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How do I wipe my hard drive on my ibook G4?

How do I wipe my hard drive clean on my ibook G4?

iBook, Mac OS X (10.4.1)

Posted on Sep 3, 2011 7:14 AM

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7 replies

Sep 3, 2011 7:21 AM in response to DrTar

Use the CD or DVD that came with your Mac, and start up (boot) your Mac from that disk. To do so, insert the disk and give the restart command. Then, hold down the C key until the restart process is well under way; this should cause your Mac to start up from the disk you inserted, rather than from the operating system on your Mac's hard drive.


You will see steps that lead you toward an installation (or a re-installation) of the operating system.


However, at one point, there will appear menus. Look for a command under one of the menus that reads "Disk Utility" or some such. Choose that. The disk utility program will open, and from there you should be able to select your Mac's internal hard drive and erase it. In fact, there are likely to be security choices for you -- choices that entail actually erasing (or over-writing) the data on your hard drive.


Post back if this does not work as described.

Jul 2, 2014 5:51 PM in response to Jim Vance

I did all you said and it seemed to work fine. What I DID NOT see was the command for Disc Utility (or the like) so I never got to that part. But the disc seemed to reboot the iBook. I'm just not sure if it erased the whole hard drive and I have tax information (SS #'s etc.) that was on it. I've tried to restart from the installation CD to do it all over again but now it won't let me. What now? Thanks in advance for the help!

Jul 2, 2014 6:04 PM in response to kschlea

P.S. to my last post. I'm going by what Jim Vance said. The computer restarted like it was new and I was trying to reboot it. It wouldn't restart from the installation CD. So I had to register it and now I'm trying to wipe it again.


Can I go do Disk Utility and erase the Hard Drive and then restart the laptop from the Installation CD?


Thanks for the help!

How do I wipe my hard drive on my ibook G4?

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