09-16-2010, 05:01 AM

Hi all, This is my first post on mac forums, I tend to just search for answers, but not being able to find one for this has lead me to believe it may not be possible, but hope it's just out of date, anyway thank you in advance for your help!.

I have just bought an old eMac (1ghz, 2x512 RAM, 40GB HDD - probably before april 2004) for a tenner to use as a second, non facebook/youtube enabled machine for work.

It runs beautifully, if a litte slow but, what can you argue for a tenner and 6 years old. Any way I have a 160GB SATA laptop HDD left over from the sale of said laptop and was wondering about the possibility of internalising it? The work doesn't worry me, just wondering if it is possible - I read that these only recognise 120GB, and are ATA drives? I'm quite good with upgrades and the like but 2004 was when I got my first Imac, second hand and bright orange, so thought I'd just check on this one!

Obviously I'm not going to spend £40 on a £10 machine, so if it isn't possible i'll just firewire the drive as external!

Thanks in advance for your help

09-16-2010, 07:53 AM

Firewire the drive, the eMac can use 120 gig plus hard drives but only ATA

09-16-2010, 08:07 AM

Originally Posted by jonny_j22

Any way I have a 160GB SATA laptop HDD left over from the sale of said laptop and was wondering about the possibility of internalising it?

That laptop hard drive is 2.5"...eMac's use 3.5" drives.

- Nick

09-16-2010, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by jonny_j22

I read that these only recognise 120GB, and are ATA drives?

All eMacs will accommodate 128 Gb or larger ATA (3.5") drives.

i'll just firewire the drive as external!

Makes admirable sense. As an alternative, and if you don't need/wish to have a bootable external drive inside an enclosure, use a SATA/USB2 adaptor, like this Amazon.com: Sabrent USB-DSC5 Serial ATA or IDE 2.5-/3.5-Inch to USB 2.0 Cable Converter Adapter with Power Supply: Electronics.

09-16-2010, 04:32 PM

Just noting the OP said the drive is a SATA 2.5". Not IDE (ATA) so internal is not possible. I was not aware any EMac has SATA or PCI Slots for a SATA card.

Get an external Firewire 400 enclosure. Be sure it accepts a 2.5" drive. Put in the drive and plug it into the Firewire port on EMac. You can use USB in a pinch but it will be slower than Firewire and not boot if you need it to do that. For just storage though it will be fine either way but Firewire is much faster.

Also I am not sure that Emac is USB 2.0. Not checked in ages.

EDIT: A note on the USB. The older 1Ghz Emac 2003 is USB 1.1 and would be painfully slow with external drive. The 2004 1Ghz is USB 2.0.

http://www.lowendmac.com/imacs/emac-2004-1.25-ghz.html


Also another note, the Emacs especially the 1Ghz one for sure do not have the 128GB IDE Limit.