Using External HD as Boot Drive

Question

The original HD in my 17 Flat-Panel expired.
I can't bear to part with this computer and its great widescreen swivel monitor. I only wish to use it as a family web surfer, so I'm not interested in paying to have the repair shop break into the shell nor am I capable of doing it myself.
Would an external HD used as the boot drive be enough to run this Mac in this way?
If so, can anyone suggest the minimum HD specs necessary to do this?
Many thanks in advance.
Vince

Answer 1

Hi there:
An external FireWire enclosed hard disk drive (boot-capable FireWire - not all are able to do this
due to some differences in the chipset which controls data flow in the enclosure.) With an external
power supply, and an installed hard disk drive probably larger than 250GB, a buffer of at least
16MB, and a spin rate of 7200 RPM should do the job. To avoid WD brand internal hard drives
may be an advised choice to save you concerns later on. Some people like them, but there are
more compatible choices in Seagate, Maxtor, Hitachi/IBM, and a few others. - Western Digital is
not high on my list of replacement boot disks.
As to the brand of the enclosure, you may have to consider some of the Mac-friendly vendors
who have a good return policy should the drive unit or enclosure fail to perform as desired. If
you someday chose to have this external drive (outside of the FireWire enclosure) put into
the iMac G4 17" to replace the worn-out one, this drive should match those of the original's
size (shape) specifications to physically fit; & it cannot be an SATA-type drive. PATA or ATA
and not serial ata, is the kind that would work in the older G4 as an internal replacement, too.
An external enclosure with an SATA drive could work, solely as an external; but you could
save a bit of time by having a drive on hand just in case you find opportunity to actually fix
the tired iMac G4 correctly.
The cost to get into the iMac G4 to change the clock battery, is almost the same as having
someone go inside and replace the hard disk drive. Only the parts differ in cost; plus a bit
for the time. The big chunk of time is knowingly attending to details, such as thermo paste
and torquing screws, cleaning dust out, and putting it together correctly.
If you already have a suitable drive on hand - {probably an extra, so you still have the FireWire
enclosure as a bootable backup to the computer, and a source for a clone to move into the
computer whenever that gets the proper fix} - that would save you from some higher costs if
you do get a best brand internal hard disk drive replacement for that fix.
Is there a mac user group in your area? You may find someone among those members in a
local group who has successful experience and a place to properly replace parts in the iMac
G4 you have, and restore its functions correctly. The internal RAM chip can be at least 512MB
and that can give the computer a good basis for functioning in Tiger; and a 1024MB laptop RAM
in the user-accessed slot would be more than adequate for most uses the machine could see.
...In addition to the hard disk drive; fast, large, with large buffer, and new, inside the computer.
The clock battery, a new hard disk drive, larger internal RAM in hard to get to slot, and a
de-dusting. Those could be good to do when thinking of ways to keep the iMac running.
Good luck & happy computing!