[iMac] Clearing old iMac HD

[John Griffin]

Hi Mike,

One thing you should be aware of is that the new iMacs will not run  
Mac OS 9.2, so you can trash it and any Classic-only applications  
that may have been migrated to your new iMac. They are history!

As far as trashing the unwanted stuff on your old iMac, here is what  
I do. First go through all the files on the old iMac that you don't  
want and trash them. Then backup the hard drive to another hard drive  
using Disk Utility or whatever you may have for the purpose (I use  
SuperDuper). Now you would format the iMac's drive using a security  
erase (writing zeros across the whole drive). This can be done by  
Apple's Disk Utility. You would boot into the CD or DVD disk 1  
Installer disk that came with the old machine (hope you still have  
it) and pull down one of the menus (I can't remember what it is  
labeled but it has Disk Utility listed) and launch Apple Disk  
Utility. Select the iMac's disk that will be listed in the left  
column and choose to erase it. Go through all the warnings about  
losing data, etc. Chose the security erase function (the first level  
will suffice - writing zeros across the drive).

Then you would restore the backup to your iMac's drive. You can now  
safely deliver the machine to whatever charity you chose.

Alternatively you can just put the unwanted stuff in the trash and  
use the Finder's Security Empty Trash function. The problem here is  
that it is agonizingly slow. If you have many files, it might take  
hours for the trash to empty, but it works. The former method gives  
you a much cleaner and meaner volume.

Good luck.

jg

On 9-Sep-07, at 9:40 AM, Michael Murphy wrote:

> Hi Everyone
>
> I have recently purchased a new iMac to replace my old iMac (Bondi  
> Blue) model and as the the old computer is still working well, I  
> would like to give it to someone or maybe a charity. But before  
> doing that I would like to clear the old iMac of all the rubbish  
> that I have accumulated over the years and also ensure that stuff  
> that I have put in the trash and cleared cannot be found again.
>
> Ideally, I would like to clear the HD completely of everything and  
> reload it with OS 9.2 or OS X and Appleworks 6. But I don't know if  
> this can be done.
>
> Any help, guidance or suggestions would be very welcome.
>
> Thanks
>
> Mike (in the UK)