New hard drive in G4 Cube

dmband0026dmband0026
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hey everyone,

I'm interested in installing a new HD in my G4 Cube (450 MHz, 384 MB of RAM, OS 10.2.6). I want to put an 80 GB in to replace the 20 gig drive that came with the computer. What would be the best way to do this? I also own a G4 tower and I was thinking about putting the new HD in the tower, formating it, and installing 10.2 on it, copying files from the cube to the new drive, than just switching drives. I was also considering switching drives right away, than formating the new drive while in the cube and copying everything over later. What would everyone recommend? Which is easiest and will cause me the least amount of headache? Thanks a lot to everyone for all your help.







(Edit): How do I remove the current hard drive? I opened up the computer and realized that I have no clue. After trying different things for hours, I'm completly lost. Help me please!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Swap out the old for the new in the cube and install X.2 on the new one. Stick the old in your tower and copy all your important files back to the cube over your network. then when done, format the old cube drive in your tower and use it as backup.
  • Reply 2 of 2
    overhopeoverhope Posts: 1,123member
    There's a handy guide to swapping Cube hard drives here: www.cubeowner.com/manuals/cube_harddrive.pdf: basically you just need a T8 Torx driver and the drive slides right out the side. For some reason Apple neglected to mention that you need to swap the rail over from the bottom of the old drive, otherwise the new one will rattle around a bit. Jumper settings can be a pain, but it depends on what drive you get: usually it's no hassle at all.



    As for transferring the files over, if you've got a spare drive slot in your Tower, it's probably going to be quicker to format the new drive in there (saves booting the Cube from CD) using Disk Utility. For the absolute minimum of hassle, use Carbon Copy Cloner: power the Cube down, connect the two machines using a standard Firewire cable, then boot the Cube while holding T down: it'll drop into Firewire Target Disk mode which allows you to transfer files at 400MBps rather than the 100MBps that is the upper limit on the Cube's Ethernet port. Fire up CCC, clone the old drive in the Cube onto your new one, shut everything down and then pop the new drive in the Cube: this way you transfer your entire system (including Applications and User folders) straight across in one go, so you don't have to spend hours getting your system back how you like it.



    I keep my Cube and PowerBook synced using CCC by this method and it's never failed me yet
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