Hi - new here. I found my old Powerbook Duo 230. I got rid of the monitor and Dock years ago. The Powerbook surprisingly still works perfectly, but I have no use for it. I don't need any of the word files that are on it and I manually deleted them (moved to trash, emptied trash). I only have the manual and not the original software (and no external drive) but I have no reason to use or keep the Powerbook anymore. If I decide to sell it, I assume I'd first have to buy an external hard drive and the OS floppy to reinitialize the hard drive (for safety/security reasons)? There is software (word, games, etc.) installed already, but I want to make sure the files I deleted can't be recovered. I'm hoping to do this without a lot of expense and I'm looking for a simple technical solution, if possible. TIA for your help.
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Help with Powerbook Duo 230
- Thread starter PinkyMac
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You don't mention if you have a Duo Floppy drive and 'Duo Floppy Adapter' to plug it in.
If you did, and you have the ability to write to a 1.4MB Floppy disk, you MIGHT be able to create a VERY OLD Norton Utilities boot floppy with "Wipe Info" or Speed Disk (from the same utilities) might have "wipe free space" after optimizing.
Either way, the drive should be checked for directory problems FIRST and then wipe the free space.
Other than owning the required hardware and getting the software copied to floppy, old floppy drives could have a myriad of faults just to make it difficult.
If you had a Mini Dock and appropriate SCSI cabling and another SCSI capable Mac, you could use "SCSI Disk Mode" effectively turning the Duo into an external SCSI drive to work magic on it that way. But, if you're wanting to get rid of it, it seems a little pointless spending $$ on the hardware.
If you did, and you have the ability to write to a 1.4MB Floppy disk, you MIGHT be able to create a VERY OLD Norton Utilities boot floppy with "Wipe Info" or Speed Disk (from the same utilities) might have "wipe free space" after optimizing.
Either way, the drive should be checked for directory problems FIRST and then wipe the free space.
Other than owning the required hardware and getting the software copied to floppy, old floppy drives could have a myriad of faults just to make it difficult.
If you had a Mini Dock and appropriate SCSI cabling and another SCSI capable Mac, you could use "SCSI Disk Mode" effectively turning the Duo into an external SCSI drive to work magic on it that way. But, if you're wanting to get rid of it, it seems a little pointless spending $$ on the hardware.
Thanks for the reply. I don't have a floppy drive or adapter and I agree that I don't want to spend $ on hardware I'm not going to use. But I don't want to sell or otherwise get rid of the PowerBook without wiping it clean first (so that the files I manually deleted can't be recovered). I don't need to copy/keep any software or files.
Otherwise I just have to hold onto it for longer.
A relatively clumsy work-around would be to select a large folder and duplicate it (preferably NOT the System Folder). Move the duplicate into it's own folder then keep duplicating it until the drive is ALMOST full. (You don't want to over-fill the drive or get it to zero space, risking corrupting the directories - but get it VERY close).
Then, delete the folder with all the duplicates.
Crazy, but it should over-write any recoverable files you've deleted.
Then, delete the folder with all the duplicates.
Crazy, but it should over-write any recoverable files you've deleted.