[missingbite]

I have sold my ibook G4 and want to clean the HD before sending it out. Can I use the install disks that came with it to clean the HD and have it act like a brand new computer?

Thanks
Gavin

[shifuimam]

Yes. The Disk Utility is available when you boot off the OS X install CD/DVD. You can choose to zero out the drive one, five, or 32 times. Unless there's highly classified data on that laptop, once should be plenty and will take awhile. Once you zero out the drive, the OS X install CD/DVD will walk you through reinstalling the OS.

[missingbite]

When I go to disk utility, and select Macintosh HD and erase, the only optioni for me is to erace free space. How do I get to the point where I can erase the HD 1, 5, or 32 times? Please walk me through this process.

Thanks,
Gavin

[shifuimam]

Here's an Apple KB document that might help.

If it's not letting your format the entire drive, you're probably running Disk Utility from within OS X installed on your iBook. You need to boot off your OS X disc (the DVD or disc 1 of the CDs). When the CD/DVD finishes booting, you should be able to select Utilities > Disk Utility from the Finder menu on your screen. Depending on what version of OS X you've booted into, the Disk Utility may need to be accessed from the "Installer" menu item instead of "Utilities".

The details on how to do a secure erase are also described here.

Hope that helps!

[missingbite]

Thanks for the help!!!!