Do you think it's worth it to buy an old Indigo?

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

My Strawberry died after 4 years almost to the day I bought it but I lucked out on eBay and found an Indigo from an excellent local dealer. That was almost two years ago and, while it's still working well, it did a weird thing a few days ago that made me very nervous: upon rebooting it emitted a loud tone and displayed a white DOS-type screen that prompted me to type 'start mac'. It then booted normally and hasn't done it again, but damn that scared me.

I'm strapped for cash but I will put a new iMac on plastic if that's the best course. However lots of Indigos are still being sold on eBay and some even look reputable. (Okay, one looks reputable but he has a lot of listings.) But at this point is an Indigo going to last long enough to be worth even the hundred-odd bucks that many are going for?

I know as much about computers as I know about cars: I know how to operate them but beyond that, duh.

Your advice is most appreciated. Thanks!

[Guy Fawkes]

1. I got an Indigo from 1990 a year or two ago...

It still ran just fine, though I opened it up and found a lot of dust.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

3. 1990? Are we talking about indigo iMacs?

My apologies if my initial post didn't make that clear.

[Guy Fawkes]

11. Oh...

err, no. Not an Indigo iMac- an old 64 bit Indigo used for high end graphics processing. Cost around $50,000 new.

[politicat]

2. Time to move up to the next gen.

There are a lot of iBooks out there from the ice era, and they're at least as reliable, faster and with better equipment. For about the same price.

Look for a reputable dealer that offers serious levels of return.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

4. What do you recommend for storage?

I need someplace to stash 20GB of crap, garbage and other essential files.

I wish I liked laptops but I don't, much. However I'll consider the iBook if it's the best I can do for the price. Thanks for your suggestion.

[politicat]

6. I love LaCie Firewire drives.

They're compact, inexpensive, have a really good warranty and will stand up to just about anything I can throw at them (I've dropped mine several times.). We do weekly backups (the family that backs up together doesn't have to pray together) of 60 GB hard drives, so we both have three LaCies and we've never had a problem with one after any amount of use. (We had one that was bad out of the box, but we were able to return it without any problems.)

If your older machine doesn't have a firewire port, I'd probably crack the case, pull out the hard drive and tuck it into an external harness, then pull the data. You can always put the hard drive back. Apple went to ATA hard drives before the indigo, so you can probably pull it and drop it into a hard drive, no problem.

I'm not a fan of USB 2.0.

Once I went to a laptop with a wireless card, I decided I would never return to a desktop. I like being able to go everywhere with my computer... it's my entertainment center. (I will be getting a Mini unless our tax refund ends up being more than I expect. But I won't like it as much as I love my powerbook.)

[LeftCoast]

5. Um, as a newbie to the wonderful world of Mac, I gotta ask...

What's an Indigo?

[politicat]

7. iBook G3/366 (with FireWire)

They looked kind of like a toilet seat and had a carrying handle on the back where the hinges are. Great machines, but definitely getting to the end of their lifespans. Hardware's getting hard to replace now.

[LeftCoast]

8. Thanks for explaining!

Indigos sound interesting, but I think I'll stick with my MacBook. :D

[alfredo]

9. It booted into the open firmware prompt. My wife's eMac

does that every now and then. Her's does it because the on off button hangs on the case.

http://www.capecodgraphics.com/imac_firmware.htm

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

10. Thanks for the explanation!

I don't know why mine did it, but it's good to know it's just a glitch and not a portent of doom. I have saved your link. Thanks again.