On Jun 16, 2006, at 7:24 AM, Mark Roberts wrote: > Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote: > >> No need for a third party utility. >> >> * The Finder includes a "Secure Erase" feature for items you put in >> the trash. See the menu command "Finder -> Secure Empty Trash". >> >> * If you need to erase an entire disk drive volume, the Disk Utility >> application includes secure erasure of disk volumes. > > Which versions of the OS have these features? One of the Macs I'm > dealing with is a G3 Powerbook. Don't know which version it's running > yet, but it's at least 5 years old. maybe older.
All Mac OS X systems since v10.1 release in 2001. PowerBook G3 represents a range of five models made from late 1997 to 2002: 1997-98: PowerBook G3 "Hooper" - oldest, squared off case design with SCSI and serial ports 1998-1999: PowerBook G3 "Wall Street" - softer 'pillow' case design with SCSI and serial ports 1999: PowerBook G3 "Lombard" - thinner, pillow case design with USB and SCSI ports 2000-2001: PowerBook G3 "Pismo" with dual FireWire and USB ports Hoopers and Wall Streets could run Mac OS X up to 10.1 but only to a limited extent, due to lack of RAM and video options. Lombards were made for only a short time, they can run 10.3 but had limited video cards so some things do not run well or weren't fully supported. Pismos can run all versions of Mac OS X up to the current 10.4 generation. If you need to scrub an older PowerBook drive that is not configured with Mac OS X: - For a Pismo, it's very easy. Set the PowerBook into FireWire Target Mode and connect it to any other Mac OS X system via a FireWire cable. Then run Disk Utility and use one of the Secure Erase options. Or obtain a Mac OS X installation CD or DVD, boot the system with it (with the CD or DVD in the optical drive, power up the system with the 'C' key held down, this will automatically search for a bootable volume in the optical drive first). You can then run the Disk Utility from the Installer's Tools menu and use a secure erase option on the drive. - For older PowerBooks, you'll need an installation CD for Mac OS X v10.1 specifically to boot the systems from the optical drive and perform a secure erase of the hard drive. If you don't have that, you can use a FireWire to SCSI adapter cable for a more modern system and a SCSI System Connector cable for the old PowerBook. The latter cable is inserted into the SCSI port, and connected to the adapter and the modern system and then the old PB system is started. This starts the PowerBook up as a SCSI Target Drive, which Disk Utility can then see and run a secure erase. Without the right pieces on these older machines, doing a good secure erase will require finding a bootable CD or SCSI drive with Mac OS 9 and a secure erase utility written for the older operating system. The age and value of such an old system means that it is probably much less trouble to extract the drive and physically destroy it rather than waste time finding all the bits to do a secure erase. PowerBook G3 Pismo system are still quite viable ... I fitted mine with 768M RAM and a 60G fast drive in 2004 and used it until two months ago running Mac OS X v10.4.x, when I bought my PowerBook G4 1.67Ghz system. I've since sold the PBG3 to a friend who is continuing to use it for his daily internet and accounting work. :-) Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
