My 1998 iMac G3 came back to life with a new hard drive

Last week, I pulled my old blueberry iMac out of my parents' garage in Akron. The thing hadn't booted in maybe 15 years. I opened it up, which was a job with those special Torx screws, and found the original 4GB hard drive was completely dead. I ordered a cheap 32GB CompactFlash to IDE adapter online for about $25. After a couple hours of work and loading Mac OS 9 from some old discs, the startup chime finally played. It's wild how something so old can still work with just one part swap. Has anyone else had luck bringing these old all-in-ones back with modern storage?

2 comments

2 Comments

west.claire9d ago

That startup chime must have been such a good feeling... I know the relief of hearing an old machine finally boot after all that work.

-1

the_drew9d ago

Wait, you actually got it to boot? I was sure that thing was a lost cause after seeing the motherboard. Hearing that chime must have felt like winning the lottery.