need emac restore dvd or way to partially erase hard drive?

Luckily, I found the DVD to restore the system (confirmed it with Apple Support). Apple no longer sells replacement restore disks for the eMac.

I did forget to mention that on this eMac, the prior owner had everything passcoded. When his family sold it to me after the owner died, they had to have the local Mac store fix it so that the passcode was bypassed by hitting Enter/Return keys. The prior owner also had an Admin Account, too. Per your instructions, I did create my own Admin Account but I was unable to delete/remove his account (the minus key was greyed when I highlighted his Account. I did try going under the Password Tab and hit enter, hoping I could bypass his code there but unable to override.). However, since I did everything under his Admin Account to begin with, (never having created my own Admin account), I'm assuming that I won't be able to erase the hard drive after all? Is this a correct assumption?

It took way longer than it said. (I had selected the most secure way of erasing the drive (35x) which supposedly would take 15 hrs.) Over 24 hrs later it was still going but the status bar appeared frozen at less than halfway completed so I hit cancel. Is there any other alternative way I can rid the drives of my info? thanks for your help.

After going back into the Disk Utility after I had canceled the Erase attempt, my Admin Account was listed first, instead of 2nd, and I was able to highlight the other Admin Account and select the Minus sign and delete. I thought this was a good sign so I restarted the Erase with the medium 7 pass.

(Did notice though that the dock was there (in different spot) and also under Applications all of the apps were there?!) I'm thinking this isn't good, yes?

And after the 2nd pass at erasing at the bottom right of window says has 62.8 GB available and 11.6 GB in use (on right the number of folders has decreased slightly to 79k from 82K. Is this right?

Thought the whole point of erasing and then reinstalling was because there wouldn't be anything on the computer after erasing "everything"?

Under Disk Utility, after having selected the Hard Drive, in the window to the right -- the Erase Free Space button is available to select, however, the Security Options Button is greyed out, so I'm unable to select an option (whatever that means) before clicking on Erase.

All applications appear to be intact on the hard drive. So this wasn't successful. Any suggestions? Maybe I just need to forget about erasing and giving the computer away? Am I doing something wrong? thanks for your help.

After I deleted the old users account, I retried erasing but everything seems to be on the computer, nothing has been erased. So, If I see all of the applications (not talking about my Admin account) then the system hasn' erased any files? So this was a futile exercise?

I thought that after erasing a disk there would be literally nothing on it. So, I was surprised to see all of the applications still on the hard drive. (Safari, AppleWriter, Address Book, Key Chain,Adobe, etc.) None of my documents are in AppleWriter or on the DeskTop - but I'd deleted those. Under System Preferences, nothing remains of my IP address, etc.

I just wondered if any of my personal info like ssn, credit cards, etc could be located. Also, had creative documents under AppleWriter which I had deleted but wanted to be sure couldn't be somehow reconstructed?

I've not "reinstalled" anything.

WORKED. THANK YOU! HAD NO IDEA NEEDED THE DISK.

Since you solved this eMac problem, can I erase an old MAC (Power Mac G4, OS 9.2.2) in the same way?

Am only owner, have both disks - System Restore & Software Install.

Tried starting from System Restore disk by holding down the C key when computer reboots, after hear chime and before anything comes up but it freezes.

So tried to do it after computer had started, opened CD (it's the correct one as under Apple Software Restore screen comes up with options to Retore, saving original, Restore in Place and Erase "Macintosh HD" before restoring.

Selected Erase below next to Volume Format which is defaulted at "Same as selected configuration" which is: in Configuration Window there's only one option "Power Mac 64 HD.img.

Underneath at Destination Disk Eject Disk is greyed out so only option is to Switch Disk.

Below that it only gives option to Quit, Restore is greyed out.

(Next to the Quit/Restore buttons, there's explanation window, which says: the disk "Macintosh HD" is the startup disk and cannot be restored. Please click Switch Disk/Switch Device to select another disk.)

I can't remember how to start it with Extensions Manager turned off, and don't know if that would help.

Was just planning to recycle the parts but had wanted to try to erase the drive if possible. thanks!