[X4U] OT: using old tower Mac as a Firewire case?

[Earle Jones]

On Dec 10, 2006, at 10:07 AM, Michael Elliott wrote:

> I have several bare ATA/IDE drives.  I have had a failure of  
> another external case, but the drive appears fine.
>
> I purchased an external 2-drive Firewire case years ago, but it  
> failed after a year.  Another case did the same.
>
> As I was scouting eBay today, I noticed that old G3 Blue/White (and  
> even older beige) tower Macs with on-board firewire were going  
> pretty cheap.
>
> I know that if I mount a Mac as a Firewire device at startup that  
> all of the attached devices to it will also mount on the host  
> computer.
>
> I was wondering if anyone could comment on the plausibility of  
> purchasing a beatup G3 (specifically Blue and White), pulling out  
> the CD-ROM and/or Zip drive, putting IDE drives in all the slots,  
> and then restarting the computer with the command-T (or just T) key  
> held down, and then connecting to my Intel iMac by Firewire cable?   
> That way, I would still have a large case with a fan, and one power  
> supply/power cord to worry about.
>
> Thoughts?

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Interesting idea!

Would you pay a penalty in transfer speed?

earle
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