Securely erase all user data on an old iBook I have an old iBook (Model A1007) that I would like to donate, but first I need to delete all of the last user's data so that it is not recoverable. With Windows machines, I usually do this by running a live Linux USB or CD and then using the "shred" tool to overwrite the hard drive some number of times with random data.

Unfortunately, I have been having trouble running live Linux on this Mac, as per this post: booting an iBook from a live linux usb drive. Booting from a CD instead hasn't seemed to have given me more useful results.

It seems that if I were to purchase the Mac OS 10.4 installer disk, it might be able to do what I need, though since I am doing this just to get rid of the computer, it seems like a bit of an excessive investment for what I am trying to do.

My problem is similar to this one: Securely wipe all user data from iBook G4 / OSX 10.4?. That user had three proposed solutions


Connect the computer to another Mac. I'd rather not, as I don't have another Mac.
Clone the entire computer to an external disk and then run it off that. This seems like it is going to likely be a big project involving lots of debugging (and somehow finding a blank external hard drive, which I would prefer to avoid as well).


So my questions are:


Is there some free way to either run Linux on this old iBook and use that to wipe the data?
If not, is there some other free way to securely delete the data from the iBook?
If neither 1 nor 2, is there a way that will minimize hassle and expense to clean this computer so that I can get rid of it?


I'm not above breaking this thing open and physically destroying the hard drive, if I must. I'd just rather use software means if its possible (and not too expensive).
You can use the Disk Utility program supplied by Apple - and you can tell it how many overwrites you wish it to do, the last time I read that info it said one pass was not very reliable, 7 should be fine and 35 was overkill - bear in mind how long it takes to do one complete pass....

A similar question is here : Selling a Macbook Pro - removing personal information from it

Edit: You need to boot from a different media as it cannot work on itself so, either the original install disc or a newer install disk for a later version - as older ones don’t usually work forwards... Other bootable media may also work - but that I have not tried...