[Fred]

My wife has an old ibook running OSX which had been her work computer. It has been replaced & she needs to return it. 1st we would like to wipe all personal info, files, emails, added apps etc. in a way that will prevent un-deletion. I'm familiar with utilities that do this on a PC, basically wiping all free space & overwriting it with nonsense text of one form or other, but not on a mac. Is there a suitable, preferably free, program which will do this?

TIA

Fred

[ghporter]

If you're really concerned about someone going to the major trouble of trying to recover files from the iBook's drive, then there are a few ways to go. Boot from the OS X install disc and run Disk Utility from the Tools menu. Using Disk Utility, you can wipe the whole disk, and fairly securely too. Read here for instructions.

[Fred]

Thanks for the reply. I know with a pc undeleting files is pretty easy with Norton Utlities, etc. We just want to be safe I see the instructions in the link say "You must reboot your computer using the OS X system CD that came with your Macintosh." This is a really old machine; she wasn't even the 1st user. I don't have the original disk (in fact OSX wasn't the original OS, god knows if/where her employer has the disk they used to load the current OS) but I do have the OSX disk that came with her new Intel Macbook, might that work?

[dowNNshift]

Fred --

Unfortunately no, the install disc that came with your MacBook will not load in an iBook.

Although, try this alternative solution:

1. Using a 6-pin to 6-pin FireWire cable connect your MacBook to the iBook.

2. Boot the iBook and hold down the "T" key, this will make the iBook boot into Target drive mode. This turns the iBook into an "external" Firewire hard drive.

3. Launch Disk Utility on your MacBook (Applications >> Utilities >> Disk Utility) and then select the iBook's hard drive.

4. Click on the Erase tab, then the "Security Options..." button, and select your preferred level of erasure. Options are 1-pass, 7-pass, or 35-pass.

Let Disk Utility do its magic and the end result will be a completely erased iBook.

Also, keep in mind without either a Universal Binary or PPC Mac OS install disc you won't be able to reload an operating system back onto the iBook. So you'll want to get one if the company wants the machine returned to them with an operating system loaded.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by dowNNshift 

Although, try this alternative solution:...

That is one technique I had forgotten about. Thanks for posting it!

Fred, your above reply answers another question I was holding back on-the computer is NOT going to some other user directly, so there's no reason to install the OS after wiping. When one sells a Mac, it's customary to install the OS and quit at the point it offers to personalize the computer-which basically makes it like it would been if it had come with that OS straight from the factory.

[Fred]

Thanks for the replies. The firewire technique sounds perfect. The ibook is in really bad shape, broken latch, beat up. I doubt it will be retained by her employer, which makes it even more imperitive we remove everything. Lots of emails, docs etc on there. I don't know what they will do with it, but they're getting it back BLANK!

[Fred]

OK I have the 2 laptops connected via firewire, and I am able to view the contents of the old machine's HDD in Finder. However when I go to applications/utilities, Disk Utility is not there. Only bootcamp assistant (machine runs both xp & osx under bootcamp) Java, & 2 firmware updates. Since I am able to view the drive's contents in Finder, is there a way to run the delete/overwrite from here? Sorry for my ignorance here, I'm not that familiar with Macs.

TIA

Fred

[Fred]

OK I did get into disk utility under the HDD in question, but when I tried to run the erase I keep getting various errors, a different one with each attempt, including "Input output error", "no such process", "device not configured", "argument list too long", "exec format error", "bad file descriptor", "no child processes" (my personal favorite), "resource deadlock avoided", and "cannot allocate memory". At this point I stopped, no really surprised that it didn't work (computers, afterall), but totally baffled by the fact that it gives a completely different error message with each attempt! Any ideas appreciated!

Fred

I should add that the drive appears as "AAPL firewire traget media" under which appears "Jenny (lastname) HDD". When I attempt the erase on this lower item, I get the error "Could not unmount disk". Each and every time (only 1 error must be some kind of progress ;-)

[dowNNshift]

Fred... I did a mock up of what you're attempting to do here just so we're on the same page.

Yes, "AAPL firewire target media" is normal.

With the iBook in target drive mode in the above described setup;

1. Since you're getting so many random errors, first I would perform a Repair Disk. This can be done in the first tab "First Aid", by selecting the iBook drive and clicking the Repair Disk button.

2. Again since you're getting so many random errors, I would erase the partition without zero'ing it out first to eliminate the change of a corrupted partition map. To do this in Disk Utility, click on the Erase tab, then select the "highest level" drive of the iBook, finally select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the drop down list and deselect Mac OS 9 Drivers. Now click the Erase button.

The volume should now be named Untitled.

3. Now again click to select the "highest level" drive of the iBook, and click the Security Options... button to select the level of erasure (zero'ing) you'd like. For continuity sake, I'd select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the drop down list and deselect Mac OS 9 Drivers. Now click the Erase button.

This should solve your problem

-dowNNshift

[Tsilou B.]

Originally Posted by Fred 

OK I did get into disk utility under the HDD in question, but when I tried to run the erase I keep getting various errors, a different one with each attempt, including "Input output error", "no such process", "device not configured", "argument list too long", "exec format error", "bad file descriptor", "no child processes" (my personal favorite), "resource deadlock avoided", and "cannot allocate memory". At this point I stopped, no really surprised that it didn't work (computers, afterall), but totally baffled by the fact that it gives a completely different error message with each attempt! Any ideas appreciated!

Fred

Did I understand you correctly? You did not find a Disk Utility on the MacBook, but you found one on the hard disk of the iBook (the one you want to erase) and you used that one? If that's the case, then it cannot work, because you cannot erase a hard drive if you're still using applications (i.e. Disk Utility) from that hard drive. And the old Disk Utility from the iBook is probably an old version that isn't compatible with the MacBook, that's why you get all those strange error messages.
I don't know why you don't have a Disk Utility on your MacBook's drive, but try this:

Connect the iBook in target disk mode to the MacBook using FireWire
Boot the MacBook from the MacBook's OS X CD.
Start Disk Utility from the Tools menu
Now you should be able to erase the iBook's hard drive

[Fred]

Do to some events at my wife's work (these are her work laptops) we did not proceed any further with this until tonight. I wanted to report that accessing Disk Utility via the MacBook OS install disk as Tsilou B. suggested did the trick, I overwrote the iBook drive with 0's twice, which should be sufficient.

Thank you to all who replied.

Fred