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iMac as secondary monitor and hard drive?

Jim Govett

New member
I bought a 20 inch iMac G5 last year as a stop-gap measure while waiting for the MacBook Pros to come out. I still might wait for the second generation MBP, but wonder if there is any way to plug my iMac into a MBP to be used as an external monitor and external hard drive.

Any ideas?

Jim
 

Chuck Fry

New member
You can certainly store files on the iMac's disk via the network, or by booting it in FireWire disk mode.

I'm not aware of any way to hook the iMac display to an external video source. It may be possible, but you'd have to hack it up pretty severely.
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Using a stand alone display is the way to go. Using a computer as a second monitor isn't straighforward. There may be a way to do it but I wouldn't know what it is because I never tried.
 

Jim Govett

New member
Thanks for the responces

Thanks for your thoughts. I agree a new monitor would be the best way to go, but the 20 inch display and 250GB drive of my aging iMac could have been an inexpensive and useful addition to a MBP.

Too bad :-(

Jim
 

Jack Leavitt

New member
Here is the way to use another computers drive.
Transferring files between two computers using FireWire
You can use FireWire to connect your computer to another Mac and have one of the computers appear as an external hard disk on the other computer. This is sometimes called Target Disk Mode.

To transfer files using FireWire:
Shut down the first computer and leave the second computer on.
Connect the two computers using a 6-pin to 6-pin FireWire cable. (If both computers have higher-speed FireWire 800 ports in addition to the standard FireWire 400 ports, you can use a 9-pin to 9-pin cable with the FireWire 800 ports to transfer data at higher speeds.)
Open System Preferences, click the Startup Disk, and click Target Disk Mode. (Or, start up the first computer while holding down the T key.)
A disk icon for the first computer appears on the desktop on the second computer. Drag files to and from the disk to transfer them.

When you finish, eject the first computer's disk by dragging its icon to the Trash. (While you drag, the Trash icon changes to an Eject icon.)
Push the power button on the first computer to shut it down and disconnect the FireWire cable.
If the computer to which you connect your computer is running Mac OS 9, it must have FireWire version 2.3.3 or later installed. Use Apple System Profiler (located in /Applications/Utilities) to check the version of FireWire installed. If it has an older version, get an update at the Apple FireWire website at www.apple.com/firewire.

I got this info in the help file of the finder under "firewire."
Hope this helps
 

Patrick Stein

New member
iMac or even PC as second display ->screenrecycler

Jim Govett said:
I bought a 20 inch iMac G5 last year as a stop-gap measure while waiting for the MacBook Pros to come out. I still might wait for the second generation MBP, but wonder if there is any way to plug my iMac into a MBP to be used as an external monitor and external hard drive.

Any ideas?

Jim

Now , you can. Just try ScreenRecycler from http://www.screenrecycler.com/

You can even use a Windows PC or a Linux box as second display.


Patrick


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