Erase The Old Hard Drive

There are two ways to erase the hard drive. The first is easy and fast and the other is slow and secure. Both require that you startup the computer from your operating system install CD. This should be done as the last step before taking your iMac apart

1. This is a quick and fairly secure method. Startup from your OS CD (hold down the c key when restarting). Select your drive on the desktop and choose "Erase Disk..." from the special Menu. Choose Mac OS Extended for the format then click the Erase button. It only takes a few seconds.

2. This is the secure method but it's very slow. Startup from your OS CD (hold down the c key when restarting). Launch the "Drive Setup" application that is inside the Utilities folder on the CD. In the first window select your hard drive from the List Of Drives. From the Funtions Menu, check the box next to Zero All Data then click the OK button. Now click the "Initialize..." button. It will ask you to confirm that you want to erase the drive. Click Initialize. This method will take 1 hour for every 10gb of space erased.

After finishing the erase, shut down the computer. Remove the OS CD from the CD-ROM tray by inserting a paperclip into the on the front of the CD-ROM. This should open the tray.