How to 'zero' my Powerbook G4?

L

lifegauge

Registered
I visited an Applestore yesterday, and was complaining about how my hard disk's performance is deteriorating after 2 years of usage.

I told him that even after formatting and re-installing OSX the system was still pretty 'slow', so he suggested 'zero-ing' the hard disk (but that would take at least a day, he said).

Question: How do I go about doing it? I've got a Tibook 550 btw. Thanks!
 
If you still have the original install CD, you're well off. Boot from the CD and use Disk Utility to reformat your hard drive, then reinstall the system—but make sure you back up any crucial data first!
 
The original install CD is still with me, but the attendent told me that there was a difference between formatting and zero-ing, but I haven't got a clue.

According to your post, it is similar?
 
When you go to format your HD, there's a quick format and a long one (in terms of how much time it takes to do the format) The longer procedure is what zero's the HD which means it fills the filesystem with zeros to ensure there's no residue data on the drive. Formatting the quick way just reallocates HD space and sets up the partition table and sets all sectors as free and writable. But the bits still have the old data on them.

So get into Disk utility and browse all the options and you'll find the zeroing feature.
 
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