By pass internal HD on iMac

I would like to bypass my internal hd on a 2006 17" imac--disk is on its last legs, will start-up after several tries.

Is it possible to disconnect the existing drive and connect --via usp or firewire--to an external drive?

thanks, wjc

Note: Moved to correct forum.

Yes. You will need a USB or Firewire drive with a copy of OS X on it. In other words, bootable. Upon startup, press the OPTION key and select the external drive. Note, however, everything will be slow when booting off an external drive.

If you do not want to have to press the Option key each time you will have to go into the Startup preference pane and set the external drive as the startup drive.

chscag said:

Note: Moved to correct forum.
Note, however, everything will be slow when booting off an external drive.

Click to expand...

This isn't necessarily true - I had to start booting off a Lacie FW backup when the HDD in my 2006 iMac gave up the ghost a few months ago. It's actually quicker than the internal drive. Depends on the disk, I guess.

I set the Lacie to be my boot drive, and every time I re-boot I select the internal drive in a Finder window and eject it; unless I do this is seems to make the whole system slower.

This isn't necessarily true - I had to start booting off a Lacie FW backup when the HDD in my 2006 iMac gave up the ghost a few months ago. It's actually quicker than the internal drive. Depends on the disk, I guess.

Click to expand...

You must have an extremely fast LaCie FW drive then. I've never seen an external drive (even the old SCSI) that was able to outperform an internal one. The reason is bus speed. Even FW 800 is not as fast as the internal bus.

Or maybe my internal drive had become very slow... Five years old, used 12+ hours a day. I noticed a difference as soon as I booted up with the external drive. Waiting for iMac refresh to buy a new one!

According to the rumor mill and the usual Apple schedule of upgrades, we should see a new iMac lineup in the next two months - perhaps as early as the end of March, beginning of April.