Patrick, G4 Macs can be booted from an external FW drive, but not USB. Theoretically, it's possible to bypass that limitation by pressing "Option" during boot time and choosing the USB drive, but that has never worked for me.
If the internal drive is gone, the iMac will search for a bootable volume and will boot directly from the FW. If that doesn't happen, try the "Option" key routine. You could also use a utility like Disk Warrior to find out if the internal HDD can be saved --I have seen it work miracles. (Of course, once a HDD is really dead, it's bye-bye time.) Hope it helps. Felix On Nov 10, 3:40 pm, Patrick <jpdra...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, My ol' G4 20" iMac has been collecting dust as family members seem > to prefer the convenience of laptops. My wife suddenly wants to load > up her iPod Touch with tunes she had on the old iMac, but I'm getting > an "infinite" blue screen when I try to boot it up. Perhaps the > internal HD is fried. If the internal battery is dead, could that > cause it not to boot? > Anyway, I was hoping to boot the machine up with an external HD (an > old clone of the internal HD has some of the tunes she wants) but > haven't been successful. So: > What are the appropriate key combinations to get a booting iMac to > find an external HD and boot from that? Are either FW or USB > appropriate? > Thanks -- it's terrible forgetting basic troubleshooting techniques! > Patrick --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to imaclist@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
