iMac HDD died! Reinstall on Firewire drive?

Hi guys,

The AHT just confirmed that the HDD on my wife's 2007 iMac just died. Instead of ripping it open to replace, we were thinking about just installing and booting OSX on an external Firewire HDD.

Has anyone done this and are there speed concerns, or does it run just as smoothly as if it were the internal HDD? Any risks in doing so?

Thanks so much in advance!

It's certainly doable, but whether or not your wife will like the waits and delays while data is traveling back and forth on the FW bus, is another matter.

I realize opening up an iMac and replacing the hard drive is no trivial matter, but you might want to take a look first to see how it's done and then make up your mind:

iFixit: The free repair manual