Deleting a HD on a broken iBook that wont turn on?

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
My iBook G4 1.2 broke and apple will repair it for 700 dollars, no go. So I want to sell it as Broken for parts and put that into getting a MacBook. Is there any way to whipe the Hard Drive on the computer besides taking a magnet to the HD, because that ruins the HD right? I can't take it out and put it in another iBook, because I don't know anyone who has one, and don't really want to deal with it that way anyways. Any ideas?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    benzenebenzene Posts: 338member
    First of all, unless you're going to drop the drive in a MRI or NMR, you're not going to be able to wipe it magnetically. And yes, you'd screw up it beyond the point of no return.



    I'm guessing that you can't boot the iBook to even firewire target mode, or anything like that. If you really want to sell the drive with the iBook, the drive has a standard mini-IDE connector, so you could hook it up to any friend's PC laptop and just reformat it with a windows install CD. You might also be able to find an adaptor cheaply so you can wipe it using your desktop. (you'd be looking for something like this)



    My suggestion is to just take the drive out. Chances are that the ibook itself is going to be parted out anyway, and the buyer won't care about the drive. Buy an external hard drive case and put your drive in that. Presto, "new" drive, with all your stuff still on it!
  • Reply 2 of 2
    navyusanavyusa Posts: 35member
    Awsome, thanks so much for the info! I will definitely do that.
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