I have a graphite Mac G4 tower sans hardrive - it crashed several years ago - and two external hardrives where I back up my current puter (G4 PowerBook).
I’d like to plug my hardrives into the tower, boot it up from one, and use it as a wireless hub to access the drives and my cable modem from the PowerBook, preferably via AirPort, which I already run.
Assume I have all the networking savvy of a right-brained, ADD-ridden, over-40 former liberal arts major (which I am). How feasible and/or difficult is this to do?
Furthermore: This Mac has about a 400 MHz processor, IIRC. How big an outlay is it gonna be for a faster one? RAM boost? At what point do I just need to say, “F it, it’s new computer time”?
Well, it’s already “new computer time.” That said, you should be able to run this machine as a disk and Internet server without too many problems. Install OS X on it, turn on file and Internet sharing, and go!
(Well, it’s not always that easy, but start with that.)
I’d put a new internal hard drive inside your Mac and install Mac OS X (preferably a recent version, like 10.4) on the hard drive. Get it working by itself before adding external drives and making it your Internet gateway. It shouldn’t be difficult. You shouldn’t need to upgrade the CPU or RAM, although more RAM is a cheap way to improve performance on many systems. You don’t need a super-fast system for the tasks you want it to do.
The IDE controllers on many older G4 systems do not support disks larger than about 120 GB. You should be able to still find cheap 100/120 GB drives. If you want a larger disk, you can install a SATA controller card and install a modern SATA drive. That’s what I did on my Mac when I ran out of space on the original drive. 320 GB SATA drives are cheap these days.
The latest version of Mac OS X (10.5) does not support older G4 systems, so 10.4 is your best bet.
I’m currently running a dual-processor 450 Mhz G4 PowerMac with Mac OS X 10.4. It’s too slow for modern games and some videos, but it does a fine job on everything else.
Do you know any geeks? If so, ask them if they have any old IDE disks or other potentially useful bits lying around. Many nerds have serious trouble with disposing of things falling into the category “in perfect working order but too obsolete to be particularly useful”. I have everything from a 30gb IDE drive to assorted RAM sticks to a complete dual 500Mhz powermac cluttering up my study “because someone might find them useful”. :rolleyes:
Where are you located?