What is the best way to wipe an IBM PowerMac HDD?

[kehi]

PLease lmk because the computer will be sold soon and want to wipe it clean. Thanks



BTW: IT is in a G4

 

[drag]

I figure take your OS install disk and do a clean install. That will reformat you harddrive..... If you want more then that you'll have to pay for it and I don't know what programs are good for doing that on a mac. Maybe you can just start "clean installs" and turn the computer off half way thru 3 or 4 times to be sure about screwing things up (on your harddrive).

 

[Jonitus]

Active Killdisk

Best way to totally obliterate data on a hard drive.

 

[Dim]

There are several programs that will securely erase files. Look in the Mac section of download.com or versiontracker. Here's one that looks like it might work on the entire drive that has aready been erased by formatting it.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/19418

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: Jonitus
Active Killdisk

Best way to totally obliterate data on a hard drive.

looks nice, thanks for the link...

 

[Mday]

copy some large file over to it many many times until the HDD is full, then delete. then copy some large file over to it many times until the HDD is full, and then delete.

 

[PowerMacG5]

Originally posted by: Mday
copy some large file over to it many many times until the HDD is full, then delete. then copy some large file over to it many times until the HDD is full, and then delete.

That won't work. The data can still be recovered from the sectors. Try it with any file recovery tool. When you wipe over data, the head itself doesn't completely go over the previous data. This makes it possible to recover it.

 

[redbeard1]

Or if you feel like some fooling around... Pull the hard drive, put it in a windows system with a floppy drive, download that hard drives diagnostic tools, and write zero's or low level format it. That should be wiped enough, by the time they go back and put a mac OS on it.