Red ones and Blue ones

[ctbjs]

We have a couple of dozen old Red and Blue Macs that are just about dead on their legs now. We want to be able to flatten the HDD so that there is nothing on it or at least the MAC OS which on these is 9.2.

Is anyone out there able to help with how to do this, my mac knowledge is relatively limited and we are doing this so that we can sell them on to anyone who wants them really!!

[Geoff]

There is a version of DBAN for PPC Macs.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/ppc.html

[ctbjs]

........ and what does that mean Geoff?


Sorry if that sounds ignorant.... I did say my knowledge of macs is limited!! ops:

[webman]

:twisted: :twisted:

[krisd32]

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.

it really is quite good!

[crc-ict]

Just don't underestimate how long these can take, especially if you choose one of the more paranoid (i.e. secure) wipe methods...

Certainly not a job to start near the end of the day if you don't want to leave them on all night!

Also, if you're going to sell them on, make sure you have the OS 9 disks to restore them to a usable condition before you wipe everything...

[elsiegee40]

Quite seriously... if these machines have reached the end of their lives, I'd go for webman's hammer suggestion.

It's cheap, quick, easy, effective and satisfying!

[Roberto]

If the machines are going to be disposed of, I'd go with Elsie's idea. There really isn't much point in going to a lot of bother if it's a detour on the way to the bin anyway.

[Midget]

Contrary to popular belief its very very very difficult to recover from platter damage. Quickest way to wipe the disk is to open it up and just run a knife across the platter leaving a deep scratch. Otherwise MHDD has a good securewipe facility and boots from floppy.

[Joedetic]

There are PPC versions of ubuntu so i suppose you could boot one of those and bugger about with the partitions and run a script to fill the disk with crap or something.

[ctbjs]

Thanks for all this its all useful. We've discovered that many of the cd roms are damaged anyway so I doubt people would want them. All we have done is to remove the HDD which are 20Gb a piece which I am sure we could put to good use as additional storage, and also remove the RAM.

The hammer option is becoming more of a solution as we go on.

[manxdan]

we are doing this so that we can sell them on to anyone who wants them really!!

they may be cute, but at six or seven years old i don't think even Macs have any resale value.
We sell our old macs at 3/4/5 years old to a firm called PCagain. Don't get a whole lot for the older machines, but at least they get recycled, and they are obliged to wipe the HD's.