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skythefly13

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
283
0
So I have a few Qs about selling my 12" Powerbook on Ebay.

A) What should I use to completely wipe the drive clean so nobody can recover information?

B) After I wipe it clean, do I just stick in the Leopard DVD and reinstall from there? It will run from the disc, right?

C) I have a 320 GB MyBook external hard drive which acts as my current iTunes library location and time machine location....my question is, how will I pick and choose things on my new imac :) when I get it? For example, I want to start clean on a new iMac, but wish to copy over some documents, photos, etc from my hard disk. Will I have to go all the way through time machine for everything I want (on the iMac), and then erase the external and start over? I know, kind of confusing....

Thanks for any help...
 

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,741
153
To erase the hard drive look up something called WipeDrive. This program claims to wipe a drive completely so that data can never be recovered. A simple erase and install of Leopard or any other OS will not actually erase data completely. To the layman it'll be fine, but if you get some buyer who wants to nose around then erase and install of the OS won't cut it.

When you get your new mac, if your powerbook is already gone, then you can actually use migration assistant on that MyBook drive. I happen to know this as last night Migration assistant tried to use whatever I backed up on my MyBook as the data it was about to bring over. Alternatively, you can point iTunes to the external and transfer docs and pics by drag and drop method.
 

squeeks

macrumors 68040
Jun 19, 2007
3,393
15
Florida
or you can just use disk utility and pick zero out drive in the security options, no need to use third part software
 

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GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,741
153
or you can just use disk utility and pick zero out drive in the security options, no need to use third part software

Do you have any data that would support that it really will zero out the drive? This is the internal drive in the PowerBook as far as I read. Maybe I mis-read, but it seems like disk utility may wipe an external but not the main drive. Not to mention I'm not sure it'll truly wipe it clean.
 

alphaod

macrumors Core
Feb 9, 2008
22,183
1,245
NYC
Open the folder on the Time Machine and copy all the files you need and then you can wipe it.

As with the HDD wipe, insert the install disc and after the first "Continue" go to Tools --> Disk Utility on the menu bar. Then select your HDD (not partition, select the physical drive) --> Erase. Then select Security and select Zero Out. If you want safer you can choose 7x. 35x is overkill. Zero Out is really all that's needed. After that choose ok and give your drive a new name (Macintosh HD) and select erase. This process will tape an hour or so depending on your drive size. After it's done, restart the computer onto the install disc again and install Leopard like normal.
 

squeeks

macrumors 68040
Jun 19, 2007
3,393
15
Florida
Do you have any data that would support that it really will zero out the drive? This is the internal drive in the PowerBook as far as I read. Maybe I mis-read, but it seems like disk utility may wipe an external but not the main drive. Not to mention I'm not sure it'll truly wipe it clean.

would apple really lie about it?

and if he does it from OSX installer i wouldn't think it would have any problem zeroing out the drive
 
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