22, 12:05

It used to be anything with an Oxford chipset was better, but I have no idea if that's still the case or not. Been a while since I've purchased one.

Google is your frenemy.
Caveat Emptor - Latin for tough titty
I tend to interpret things in the way that's most hilarious to me
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MacLahoriya
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Hong Kong
 
2009-07-22, 21:30

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fullthrottledesigns View Post
I found a tutorial and it looks pretty easy you just need a few small screwdrivers and that's about it.

link: http://www.ehow.com/how_4969125_repl...ve-imac-g.html
Oh, I thought it is as difficult as it is some Alu/GLass iMac. I saw a tutorial for these and it was pretty difficult. This one seems easy though.

Machine:PowerBook 12" Processor:1.5GHz PowerPC G4 Memory:1.25GB HD:100GB OS:Mac OS 10.5.8
Entertainment:iPod nano (Orange) 8GB Phone:Nokia 5230
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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2009-07-23, 13:47

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fullthrottledesigns View Post
Thanks, do you recommend any particular external drive??
If you can deal with rebates, Fantom has a bunch of drives out there now with a $20 rebate. This 1TB FW400/USB/eSATA drive is especially attractive at 100 bucks, imo. If you feel like you could live with just USB & eSATA (with your iMac, I wouldn't, but that's me) there's a 1TB Fantom "GreenDrive" for 80 bucks.

So it goes.
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