*Urgent* advice required re: hard disk in iMac G5

[dcv]

Yes, I'm afraid this really is quite urgent!

I am in the middle of a hard disk transplant operation between a 20" and 17" iMac G5. Basically I just need to take a backup of the disk from the 20" so I can take that iMac in for repair.

The 20" has a slightly larger enclosure to the 17" and doesn't fit inside the guts of the 17" properly. I've managed to connect it but it is resting slightly on top of the rest of the iMac and not screwed down (see attached image).

I don't want to remove any additional screws from the chassis as they are silver coloured, which are NOT user-serviceable and I don't want to invalidate my warranty (hahaha yes, I know, I'm doing *this* !!)

Is is safe to use it like this?

Is swapping the disks over like this even going to work or am I just being a total moron?


Now at the moment, the whole thing is lying face down on a sofabed so obviously if I can't seat the drive properly then I can't stand it up.

I'm gonna need an external display. The only thing I can use is an LCD TV...what kind of cable will I need to connect this and will it automatically output to that display or is there some sort of display setting to change (i.e. am I going to have to try to stand this iMac up to view it?)

Any help you can give me right now would be great!!

Thanks!

 

[Blue Velvet]

Sorry if I'm not clear on what you're trying to do but how is swapping drives over enabling you to do a backup?

Lemme get this straight: it's the 20" that's going in for repair? And you want to back its drive up? Or have I got that wrong?

 

[eva01]

All i understood was you are trying to put the insides of a 20" iMac into a 17" iMac which can't be all that smart to do.

 

[dcv]

20" is broken, won't power on. Needs to be backed up before I take it in.

17" works fine.

I thought I could swap over the hard disks and plug a FW drive into the 17" (now with the 20" hard disk in) to back it up.


Is this actually gonna work or am I being a total idiot?

 

[Satori]

It would be much easier to buy an HD enclosure and recover your data using that.

 

[Makosuke]

I thought I could swap over the hard disks and plug a FW drive into the 17" (now with the 20" hard disk in) to back it up.

Is this actually gonna work or am I being a total idiot?

Ok, in theory that will work. The 17" might not be able to boot with the OS on that drive, though. You're posting from a thrid computer, so if you got it in there, you could probably start it up in FW Target Disk Mode, even if it won't boot, which would let you get at the files.

...but anyway, what you're trying to do won't work without taking the drives out of the brackets. I haven't looked that closely at the guts of either, but obviously they use different drive brackets, so the one from the 20" isn't going to fit in the 17" no matter how much you wish it would. Looks like you got the power and data cables plugged into the drive from that image, so I suppose you could try just plugging the power and keyboard into it in a gutted state like that and booting in FW target disk mode for a bit--you don't need to see the screen for that, and it shouldn't overheat or anything that quickly, though I'm not sure if the iMacs will refuse to power up with the back off...

 

[dcv]

Just had a phonecall from the wonderful Blue Velvet *thank you again*

I'm gonna try to secure the drive and stand the iMac up as best I can and see what happens.


Wish me luck!!

 

[Makosuke]

It would be much easier to buy an HD enclosure and recover your data using that.

Wait, Satori posted this while I was writing mine, and it made me think: You said you have an external FW drive, so can't you just crack open the case of that and get the drive plugged in there (without removing the brackets--just leave the FW case wide open), then back up to the 17" iMac or whatever computer you're posting to? Or do you not have enough free space that way?

 

[Blue Velvet]

Wish me luck!!

Good luck!
And consider the Plan B if it's looking a bit iffy.

 

[Blue Velvet]

...so can't you just crack open the case of that and get the drive plugged in there (without removing the brackets--just leave the FW case wide open)...

I suspect the external drive enclosures (Lacie Porsches) are not SATA enclosures. The iMac HDs are SATA drives.

 

[Makosuke]

I'm gonna try to secure the drive and stand the iMac up as best I can and see what happens.

Wish me luck!!

Good luck, but I'd try powering it up in TDM laying face down first--seems less risky than having the drive fall out the back while it's powered on.

I suspect the external drive enclosures (Lacie Porsches) are not SATA enclosures. The iMac HDs are SATA drives.

Ooh, good point. I forgot about that because for some reason the image looked like a PATA connector to my half-awake eyes.

 

[dcv]

It's a brand new LaCie Porsche drive... I'm not even sure how you pop the casing open.

As it is, I'm running the risk of invalidating the warranty on two iMacs (if anything goes wrong, that is. I haven't removed any screws that I shouldn't have)



*so nervous right now*

 

[dcv]

w00t!!!!

It's up and running gonna kick off the backup process now.


Thanks so much to Blue Velvet and others who have posted advice.

 

[Blue Velvet]

Yay!!!

My invoice is in the mail.

You are cloning the drive, right?

 

[dcv]

Yay!!!

My invoice is in the mail.

You are cloning the drive, right?

I owe you a drink or two

I've got SuperDuper! so creating a bootable backup on that new FW drive, just in case the nasty people at the repair shop decide to trash my hard disk...