# Old Mac, needs wiping



## C3Arthur (Oct 19, 2006)

Hello Mac people... I come in peace!

I am a PC computer tech and recently got a macintosh to wipe for a friend, but I am very unfamiliar with Macs. He wants to format it so that he can recycle it or give it to a friend without his personal data on it.

This mac is very old, it runs os 8.6 and runs fine, no problems that I can tell. I have done some research and came across a minimal Gentoo PPC bootable cd, I also found that you have to hold down the C key to boot off of the cd, but have had no luck yet.

Would you guys recommend another process to wipe this thing? Unfortunately he doesnt have the original system disks, or I would use those.

Thank you for any help in this matter


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

without some system disks, if you wipe the drive, the mac will become a paperweight. but you could always pull the drive out of the mac, and put it in a pc and use whatever disk tools you are used too, and that will wipe the drive. and then after you stick it back in the mac, whoever gets it next will need to find some os install cds, and use those to format the disk to work on the mac again. so that will give you a double format.


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## shuuhen (Sep 4, 2004)

Welcome to TSF.

What model of Mac is it? Old World Macs cannot boot system disks for non-Mac operating systems by holding the c key. The method normally used (the others seem very problematic from what I've heard) does require that a Mac operating system be installed. If you wiped the drive with Linux, you would not be able to boot that machine again with the Linux disc until you had Mac OS installed again. System discs for a desired copy of Mac OS is probably your best option.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

wow, learn something new everyday. guess thats why i could never get my 7500 to boot from the ppclinux cd i made several years ago.


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## shuuhen (Sep 4, 2004)

sinclair_tm said:


> wow, learn something new everyday. guess thats why i could never get my 7500 to boot from the ppclinux cd i made several years ago.


Yeah, you normally need to use something called BootX (not the same as the one in Mac OS X). It loads as a control panel, then lets you choose an OS. While there are a few other ways, I've never used them as I've heard they all are a pain to get working and don't work very well even when set up correctly.


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## C3Arthur (Oct 19, 2006)

shuuhen said:


> Welcome to TSF.
> 
> What model of Mac is it? Old World Macs cannot boot system disks for non-Mac operating systems by holding the c key. The method normally used (the others seem very problematic from what I've heard) does require that a Mac operating system be installed. If you wiped the drive with Linux, you would not be able to boot that machine again with the Linux disc until you had Mac OS installed again. System discs for a desired copy of Mac OS is probably your best option.


I'm not sure what model it is, I looked around for any numbers but couldnt find any. It looks like an old TV set with Teal and white plastic, and says iMac on the front (is that the model?).

Thanks for the info on the boot off cd thing, why do macs have to be so fussy with that?  The owner's son has a mac OS 9 CD, will that work?

I will admit, the computer runs very well for being so old, Apple did somethig right


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## shuuhen (Sep 4, 2004)

If that license is not in use due to an install on a separate computer, there shouldn't be any trouble. That computer sounds like it's a 233 MHz G3 iMac (Bondi Blue). If you want to confirm the details, you can find if it's a 233 MHz G3 in the Apple System Profiler.

That machine can also run Mac OS X (slowly, but it works). If it has the original hard drive, space will be limited. Linux should also work without BootX (actually, you want to make sure you don't use BootX and use 'yaboot' instead). If the computer will not boot off of the Linux disc, then there is a good chance there is something wrong with the disc.


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