Can I move my HD from G3 to G4?

I used my Power Mac G3 B&W as a music recording studio (protools) so It was all set up on OS9 and an old version of Pro Tools. I bought the whole system that way off craigslist as a fully functioning recording studio many years ago.

Well, the Power Mac G3 B&W finally stopped working a few weeks ago, the screen simply went black when I tried to turn it on. A friend told me its probably the motherboard so I should just get a new computer.

I figured if I just bought another Power Mac G3, I could move over the Harddrive and Audiocard, and then it should work again. But also I figured this would be a good opportunity to upgrade. So I decided to buy a Power Mac G4, and simply move the Hard Drive and Audiocard over from my old G3, into my new G4.

So today I bought a Power Mac G4 Quicksilver, (fully upgraded with more ram, etc...) and when I got home and turned it on, the screen simply flashes a folder and a smiley face. I looked that up and they say either the HD is bad, or there is no OS installed. That doesn't bother me because I was planning on moving my old Hard Drive over into this new computer anyway.

So my question is, can I simply remove the HD from the G4, and then take the HD from the G3 and put it into the G4 and turn it on? Will it boot in OS9 just the way it did in my old G3? Am I forgetting or missing anything here or should I go ahead and do that now?

BTW I don't have the old disc for OS9 or Pro Tools, so I'm really hoping this will just be a plug and play situation.

I appreciate your clear and specific instructions on exactly how to do things. I am a total newbie, this is the only Mac I have ever owned and I have never worked on hardware inside of a computer, not even changing a PCI card or anything. Thanks.

NiceDayVince said:

So my question is, can I simply remove the HD from the G4, and then take the HD from the G3 and put it into the G4 and turn it on? Will it boot in OS9 just the way it did in my old G3? Am I forgetting or missing anything here or should I go ahead and do that now?

Click to expand...

There are a number of possible variables…and it would probably take longer for us to ask questions & get answers back in this thread…then it would to simply do as you described…which is put the G3's HD into the newly purchased G4 (which shouldn't take longer than 5-10 minutes at most)…and just see if it works.

If it does…question answered! If it doesn't…then we can discuss further.

- Nick

It worked! THANKS.

It worked fine for about 20 minutes, and then for some reason the Mouse stoped responding. The mouse and therefore the whole screen is frozen. I tried plugging in a different mouse which worked on my old G3, and it still didnt respond. Any idea what the frozen mouse might be all about? I tried restarting but still the mouse is just stuck frozen at the desktop.

May be some firmware issue between the 2 machines. Hold down the Shift key on start up and see if the mouse works. If you get it going ..go into the preferences folder and throw away the mouse preference. Restart. You may have to do a clean install of OS 9 on the quicksilver.

I restarted the computer again, this time using the small button on the front and now it is working with the new keyboard and old mouse. Thanks for now.