Wiping a hard drive clean

[Razalj180]

Hi,
I am looking for a way to wipe my hard drive clean so I can sell my G4 powerbook. However, I have read some forums with instructions that involve my start-up disk to reinstall os after it wipes... but i don't have my start up disk. Is there any help for me??

[ElDiabloConCaca]

First, read this:

***This Forum is for Tutorials and Guides only, not questions***

Next, selling a computer without the OS Install/Restore disks is like selling a car without keys.

To wipe your hard drive clean, you will need to be able to boot from some other media -- a CD/DVD (like, say, the original OS Install/Restore disks that came with the computer that you put in a safe place and kept for the duration of the time that you owned the computer so that when the time came you could sell someone a FULLY working computer, complete with OS install disks, instead of a computer loaded with your junk and your user accounts and your passwords?), an external drive with an operating system that is compatible with your Mac, or some other means other than your internal hard drive.

You cannot format/erase a disk while you're booted from that disk. You're out of luck unless you find something else to boot from (ideally, again, the original OS Install/Restore disks that came with the computer).

If you have another Macintosh laying around there you can do this with FireWire Target Disk Mode. There are also other ways to format a drive, found with the super-simple forum search.

[Razalj180]

First off sorry for posting my question in the incorrect place, this was my first post.

Second off, obviously I realize that the start-up install disk is very important to selling the computer so someone else may have the full advantage of the machine... However, I was planning to do the wipe first if possible, and then doing another serious search for the disk, finding it and then selling the machine! I do have a new macbook that uses OS 5.6.5 with Leopard. I have both start up disks for that computer- can I wipe my G4 & install the newer version of OS?

[ElDiabloConCaca]

You can wipe the hard drive, yes -- using Target Disk Mode.

You cannot use the 10.5.6 disks to install a fresh copy of Mac OS X on the G4 for a couple of reasons:

1) It violates the EULA for the copy of Mac OS X that came with your MacBook: you can use one disk to install Mac OS X on one computer.
2) The G4 is PowerPC-based, and the MacBook is Intel-based. Using Target Disk Mode to install wouldn't work since the MacBook would install an Intel-based install of Mac OS X.

[Giaguara]

Hi Razal, welcome
As ElDiablo mentioned you can't use the installer discs that came with an intel based Mac on a PPC based Powerbook. Even doing the disk erasing with those discs isn't a good idea.
So just use the installer discs that came with the PowerBook.