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Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / February 2005Wiping out a Powerbook G3
I don't know if i am in the right group but I need to know if anyone knows a way to wipe the OS off a powerbook G3. I meen clean. I need it so I can load the OS back on with no problems. I am not up to speed on Macs I work with Windows mostly. thats what we use at our office. I have a program I use thats called Autoclave 3.0 that I use for this with windows. Will that work with Macs or does anyone have a suggestion? Thanks > I don't know if i am in the right group but I need to know if anyone > knows a way to wipe the OS off a powerbook G3. I meen clean. I need it > so I can load the OS back on with no problems. I think you may be trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Rarely would you need to re-install MacOS to fix a problem; seriously, that's more of a windows thing. > I am not up to speed on > Macs I work with Windows mostly. thats what we use at our office. I > have a program I use thats called Autoclave 3.0 that I use for this > with windows. Will that work with Macs or does anyone have a > suggestion? To get a better answer, you should specify what version of MacOS you're talking about. There are profound differences between 9 and X. If nothing else, if your G3 is new enough, this might be a great time for you to install OSX on that box which gets you the upgrade _and_ a clean install. But, what've you got, and more importantly, what's it doing wrong? There may be a more Apple-ish way to fix it than "just reload the OS". Dave Hinz OK, I can't get into it to much. I work wit the PD. I need to wipe it out before I return it to the family. I don't know what OS. I don't even have a power adapter. This won't be easy. Does anyone know what the voltage is for the adapter. Sorry I ca't say anything more. > OK, I can't get into it to much. I work wit the PD. I need to wipe it > out before I return it to the family. Your state's Crime Lab should have some computer forensics guys who can help you out with not only what you need, but the proper procedure to follow to make sure you do it properly. > I don't know what OS. I don't even have a power adapter. This won't be > easy. Does anyone know what > the voltage is for the adapter. Sorry I ca't say anything more. I understand. I was hoping not to get them involed. I would love to get this back to them as soon as posible. I run the IT department for the city. If you know of a program that will work, let me know. I still have to rig up 24volts to this thing. Thanks again. > I was hoping not to get them involed. I would love to get this back to > them as soon as posible. I run the IT department for the city. If you > know of a program that will work, let me know. I still have to rig up > 24volts to this thing. Drop me an email - my address is valid. I have a couple of suggestions. The simplest of which is to keep the hard drive, buy a replacement, and give it back with no OS. Depends on the situation. Dave Sorry Dave, Call me new to this groups stuff but I don't see a complete e-mail address. Also being a City we just can't buy a new HDD for our citizens. I just need to know what is a safe way to do this. Thanks > Sorry Dave, Call me new to this groups stuff but I don't see a complete > e-mail address. davehinz@spamcop.net is my full email address. > Also being a City we just can't buy a new HDD for our citizens. I just > need to know what is a safe way to do this. It depends. If you need to make sure (something) is entirely gone from the HD, how "gone" is "gone enough"? I'm having a hard time imagining a law enforcement scenario which would include getting someone's laptop, erasing something from it, and returning it to them, which wouldn't also be logical to take the laptop, keep the hard drive as evidence, and return the laptop without the hard drive. Not knowing anything about the situation, it's impossible to go further. But, if you're anywhere near an apple store, walk in with it & explain as much of the situation as you need to, and ask them if they'll reload it. They'll have the physical media, and Apple should be able to tell what OS the system is authorized to have. Dave Hinz > Also being a City we just can't buy a new HDD for our citizens. I just > need to know what is a safe way to do this. > > Thanks There's 2 ways to destroy data on the drive. 1) Wipe the drive clean using software. To do this you NEED to boot from an Apple OS CD, or a bootable external drive. 2) Open case, take out drive, smash with sledgehammer. It sounds like you'd like to avoid (2), but it doesn't sound like you have the tools to avoid it. A new hard drive can be had for $50-$150. You might be able to find a local shop to install it and give you the old one for another $30-50, which you can smash. > OK, I can't get into it to much. I work wit the PD. I need to wipe it > out before I return it to the family. > I don't know what OS. I don't even have a power adapter. This won't be > easy. Does anyone know what > the voltage is for the adapter. Sorry I ca't say anything more. Does the family have the power adapter? You can check the specs at the Apple web site. Go to http://www.apple.com/support and then to Specifications. Scroll down the Specs page to the black G3 Powerbooks, and pick the right one. There are three main types. The most recent has Firewire and two USB ports and a PC card slot and a few other ports. Next is the so-called "bronze keyboard" model -- the keys are a transparent bronze color. It has two USB ports and some other ports and a card slot, but no Firewire port. The earliest is called the Powerbook G3 Series. It has a collection of ports and two card slots, but no USB or Firewire. The Apple specs give useful information about each of those machines, including what versions of the Mac OS they will run. You can also poke around the Apple web site Support section and find a user guide for the machine, which is a PDF file. That might be useful. To wipe the HD and install a new clean OS, you need a Mac OS install CD. You can boot the machine from the CD, then use the utility Drive Setup, which you will find on the CD, to initialize the drive. Use the option for low-level format to really wipe the data; you may want to repeat this several times to be sure it is unreadable. Be sure you pick Mac OS Extended, NOT Mac Standard as the format. Then install the OS from the CD. Then restart from the HD to be sure it works. The CD has to be the one that came with the machine -- maybe the family has that? Or it has to be a generic retail CD of the Mac OS, with a version that will run on that computer. Again the Specs page on the Apple web site will give that info. All the G3's will run OS 9. The two later ones will run OS X 10.3. The earlier ones will run OS X 10.2 without trouble, and can be made to run OS X 10.3 with a software patch called XPostFacto. But of course you have to get a power adapter to do any of this. And of course the family will have to have a power adapter to use the machine. So maybe you get them to pay for a power adapter, if they don't have one? Some sources of power adapters for older Powerbooks: http://www.macconnection.com http://www.pbparts.com https://eshop.macsales.com/ and of course eBay. These are also sources of Mac OS CDs. Hope this helps. Bill  SignatureTo send e-mail, remove .invalid > I don't know if i am in the right group but I need to know if anyone > knows a way to wipe the OS off a powerbook G3. I meen clean. I need it [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Thanks You can erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS using the system disks. You can find out which version of the Mac OS is on the Powerbook by looking at "About this Mac" under the Apple menu. You would then have to buy or borrow the Apple disks with the desired system version. You may or may not be able to use the system disks that were packaged with a different model computer - with pre-OS X versions of the OS, you almost certainly will not be able to. Some versions of the Mac OS are no longer available for sale except from places like eBay. Perhaps your IT dept has some system disks that you can borrow? If you want to make absolutely sure that nobody can ever get data from the drive, you need to smash it with a slegehammer and replace it. Cathy Signature"there's a dance or two in the old dame yet." - mehitabel C.Stevenson, M.D. cats1921@invalidsonic.net |
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