Hi All,

I've just purchased a friend's powerbook G4 and I was wondering if it's possible to wipe his drive without reinstalling OS X, he's lost the Tiger install disc's and I was hoping not to have to purchase the disc's again.

I guess I could manually delete all the unwanted files and then create a new user account, but is there an easier solution that anyone knows of?


Thanks again,

-Strype

Easiest solution is to buy a set de disk second hand.

Now, I don't like this but cloning the system, verify the clone is working then erasing the drive totally, then cloning the clone back…

I like some install disk doing their job way better. Clean drive, clean system.

BTWyour friend should have given you the original set of disk, there's the specific Apple Hardware Test on it for the computer and you have no possibility to retrieve it elsewhere.

Thank you lepetitmartien,
It's less a function of him giving it to me, as much as it is us FINDING IT!! We looked all over the place...to no avail. I have Panther from my old Desktop, so I'll probably end up using that if we can't locate the Tiger discs.

Thank you for your response.

If it's not a universal (shelf) version, DON'T. It won't work save maybe in target mode from another computer.

If you try to use the original disks coming with another model, you'll have at best a system behaving strangely, at worse it'll refuse to work at all.

Anyway, your friend should find the original disks, just for the AHT you can't have in any other way. For Tiger universal, second hand is your friend if you're broke.

No, any reformat or erase will take out the OS as well. You need either the original disks for THAT model machine, or a retail OS package of the same or greater version than shipped with the machine.

Deleting what you can and installing a new user as posted is the best bet. If he can't find the disks, it would be best to buy a retail set; you will need it for troubleshooting, repairing the hard drive, changing the main password, etc. and will be up a creek without a bootable OS CD.

Also consider getting an external firewire drive, both for audio files and to have a bootable clone of the system on it.