is there a mac doctor in the house?

i have an older g4 (400 mhz), panther os, 2 hard drives. i have basic knowledge and common sense, but i dont claim much more than that.

the "master" hd of 28 gb has just gone bad so im now using the other hd which is 10 gb.

1) is it ok to use the computer as is, through the 10gb hd? or given that the master hd is shot, will this lead to the quick downturn of the 10 gb?

2) am i, with my computer-limited self, able to disengage the master hd or should this be left to a professional?

3) instead of putting any more money into this one, should i sell the computer as is, with full disclosure that it will either need a new hd or will first need to reconfigure them?

thanks so very much for any sound advice. im leaning towards #3, but i would first like to hear from those who know about such things before i lean all the way.

There is a vendor called Maxter I would check out. Its not that hard to do.

You could sell it as is and with out too much trouble some one could replace the drive .

they are easy to replace. $40 to $150, depending on size.

I agree, you could probably sell it "as is" without too much of a penalty.

But I'd suggest pulling the bad drive out and replacing it with a new one.

Replacing a disk is pretty simple. There are 2 connectors: one is for power, and the other one is for the data signals. Grip them by the end of the connectors and tug; they are probably in pretty snugly, so don't give up if they don't immediately pop out.

The new disk will need to be configured as the master. Look at the jumper configuration description, and insert the jumper to connect the two pins to make the new disk the master. Then plug in the power and data signal connectors, screw the disk down, and you're ready to go. When you boot up OSX I think it may ask you if you want to format your new disk.

The G4 400MHz is a great machine. I've had a 350MHz for almost 5 years, and there really isn't much stuff out there that would compel me to buy a new G5 (although I really find the new iMacs appealing).

if i do replace the old hd, and have to reconfigure it (as zorro describes here), can you tell me if i can manage to do that?
i followed you until the "jumper configuration description" part.

i understand the concept that there are two connectors that will need to be unplugged first. and that the new hd will have to be reconfigured to be the new master drive, but i dont know how to do the rest, after the unplugging and removal of old hd....

if its simple, at your convenience, could you please tell me step by step. or is there a website that will walk me through this? i dont have a hd to replace it with right now but would like the information so that i can make a decision how to proceed

thank you so very much for the guidance.

its good to know i can still use the computer as it is, and dont run a risk because the larger hd is no longer working.

On the disk drive you'll see two parallel rows of recessed pins (probably 4 pins/row). (in addition to the power and data connectors.)

A jumper is a little black (possibly white) doohickey that you insert over 2 of the pins on the rows to electrically connect them. A new hard disk will include an explanation about which two pins you need to "jumper" to configure it as either master or slave.

You might need some tweezers to pull a jumper off (if there's one already connecting 2 pins). Some disk drives don't require any jumpering at all to configure a disk as the master.

Disks are ridiculously cheap these days. Just be sure you get one that is <=120GB in size, unless you get an ATA 133 card to support larger disk sizes.

I bought some 160GB drives for $70 each a couple of months ago. You can probably easily find an 80GB drive for $40-$50 or less. Maxtor,Western Digital, and Seagate are all within that range and all about the same in quality.

It's a pretty doable task.

I have replaced a LOT of IDE hard drives in Macs, and you generally don't need to screw with the jumpers on the new drives at all--they're shipped as masters.

http://dealmac.com/

That in an excellent site for Mac pricing and rebates. Also a good user forum if you would like to ask this question or others, to a more Mac specific crowd. I have good luck with Maxtor hard drives via instant rebates at CompUSA.

I had a similar machine to your G4 400 and installed several hard drives. That design is remarkably accessible, for hard drives or RAM and virtually everything. No problem doing it yourself.