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Mallrat · Sep 16, 2003, 10:07 AM

As my other posts say I'm selling my ibook.

I wonder what is the best way to erase the harddrive, with zero chance of anyone getting any info on it?

Also, it came with 9.1, but I have since got Mac OS X 10.2... anyway, X requires a password...

is there a way to reinstall X, see if it works, without entering a password? i guess just install it and don't do anything?

I dont' know what people would prefer? To do it themselves or have me update the software to 10.2.6 ?

and do you think not selling it with OS X would be a big deal? I could give it to my dad who doesnt' have it.

Thank you.

El Mago · Sep 16, 2003, 10:56 AM

Just do a clean installation of the HD using the 10.2 software. Let the buyer do the rest if they so desire.

You can also erase the HD using disk utilities on the installation disk. You could always just install the 10.2 w/o using password and username. If you do that, the buyer will just get it like it came from apple. When they start it up, they will be prompted to put in their name, address, etc. Hope this helps.

Mallrat · Sep 20, 2003, 10:31 AM

Originally posted by El Mago:
Just do a clean installation of the HD using the 10.2 software. Let the buyer do the rest if they so desire.

You can also erase the HD using disk utilities on the installation disk. You could always just install the 10.2 w/o using password and username. If you do that, the buyer will just get it like it came from apple. When they start it up, they will be prompted to put in their name, address, etc. Hope this helps.

i'm doing the same thing... what program should or can you use to make sure your HD is completely erased?

mgl · Sep 20, 2003, 12:07 PM

Originally posted by daredevil:
i'm doing the same thing... what program should or can you use to make sure your HD is completely erased?

SuperScrubber from Jiiva is excellent.

http://www.jiiva.com/

Applefreak01 · Sep 20, 2003, 11:50 PM

What I did for my old tangerine iBook was use the software restore CDs and wipe the hard drive clean and reinstalled everything. That way it was like the guy just got it from Apple but a couple of years later

Applefreak01 · Sep 21, 2003, 12:25 AM

If I remember right the disk utility on the OS 9 CD would let you do a zero all erase on the hard drive. What this does is completely remove everything on the hard drive very well. With that you won't have to worry about the possibility of anyone finding important data on your hard drive that should have been wiped out with a regular erase but didn't. I don't think I saw an option to do this in the disk utillity on the OS 10.2 CD or at least I couldn't find it.

If you have an OS 9 CD I would boot using that CD and do the erase with it with the zero all option. Then you can install OS X once you've done that.

chabig · Sep 21, 2003, 12:58 AM

OS X Disk Utility also lets you zero the drive when formatting. Then just install OS X, and run the restore disks to bring it to factory configuration.

If you want to update everything to the latest version, that's nice, but not necessary.

Chris

Applefreak01 · Sep 21, 2003, 02:13 AM

Originally posted by chabig:
OS X Disk Utility also lets you zero the drive when formatting. Then just install OS X, and run the restore disks to bring it to factory configuration.

If you want to update everything to the latest version, that's nice, but not necessary.

Chris

Hmm... Where did you find it. I would like to know for future use. Thanks.

tungtied07 · Sep 21, 2003, 04:13 PM

Originally posted by Applefreak01:
Hmm... Where did you find it. I would like to know for future use. Thanks.

You boot from the Mac OS X DVD/CD.
Then go to the disk utitlty.
Click on the erase tab, then click on options.
check "zero all data"

then click erase, then it will zero all data and format...