Q: Erasing G4 Power Mac without keyboard, mouse or DVD drive
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Jul 22, 2014 7:33 AMby Limnos,HelpfulEven if you had the keyboard working enough to put it in Target Disk Mode you could wipe it as an external drive to any newer Mac to which you could connect it, as long as it is a model supporting TDM. Given that it has none of these things you might just have to resort to physical destruction which is a pity because there's almost always somebody around looking for parts that work in older machines. Although the ASC forum is not the place to post overt requests, if you hint roughly where you are located it is possible somebody in your area might be around to help. For that matter all you need to do is borrow a wired keyboard from pretty much any computer (even PC) for a few minutes to get it into TDM to erase from your other Mac (if it too has Firewire).
How to use FireWire target disk mode - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661 - includes description of hardware and software requirements.
What to do if your Mac doesn't enter FireWire Target Disk Mode - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75414, also read about Open Firmware Password Protection - http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/openfirmwarepassword.html which can disable Target Disk Mode.
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Jul 22, 2014 8:09 AMby Allan Jones,HelpfulI can also see the G4 and access it via my MacBook Pro running 10.9.4
How are they communicating when you can do this? As you have no keyboard, I assume it is via a wired network or some sort of USB sharing.
If you can see it from your MBP over a network, you should be able to wipe the drive from the MBP assuming you have the needed privileges to the G4's volumes.
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Jul 22, 2014 8:17 AMby Jan Hedlund,>So, is it possible to wipe the drive? In a similar thread someone suggested just removing the HD, which I could do,
Yes, you could remove the hard drive. One option would then be to connect it internally to another desktop Mac or PC (with an appropriate connector for the hard drive type in question, and with a proper setup). Another would be to use an external universal hard drive adapter like the one under the following link (you may also be able to find similar devices in computer stores locally), and then connect the adapter to a USB port of a Mac or PC.
http://www.newertech.com/products/usb3_universaldriveadap.php
>Or is there a third-party piece of software I can run to try and erase the hard drive?
With a modern Mac, it should be possible to use Disk Utility to overwrite the contents of the drive. With an older Mac, Drive Setup may have to be used in order to zero all data. For a PC (and depending upon the operating system), there are other software solutions.
Jan
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Jul 22, 2014 8:20 AMby GogsyT,Thanks Limnos. That all looks most useful. I'll take a look at TDM. It may be that I can get the keyboard going and there was a brief flicker of life from the mouse this morning but I couldn't replicate it. I'll see if I can get another keyboard to work too.
I'm in Edinburgh, UK. This machine had quite a few upgrades during its lifetime, so I imagine that some parts might still be of use to some people. The worst case is that I'll remove the drive and donate the rest for parts.
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Jul 22, 2014 8:45 AMby GogsyT,Allan Jones wrote:
If you can see it from your MBP over a network, you should be able to wipe the drive from the MBP assuming you have the needed privileges to the G4's volumes.
I can see the G4 using Ethernet and have used this to remove files. Overwriting the disk seems to be the problem. Disk Utility on the MBP doesn't seem to see it however.
You have given me some ideas to try out with various cables and peripherals, so I will try those.
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Jul 22, 2014 8:46 AMby GogsyT,Allan Jones wrote:
If you can see it from your MBP over a network, you should be able to wipe the drive from the MBP assuming you have the needed privileges to the G4's volumes.
I can see the G4 using Ethernet and have used this to remove files. Overwriting the disk seems to be the problem. Disk Utility on the MBP doesn't seem to see it however.
You have given me some ideas to try out with various cables and peripherals, so I will try those.
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Jul 22, 2014 9:15 AMby GogsyT,Thanks everybody, this has been very helpful. My apologies for multiple and misplaced replies, I'm new to the mechanics of this forum.
My problem is still unresolved but I am getting closer.
- I've managed to borrow a mouse and establish that the keyboard is functioning. That is fine as I can now work with G4 directly.
- In the absence of a suitable Firewire connection (at the moment) I'm going to try rebooting from the external DVD drive (Samsung) and then do an erase and clean install from there. At the moment this isn't working however as the G4 can't find it on reboot when I use Command-Option-Shift-Delete and I am currently trying to work around this issue
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Jul 22, 2014 9:22 AMby Allan Jones,I'm going to try rebooting from the external DVD drive (Samsung) and then do an erase and clean install from there.
The external DVD drive must be FireWire to boot a PowerPC Mac. I think the universal drive adaptor that Jan suggests is the best option. It's pretty easy to pull a drive from a G4 tower model. I've use one of those a number of times. Handy bit of kit to have.
My apologies for multiple and misplaced replies, I'm new to the mechanics of this forum.
No need to apologize. Apple needs to do so. They changed the forum format radically about a month ago and we are all struggling!
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Jul 22, 2014 10:14 AMby GogsyT,Thanks Allan, that will explain the DVD issue. I'm going to try booting from the MBP tomorrow once I have a new FW cable.
Failing that I will go down the route Jan suggests (thanks Jan!) and you support with the universal drive adapter. It wasn't originally on my shopping list, but I'm ok with opening it up and there are several computers in this house and it looks useful to have.
I'll report back. Meanwhile I hope Apple sort out the forum format for us all :-)
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Jul 22, 2014 10:54 AMby Limnos,GogsyT wrote:
I can see the G4 using Ethernet and have used this to remove files. Overwriting the disk seems to be the problem. Disk Utility on the MBP doesn't seem to see it however.
That's because the computer is booted to the drive and using those system files which cannot be overwritten when in service, and the drive is seen as a file server not a standard hard drive. In theory you might be able to secure erase any files you have trashed, but it would be nice to clean the whole drive to be sure.
In Firwire TDM the computer doesn't boot to the drive, the computer basically acts as a glorified external drive enclosure and that's it.
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Jul 26, 2014 3:46 AMby GogsyT,Update: I have made progress in accessing and the G4 via Firewire and TDM as suggested. I have now encountered a read-write permissions problem that I can't get around.
The G4 is partitioned into 2: Mac OSX (system) and Work. Neither Disk Utility nor Techtool 7 let me erase data as they state I do not have permission and can read-only. (DU states the Mac OSX partition needs repair but Work is fine).
I have gone into the permissions settings from the G4, setting everything to Read-write and can see this from the MBP. However I still cannot write/ erase the drive. I've looked online for a solution, but to no effect. Going into Terminal seems like the solution and while I can follow instructions to do things in Terminal, I'm not confident in this area.
It seems like I am just this step away. Is there a way I can do it? Am I still likely to encounter this if I went down Jan's route of a Universal drive?
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Jul 26, 2014 9:16 AMby Limnos,TDM is basically the same as a universal drive connector as far as the interface is concerned. If a drive is locked on one it would be locked on the other.
Get info on the volumes. See if a box is checked (as it should be) "ignore ownership on this volume". I haven't done what you are trying to do but this should not be necessary when using Disk Utility.
The other time I have seen this is when a disk is locked. With other drives this is a little slider switch but on a hard disk I suppose it would be a jumper. I have never encountered this on a drive configured for standard use in a computer.
