i ay ay Mac! Can I 'clean house' without wiping HD?

[PC Trekker]

Hey. I was here before with "Used iMac, how do I get in?" (cause the former owner forgot the password). Well, the answer was that I needed an OS CD which wasn't provided with the computer. I asked around and finally found one that allowed me to get in and reset the password. Now that I'm in, Good Grief!!!! 21 gigs but only THREE were available. Whenever the previous owner couldn't make the computer do whatever...they loaded the system again.

Eventually, I'd like to wipe the computer clean and start over, but for now, I'm trying to see what stuff of his I can salvage and put on a disk for him. My Old OLD ancient Mac was happy as long as I rebuilt the desktop once in awhile and ran Norton periodically. Is there anything like that possible on this? Just a few keystrokes and that was it. Then wait for the computer to sort of clean stuff up.

I'm thinking I also need some kind of documentation for the iMac (ya think? lol!) cause it also has this 'system 9' or 'classic' mode. What's up with THAT? Why would I want OS 9 when I've got 10.3 on the same computer?

Anyway, it's an iMac-white and turquoise with white polka dots
Model M5531
CPU PowerPC 750 (32.14)
CPU speed 500MHz
Memory 192 MB
Currently 7.94 out of 21 gigs available
and it's running VERY VERY slow (probably from all those filled gigs...). I do ONE thing and it spins that little pinwheel thingy for AGES. And it freezes a LOT. And then won't come back on, but just spins at the startup 'apple' til I give up and turn it off again. If I wait for a half hour, then it will reboot.

Is it beyond help?

[Buzz]

3 free gigs will cause major slowdowns.

I'd simply back everything up in one fell swoop. To CD, DVD or external drive. Then use the OS CD to reinstall the system and choose the erase and install option.


You may not need Classic. It was provided with early released of OS10 in order to make the transition possible because not all software developers had adopted OSX yet. If you don't need it, don't install it. That's simple.

To maintain OSX you should repair permissions before and after any installations. No keyboard shortcuts for OSX. You have to launch Disk Utility in the Utilities folder and run it.

Chances are freeing up the hard drive and doing a fresh install of the OS will do absolute wonders for the speed of the system.

[rorymilli]

Hello There, Sounds like you have an iMac Blue Dalmation (2001 -02) they were shipped with OS9.1. They had 20Gb hard drives, 500MHz processors and CD-RWs. If you turn it over and look at the information on a sticker by the flip foot it tells you all about what was in the iMac when it started out. It usually starts with IN/then a figure that is the processor speed/then the amount of SDRAM it originally had/then a figure for the hard drive size/ then if it was CD or DVD/ then a couple of other things I've forgotten. You really need to get more SDRAM to make it run faster. I've put a bigger hard drive in mine (faster too), they shipped with 5400 spin speed drives but it is easy to fit a bigger faster (7200) ATA drive in there. Mine runs like a dream. I have a Blue Dalmation and a Flower Power iMac and I love them.

[rorymilli]

Hello Again, I just realized I didn't really answer your question. You can easily copy anything you want off the hard drive by attaching a firewire external drive to your iMac. Do a clean install on the Dalmation of your OSX and then copy back any files from the external hard drive that you want to save. Unless you have any 'Classic' software that you need to run I should just dump OS 9 if I were you. (If you think you might ever want to use OS 9 you should reinstall that first - as once you have installed OSX without it you can't 'pop it on' later).