Joined: Sat 10-18-2003 10:26PM Posts: 2954 Location: Stone's throw from Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs
Source: Off Campus
I am trying to wipe the hard drive of the computer that i just sold (over there in FS:WTB), it's a MacBook Pro with Boot Camp running Windows XP and 10.4 Tiger. Not at all concerned about saving any data, and would prefer to overwrite if at all possible. If not overwrite, then just destroy the partition tables a la new operating system install.
Complications:
--CD/DVD drive is inaccessible. --Computer will only boot into Windows--NOT OSX. --I can't figure out how to get the damn thing to boot off my USB key, which, I assume is bootable but I'm not sure.
If I had the DVD drive accessible I know this is plug-in simple: there's an option on the OSX DVD to reformat and do physical overwrites. I've seen utilities (DBAN, etc) to do the same thing but I can't figure out how to get them to boot.
Looking for: -Advice -A Linux OS on a bootable USB pen drive to borrow for an afternoon -Somebody to fix this damn thing (beer, etc can be provided)
Joined: Tue 08-15-2006 6:22PM Posts: 255 Location: Tetromino House
Source: Off Campus
I don't know how hard it is to take hard drives out of those, but I would put it in a computer that has a working floppy or CD drive to run DBAN. I know you can hook a SATA laptop drive to a desktop computer easily, where you could run DBAN.
ALSO: I run linux KNOPPIX off a USB drive on a laptop I have because the chip that drives the hard drive fried. It works really well, has wireless capabilities and everything already setup.
I was hoping you were trying to KILL it, but you're selling it... I was going to suggest putting it in the microwave for 5 minutes on HIGH, borrowing a pick-up truck to run over the charred remains, then strapping a watch with an alarm clock to what's left and leaving it in a conspicuous looking backpack at Lambert International. Works every time.
Macbooks and Macbooks Pro are easy enough to open up and get to the hard drive. All Macbooks Pro have used SATA hard drives, so all you need to do is open the case, pull the hard drive, hook it up to another computer (laptop and desktop SATA connectors are identical) and DBAN it.
To use DBAN you just download an ISO and burn it to a disc, then you have to go into the BIOS of the computer that's going to boot it and tell it you want to boot from CD. I strongly recommend that you disconnect the normal hard drive from the other computer before you boot DBAN so you don't accidentally wipe it by mistake.
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