How can I erase a G5 hard drive when the screen is dead?

my problem is exactly that.

My iMac G5's screen decided to die recently, although the unit still booted up fine. I had a local Mac tech look at it, and the conclusion was the logic board was dead.

I found myself a nice shiny Core Duo iMac on Ebay, and was able to transfer everything from the G5's hard drive. However, I now want to sell the G5 for spares or repair, and need to delete the hard drive content.

How can I do that when I can't see the G5 screen? Can I do this via the firewire link to my new iMac? Any suggestions gratefully received!

Jez

You can't use Target mode because the logic board on the G5 is dead. You won't be able to "see" anything on the G5 from your iMac. The only way you can wipe that HDD is to remove it and either place it in an external USB carrier or universal adapter, hook it to your iMac, and use Disk Utility to wipe it clean.

You can purchase an external carrier or universal adapter from the folks at OWC. Go to this LINK. I have the same type of adapter (purchased at Fry's) and it's one of the handiest tools in my repair chest.

Regards.

And keep the hard drive to back up your system. Absolutely essential with such large OS and files such as iTunes etc.

That G5 drive is SATA - right? If so, buy yourself a drive dock Voyager by NewerTech- Hard Drive Dock for 3.5" and 2.5" SATA Devices provides high-performance and flexibility. More expensive than an adaptor. I agree with chscag about using them, I have two, but then I'm restricted to ATA.

And as Harry points out, don't dispense with the spare hard drive, you'll soon find a use for it.

thank you

thank you for the suggestions - I like the adapter solution....very cost effective!

Jez

Umm if it's just the screen and the machine still appears to boot then target mode should still work....
I presume this is how you got the data off, either way if the machine still boots then you should be able to turn it on holding down T and then connect it to the other machine using firewire and then use disk utility on the other machine to format the drive (just get the right one ).

chscag said:

You can't use Target mode because the logic board on the G5 is dead. You won't be able to "see" anything on the G5 from your iMac. The only way you can wipe that HDD is to remove it and either place it in an external USB carrier or universal adapter, hook it to your iMac, and use Disk Utility to wipe it clean.

You can purchase an external carrier or universal adapter from the folks at OWC. Go to this LINK. I have the same type of adapter (purchased at Fry's) and it's one of the handiest tools in my repair chest.

Regards.

Click to expand...

This is a perfect solution for me. I have an iMac G5 that has a bad power supply. I bought a new Macbook and just need to copy my files to the new computer. My question is, which one of these adapters will I need? There seems to be a couple of different ones.