Erase PowerBook G4 from external drive?

[yepniceguyhere]

Hi,

I have a very similar problem to the person below. I am trying to erase a G4 PowerBook but the Disk Utility Erase tab is grayed out.

The wrinkle is that the built-in CD-R drive no longer works. I do have an external CD-RW drive. How do I boot the computer from a Panther CD in the external drive?

Many thanks!
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emkiley - May 22, 2005 - 1:00 am


I'm trying to use Disk Utility to erase the hard drive of my G3 iBook, but all of the boxes under the "Erase" tab are grayed-out. What gives?

DeltaMac - May 22, 2005 - 3:58 am



When the erase button is grayed-out, that usually means that you are trying to erase the drive while you are booted to that drive. Find your OS X installer CD, or the restore disk 1 that shipped with your iBook, and restart with that disk by holding the 'C'. This will boot your iBook to that CD. At the first installer screen, go to the Installer menu, and choose Disk Utility. You will then be able to select the disk and erase it.
note: If you erase the hard drive, you lose all data on the hard drive, I hope you have your important files backed-up, and you are ready to do this.

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emkiley - May 22, 2005 - 4:11 am


DeltaMac,

Thanks for the advice--it's something I should have thought of myself, but didn't (:

Also, thank you for the warning about erasing the contents of the drive--I do have my files backed up and am ready to erase my drive. Thanks again,

e.

[DeltaMac]

Insert your Panther installer CD in your external drive. Restart your PowerBook, while holding the option key. Wait for your installer CD icon to show in the blue 'option-boot screen'. Click on that icon, and then click on the right-facing arrow. After you boot to the installer, you can choose Disk Utility (from the Installer menu), and erase your hard drive. Or, (guessing that you want to re-install Panther), Click the Option button at the screen when you select the drive, and choose the option to Erase and install.