iBook shutting down in target disk mode

I'm trying to zero the data on an iBook hard drive before selling it. When I connect it to my Powermac via firewire in Target Disk Mode, it shuts down completely about 30 minutes into the proceedure (and yes, the power adapter is connected).

This has now happened 3 times in a row. Any ideas?

mad jew said:

Can you boot from the OS discs and try from there? You might have a dodgy cable or port.

Click to expand...

Hi mj. I tried a second cable without luck. I was in the room when it crashed for a fourth time - the fans went on full blast & the firewire target disk mode icon froze on the screen.

It boots from the install DVD fine, so I'll do a fresh OS X and then probably try and securely delete all free disk space using the disk utility from there.

Well, I never found out why it was crashing. I erased the data using Disk Utility whilst booted fron the Tiger install disk (if I'd remembered this function I would have done it this way in the first place!).