On Fri, 8/23/13, Chad Keck <[email protected]> wrote: I can boot in the first install disk for 7.5.3 and install over the current OS but I want to format the drive entirely. Has some old data from the original owner way back I'd like to wipe. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks! --Chad
You can delete the existing volume(s) and create new ones. That should wipe everything. In rare cases there's a problem that no utility you can run on an old Mac will fix. What I do to ensure there's no problem is use an Adaptec 2940 SCSI controller (one that has a 50 pin Narrow connector) in a PC to completely low level format the drive. That wipes 100% of the drive, leaving nothing behind to cause trouble on a Mac. Something you can do with a PC to prep a drive for a Mac is format it FAT16 (if on the Mac you'll use HFS Standard) or FAT32 (if on the Mac it will be HFS Extended). This is especially useful for drives without Apple branded firmware. Turn off any PC format compatibility extensions and control panels then boot with the PC formatted drive connected. You'll be asked if you want to erase or format the drive. You do want to do that. In a few seconds the drive will be changed to Macintosh format - no hacked drive utility needed. Apparently the lower level filesystem structures of HFS Standard and FAT16 and HFS Extended and FAT32 are close enough that the Mac system has no problem quickly replacing the higher level structure, ignoring whether or not there's Apple in the firmware. Two other PC tricks you can do with Mac formatted hard drives. 1. Nero Burning ROM can copy directly from an HFS Standard SCSI hard drive to a CD-R or DVD+-R as long as the capacity of the drive is small enough to fit on the disc. I did that many times with 650 meg and smaller drives, arranged the files how I wanted, defragged, then hooked the drive up to a PC and burned to CD-R to have a disc with everything exactly as on the hard drive. If you don't defrag before burning to disc the files are just as fragmented on the disc and any disc drive reading it will thrash like mad. 2. The Basilisk II and Sheep Shaver emulators can boot from HFS Standard formatted SCSI hard drives. IDE drives will also work with those emulators but when formatting from within the emulator a drive can only have a single volume. (The drives have to be FDISKed as FAT16 but NOT formatted, then hidden from Windows.) -- -- ----- You received this message because you are a member of the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Vintage Macs" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
