How can I securely erase the hard drive for PowerBook G4 running 10.2.3?

I'm about to sell a PowerBook G4 12-inch running 10.2.3 after I erased the hard drive via the the original software install and restore disk. There was no secure erase option like there is in subsquent versions of OSX. Is there a way I can do a 7 (or 35) time erase on this machine? Thanks!

See this Apple note. Secure erase was added in 10.2.3, but in a different place than later releases.

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How can I securely erase my hard drive and reinstall OS X Mountain Lion?

Hi, I am selling my MacBook and I was wondering if there's a way I can securely erase my hard drive, (... 7 pass, 35 pass) using these steps: http://www.mactip.net/how-to-securely-wipe-your-mac-hard-drive-before-selling-it /
and also reinstall OS X Mountain Lion afterwards.
Thanks in advance. 

Boot into recovery mode by holding the command and r keys down during boot. Bring up Disk Utility and do the security erase you want to do. When done, choose to download Mountain Lion.

How can my daughter use the hard drive in the Time Capsule ...

So, I am in Oklahoma and my daughter is in Tennessee...
She has a Time Capsule where the Wi-fi base station quit working, but the hard drive may be OK.
She bought an Airport Express to use as a wi-fi router.
The question, then, is:
How can my daughter use the hard drive in the Time Capsule to do Time Machine backups?
Thank you very much for your insights.
Roberto

It can be done but is very messy. That is assuming the TC is still functional which I kind of doubt.. the wifi is seldom the only thing that will die .. so whatever problems it has the wifi would be the least of it.
Anyway.. do a factory reset to get started.
The Factory Reset Gen1-4.
Unplug your TC. Hold in reset. and power the TC back on.. without releasing reset for about 10sec. When the status light flashes rapidly; release it.
Be Gentle! Feel the switch click on. It has a positive feel.. add no more pressure after that.
TC will reboot after a couple of minutes with default factory settings and will wipe out previous configurations.
No files are deleted on the hard disk.. No reset of the TC deletes files.. to do that you use erase from the airport utility.
If the LED is not lit then the TC is dead, not just the wireless.
The setup for using the TC is explained in the bottom of this thread.
TC in a second local network.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4817218?tstart=30
The idea is to set the TC to provide router function.. and the computer plugged in by ethernet to as a second network.. but there are rules on how this is done which I have explained in that thread.
I notice that Mountain Lion deals better with order of network priority than Snow Leopard used to .. so it might not need to have manually set gateway and dns.. although I would still recommend it. It simply stops the second network causing issues.
It is much easier to simply purchase an external drive and plug that in.
It is cheaper, faster and more reliable than using the TC for TM anyway.
Plus a lot of the later machines no longer have ethernet ports.. and using dongles is far from neat.. although thunderbolt to ethernet is IMHO necessary accessory for anyone without ethernet.

How can I completely wipe the hard drive with out the Mac OS X disc? I don't need any of the info on the computer.

How can I completely wipe the hard drive with out the Mac OS X disc? I don't need any of the info on the computer.

You can't unless you have a bootable system on an external drive you can use. Otherwise, you need either the original disc that came with your computer or a retail copy of Snow Leopard DVD. The latter contains 10.6.3, so your model must be capable of booting from that or an earlier version of OS X.
You can purchase replacement discs from Apple:
Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775 or visit online Help for more information.
To contact product and tech support: Apple - Support - Contact Apple Support.
You can purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.
After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store. Access to the App Store enables you to download Mountain Lion if your computer meets the requirements.

How can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory?

i don't know if this question has been asked before: how can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory? just like itunes all my song are save on my external hard drive. make sense?

Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
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How can I securely format my hard drive, without an installation cd?

I have OS X Lion. I recently purchased this Macbook Pro 15" laptop, and I am planning on returning it, to get the newer upgraded laptop, as the store manager said I can do this, since I purchased my laptop within 30 days of the announcement of a new MacBook Pro. I would like to format everything, before I return it back to the store, however, it never came with an installation cd. How can I do this? I have tried ways that I have heard, such as creating a new admin user account and deleting all the other accounts. Also I have erased all the free space using the disk utility section. However, it will not allow me to erase the hard drive. Is there a way to do this without an installation cd? Thank you.

How to deal with future problems without a Lion Install Disk - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3552183
Lion - Disk Utility - https://discussions.apple.com/message/16925522 - repairing your drive using Disk Utility on Lion's recovery partition.
OSX: About Lion Recovery - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718 > Lion Internet Recovery - using the Internet to start when recovery disk partition not available.

How can I use one external hard drive for both Time Machine and iPhoto Library?

I have been using a 1 TG LaCie external hard drive for Time Machine backups. My (older) Mac has 160 GB and is almost full. I would like to move my iPhoto Library to the external hard drive, but I've heard Time Machine doesn't share one space well. Should I
1. create another partition (but will this erase what I've already saved) with Disk Utility? *I am running Snow Leopard*
2. create another volume to use for iPhoto, and if so, should the two volumes be of equal size?
3. leave it with one partition and move the iPhoto Library to the same partition with Time Machine back ups?
I know I don't need the entire 1 TG for back up of 160 GBs. Please advise the best path to take. Thank you!

You are getting incorrect information from your ASP. If you look at drive specifications the heat generated is no different for high vs low capacity drives.
I have upgraded the internal drive in my iMac 2007 with a 3TB Hitachi drive without any heat issues or other problems.
Larger hard drives have higher density platters so to access any given amount data the drives travel a shorter distance. Higher capacity drives should therefore run cooler than lower density drives because the drive spends less time spinning to access data.

How can I use an external hard drive for capturing? I don't have enough mem

I'm new at this...I have a Powerbook G4 and not nearly enough memory for capturing a full size video. Is there some way to send it to an external hard drive- for capturing, then burn it in my laptop? Would that external hard drive have to have IDVD loaded on it?

Hi artdrake
Just to add to the already good advice posted above.
Another possible approach which works for me, assuming the ext. FireWire HD is large and fast enough (I recommend at least 120GB and 7200rpm) is to format the the ext. HD as stated above (journaled) and then clone your existing startup volume (using Carbon Copy Cloner) to the ext. Hard Drive. This will circumvent installing a fresh OS as well as all the iLife apps to the ext. device. You will simply make an exact copy of your laptops HD to the ext. volume. It takes me all of 30-40 mins. on my G4 system to do this procedure whereas installing everything from scratch may take several hours.
Click Here for example/s:
Once this is completed and assuming the ext. drive is connected securely via Firewire, Restart the computer while holding down the option key. Select the ext. FW HD. Once your G4 laptop is booted to external drive, use it as you would the primary drive. The only difference is that you now have plenty of room to capture to or to burn a DVD. This saves you from consuming much needed HD space on the G4 laptop plus it also serves as a fully operative backup hard drive for your G4.
Hope this suggestion works as well for you as it does for me. Feel free to post back with additional questions/concerns.
(3) G4 PM's/(3) S-Drives/Sony TRV900/Nikons/6FWHD's/PS7/iLife06/FCPHD/DVDSP/etc. Mac OS X (10.4.8) My ichatav AIM account is: SDMacuser1 (Please use Text chat prior to video)

How can I use my external hard drive for storage?

I just bought a new external hard drive, the My Book Premium Edition II. I have totally spent all of the memory on my hard drive and want to transfer my music to my new hard drive and use it as my iTunes directory, but everytime I try to move my music files, it tells me I cannot because the drive cannot be formatted. On the box it says Mac OSX compatible but when I open up the Get Info it says, Format: Windows NT Filesystem. It is 1Tb. How can I get this to work????? Help please.

jbsilliman
That's because Macs can read from NT FS drives, but can't write to them. Microsoft have maintained NTFS as a closed system. To use the drive you'll need to reformat it to something the Mac can read and write to.
Regards
TD

How can I erase the hard drive securely?

I want to sell my old iMac G3 with OS 9.2. First I'd like to erase the hard drive securely, so that no information can be recovered later. OS X allows you to do this easily with the Erase tab in Disk Utility. Can anyone advise how this can be done in OS 9.2?

Hi, iHope -
To do a reasonably secure wipe of the hard drive, use OS 9's Drive Setup utility while booted to an OS 9 Install CD - it's in the Utilities folder on such a disk. Select the Zero all Data item in the Initialization Options item in the Functions menu of Drive Setup.
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With Lion, How Can I Erase the Hard Drive and Reinstall The System Software?

I plan on buying a used iMac with a Core 2 Duo so that I can run Lion. Since Lion can only be purchased at the Mac App store what if I needed to erase my hard drive and re-install the system software. How can I do this without a DVD with the OS on it like I have for Snow Leapard. I suppose that I could boot from my Snow Leapard DVD and do the erase. Then, I supposed I would be able to download Lion again from the Mac App Store without paying for it again. But, how would you erase a hard drive and reinstall the system software when purchasing a new Mac with Lion already installed and no DVD at all with the OS on it?
-- Kaydell

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How can you securely erase my eMacs HDD without the use of a disk drive?

I want to get rid of my eMac, it runs fine and would be a waste if I just threw it out, but the disk drive doesn't work, how can I securely delete the HDD to get all personal info off of it so I could either sell it or give it away while still working? I also, surprisingly after nearly 15 years, have misplaced the original startup discs.

Well, you didn't state that in your original post. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Here's an option for you:
Open Accounts preferences and click on the lock icon to authenticate. Create a new user account by clicking on the Add [-] button. Be sure to configure this account with Administrator status. Log out of your account and log into the new account. Now delete your account. Be sure to select the last option that completely removes your account. If there is a sub-option to Securely Erase then select that option. If not then see Mac OS X 10.4 Help: Removing files from your computer. Note the option for securely erasing free space. It's time consuming but will assure none of your files can be accessed. If you aren't concerned about your data's security then you can skip any options to securely erase free space.

How do I erase the hard drive on my 2007 Macbook with operating system 10.4.11 ?

I am going to recycle my old Macbook and want to erase the hard drive. When I go into utilities-disk utility-click on Macintosh HD-and the Erase tab, the only active button is Erase Free Space. The Security Options and Erase button are not active. How can I erase the entire hard drive? The operating system is 10.4.11.

You have to boot to another drive. You cannot erase the drive to which you are booted. Typically you would use the system installer discs that were provided with the computer originally.
Alternatively you can use another computer which is running OSX and put the old one in Target Disk Mode. The old one will simply be seen as a normal hard drive which you can erase.
How to use FireWire target disk mode - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661 - includes description of hardware and software requirements. [What to do if your Mac doesn't enter FireWire Target Disk Mode|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75414], also read about [Open Firmware Password Protection|http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/openfirmwarepassword.html] which can disable Target Disk Mode.

How do I properly zero out or erase the hard drives in my early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 tower?

How do I properly zero out or erase the hard drives in my early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 tower?
I assume there are already instructions on Apple.com someplace but haven't seen them yet… I have to one terabyte drives one the operating system the other is blank I want to start fresh I want to zero out both drives but I didn't want to make any mistakes
I know I can use disk utility to 0 Out Dr., #2 that means I will have to take out the operating system hard drive out of my 2008 Mac Pro and put it into my 2009 Mac Pro to use the disk utility to zero out drive one the OS drive in my 2009 Mac Pro am my correct
I just need a little bit a help I want to go slow so I don't make any mistakes with the sleds or with the erasing process which journaled to choose encrypted or not etc. etc.
Furthermore is there instructions on the site on how to change the hard drive into a different sled because the sleds and my 2009 are different than my 2008 any advice
Thank you

I'm doing this because my friend told me that zeroing out the drive can nap bad sectors and also later for some kind of diagnostics usage of the drive or something like that he wasn't really clear
My friend was really specific he said choose the option that writes zero's once over the drive that is plenty good enough I was inclined to use the maximum seven write ...I just want to make sure the drive has no bad sectors and that's it's it's zeroed out for possible future diagnostics usage or something that he said was usable later
he also advised me to run a test on it but I don't have the software you mentioned or the software that he has… So I may have to take the drives over to his house unless you have some kind of free software that's easy to use that you could suggest that will not only zero out the drive but test the drive completely
I am completely new to Mac I'm no dummy but at the same time I'm not super technically capable I mean I can surprise myself I'm pretty good but I need a good teacher… How expensive is this lifeguard software?
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How can I securely erase my Apple TV's Hard Disk?

The 40 GB drive is too small as everyone is experiencing and I need to upgrade my Apple TV’s hard disk to a 250 GB drive that are now available. I thought of doing it myself but it is not quick and I do not have the time people are reporting. Therefore, I decided to send it to a company to do the upgrade. I would like to securely erase the hard disk before I sent it out, because the company told me that they do not return my old hard disk. However, I do not know how to erase my hard disk, especially how to make a secure erase. Will Apple’s Disk Utility see the Apple TV’s hard disk to make a secure erase? I tried but it is not coming up in its pane. I would appreciate your help, please. Thank you, Tumay

There is no way to securely erase the drive without removing it from AppleTV and using a utility.
Best thing you could do would be to do a system restore which should erase the files, and then sync with a load of rubbish a couple of times (make some dummy video/music files) if you want to overwrite stuff on the drive. Seems unlikely that the company in question would be interested enough in your files to use professional data recovery to try and recover what you had on there.
AC

How can I securely erase the hard drive for PowerBook G4 running 10.2.3?

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