I have a G3 iMac (tray-loading, 333MHz, 5-flavors, 256MB) with the original 6GB internal HDD still installed and I would like to replace the HDD with another internal HDD with a higher capacity (at least 40 to 60GB), preferably a Seagate model. I understand that my iMac will support an ATA HDD but perhaps not an UltraATA100 HDD. I understand that I may need an UltraATA100 controller card and new driver software to make this new HDD work. I admit that I am not exactly sure what a controller card is or where to get one. I am also considering upgrading my processor with a Sonnet HARMONi processor/firewire G3 600 MHz upgrade or possibly some other processor upgrade package. In addition, I am planning to install OS X soon. Quite simply, what do I need to have and do to replace the HDD? Thanks, Chris A.

Any IDE/ATA drive will work in your machine. They are backward compatible. Your machine will only support a drive up to 128GB. To use a larger drive, you would need to add a IDE PCI controller card, but the iMacs don't have PCI slots, so that won't be possible. OS 9 and OS X will run fine with the new hard drive and new processor. Make sure you have at least 512MB of memory to run OS X, it won't run too well with less, even though the specs say a min of 128MB.\ The 7200RPM drive will be fine in the iMac, not causing any heat problems. :)

I also have a G3 Imac.(400mhz/256mb/DVD) It has a 10.2gb drive which i am wanting to upgrade. I put a 40gb seagate into it pulled from a pc, but it is not recognised in setup (OSX). the drive is not blank and is possibly still in NTFS format (i cant remember) would this be the problem, and what preparation would i need to do.