# Help Please Can I ignore internal hdd and cd rom drive



## oksteve (Sep 14, 2008)

My imac is over five years old and sadly the hdd has died along with the cd rom . I don't have the funds to have the Apple guys fix it so I was wondering if it is possible to use an external hdd and cd rom drive via the usb ports ?

My thoughts were to use the cd drive to reinstall the software from my original discs and use the external hdd to act as the old internal drive .

Is this possible and if so can anyone point me in the right direction to see what steps need to be taken ?


thank you.


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

In theory it should work fine, but not ALL older models supported booting from an external CD on USB.

If your iMac has Firewire,I would suggest using it for the HD.

Of course, you could open the iMac and change the internal drives which is best option.
(It's not terribly hard usually, but we need to know exact model)


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## oksteve (Sep 14, 2008)

Sorry to take so long to get back to you.

My machine is the imac 7.1 Intel 2007

thanks


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

oksteve said:


> My machine is the imac 7.1 Intel 2007


I've updated the HD on that models several times.
You can check out ifixit.com http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac-Intel-20-Inch-EMC-2133-and-2210-Hard-Drive-Replacement/1008/1 and decide whether changing the internal HD is a job you can handle.

Otherwise, this machine will boot off both external USB and external Firewire hard drives.


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## oksteve (Sep 14, 2008)

Thank you for the link,its not as hard as I first thought. However I am on a tight budget atm so for the time being I have to use the external machines.
One last question.....Is it quite straight foreword to get into the imacs bios to get it to recognise the cd rom and hdd ? 

thanks


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

You don't have to do anything like that with Macs.
Plug your devices in and when you boot hold the option key.
You will be presented with a graphic representation of all the devices you can boot from.

Just choose the one you want and that's it.
To always boot from that device by default, just use system preferences -> startup disk and pick the external device you want.


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## oksteve (Sep 14, 2008)

Many thanks Headrush for all your help


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