Wiping Drive Without Reinstalling Os, Powerbook G4 is missing Tiger discs Options

[redstrype]

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

[CanadaRAM]

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

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.