Yes, but why? that just complicates things. It's better to do it as Dave has laid out in order to make sure everything works OK on that machine.

Thanks for the advice.. Ill give it a try tonight when I get home from work and see how it works!

First, slow down on the trying different things until you get feedback from MacGroup on your results.

Second, If you can replicate the configuration you had immediately after installing OS X on the external drive, you can then try one of:

1. Reboot the Install disk and go to Utilities to set the Startup Disk.

2. Hold the Option key during startup. On most recent Macs this brings up a Startup Disk selector.

well. a few rough spots. but I finally got osx 10.1.2 running from my external.. Does the corrupted (or is it already completely dead?) internal hard drive has the potential to cause trouble? I did get a couple of pop up windows telling me it couldnt initialize a drive. Is it a good idea to do a software update at this point? I was running 10.1.4 before.. is that about the highest level of os i can run on a G4 800Mhz power PC? what version is that? Tiger?

sorry.. one more comment and I'll promise Ill wait for feedback! with the 10.1.2 software I dont seem to have safari. internet explorer didnt connect. The computer has a wireless card and was running wirelessly from an airport express router. I cant get on the internet yet to update the software or set up the email accts and I'm not sure which utility will help me set up the internet or what settings I need to use..

thanks

Why are you bothering to install 10.1.2 if you were running 10.4???

Just use the Tiger disk and be done with it unless you need OS 9 on this iMac. It's starting to sound like you are making more work than is needed. There is a chance that the dying internal HD could cause problems, but only at startup.

To answer donna's question... Yes, this HD could be used to boot up other PowerPc Macs that can run 10.4, but it will not boot an Intel machine. Let's not confuse Dale with other possible options at this time. He needs to get this Mac up and running first

I wasnt sure this computer was capable of running 10.4 I thought I had to install the 10.1 disk.. (I think it was running 10.1.4 before) I have so many disks Im not sure which came with what computer.. The disk I used did install.. I have a 10.4.4 disk should I try installing that? Sorry I'm so computer illiterate. thanks for all the help so far!

Dale,

Just send me a Private Message and I'll help you out. You will need to get 3 -12 packs of Pepsi

got the pepsi ready.. did i send the message correctly? it says one participant

On a G4 800mhz you should be able to run 10.4 depending on how much memory you have.

An 800MHz 17" flat panel G4 iMac (PowerMac4,5) with 768MB does quite nicely with 10.4.11. (It runs like molasses in the freezer on 10.5.)