How do you wipe a HDD

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I have an old iBook running v10.3. What's the best way to wipe the HDD in preparation of a fresh reinstall? I held down C with a copy of Wipe Drive in the DVDROM but that didn't seem to start the program. Is there another way to do this? Thanks.
 
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Pop in your install CD/DVD and reboot, holding down 'C' after chimes. Go to Utilities and select Disk Utility > Erase and back to the Installer. 'Wipe Drive for Mac' is a US$39.95 utility. Why buy that when built in Disk utility does it for zilcgh as part of the operating system?
 
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I guess I wasn't clear. I removed the old install using Linux Gparted but realized there are still remnants of 10.3 on the HDD. All I get is a little animated character with a question mark when I boot up. Wanted to use WipeDrive to thoroughly remove everything. How would I get WipeDrive to work? Thanks.
 

chscag

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Do you still have your 10.3 install media? Do as harry suggested and boot using the 10.3 disk. Then you should be able to wipe the drive clean. I don't understand why you had to use GParted?

Regards.
 
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Of course you do have an OS X install DVD?
 
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I used Gparted because I wanted to try Ubuntu 9.10 for PowerPC. Is there no way to get WipeDrive to work?
 

bobtomay

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Don't know. Don't use Wipe Drive since our OS X disc will wipe and overwrite our disks for free.

If you want to use that 3rd party app, you may have better luck emailing the developer of the app.

Although, I sincerely doubt they'll be of any service either, since on the Mac page they continue talking about the Windows Recycle bin and reinstalling Windows without any mention of OS X anywhere in sight except for the title of the app.

From 10.0 and above is the ability to zero out data
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1820

From 10.4 and above is the ability to overwrite 7x or 35x
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24002
 

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