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Author Topic: Erasing my old HDs - part 2  (Read 3125 times)

Offline kimmer

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Erasing my old HDs - part 2
« on: January 17, 2008, 12:55:05 PM »
Following the advice in this thread, I started my G4 from my Tiger install disks, launched Disk Utility and set it to secure erase. It's now been over 24 hours and the progress bar, while animating, isn't moving up the line at all. It's about a 1/4-inch from the end of the bar. Below it shows:

Capacity: 57.3 GB
Available: 57.3 GB
Used 11.8 MB
Number of files: 4


How long do I let this keep running in the hopes that it will reach the end of that indicator bar?

Should I do a force quit? Is that even safe?

I have not a clue, and I'm kinda concerned about it taking this long.
Especially since I have a second drive to erase.
I could be at this until next summer.  jawdrop.gif
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Offline FLASH1296

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Erasing my old HDs - part 2
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2008, 01:11:07 PM »
Disc Utility has hung without displaying an error message.
This is a small drive.  You have no other option but to force quit, and if that fails you'll need to power down.
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Offline Mayo

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Erasing my old HDs - part 2
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2008, 01:17:18 PM »
The operation should have been completed hours ago... Was the drive partitioned?  You can create a new single partition and try again, this time using the 7-pass wipe. You can also try running Disk Utility?Disk Warrior and see if anything needs repairing.
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Offline kimmer

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Erasing my old HDs - part 2
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2008, 04:08:09 PM »
Disk wasn't partitioned. So I won't hurt the drive if I force quit?

PS: I just clicked the SKIP button and now it's hung up trying to skip.

 wallbash.gif
« Last Edit: January 17, 2008, 04:11:39 PM by kimmer »
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Erasing my old HDs - part 2
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2008, 07:01:14 PM »
You actually have at least three choices:
1. Try doing a "Force Quit..."
2. If that fails, you can also 'kill' the process in Activity Monitor.
3. If that fails, you can try a magic spell in Terminal.
4. Find the power button.

No mater which way it quits, I doubt you'll be able to do anything else except use Disk Utility again. You might even have to format it to be sure there is a usable directory in order to even mount it.

If you have a FireWire cable you can spare, why not see if you can start it as just a Target Mode drive?
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Offline chriskleeman

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Erasing my old HDs - part 2
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2008, 07:11:31 PM »
Kim,

Since you're erasing the drive anyway, why not just power down and restart with your start-up disk again, and see what happens. Sounds like you might have a bad block in your HD... You could also try to start up from your other drive once you get restarted with your Tiger disk and see what the one you're trying to erase looks like. "Hurting the drive" really isn't relevant, since you want it erased anyway! How long has it been since you powered up this machine? I did have a drive that lunched itself after I hadn't started it for about 3 months, but it was accompanied by a lot of nasty mechanical noises as well as not wanting to boot up properly.

But since you're trying to erase it anyway, I'd pretty much throw caution to the winds here and power down and restart. Once you reformat, it's pretty much a done deal anyhow.

HTH,

CK Thinking.gif
« Last Edit: January 17, 2008, 07:14:29 PM by chriskleeman »
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Offline kimmer

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Erasing my old HDs - part 2
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2008, 07:43:32 PM »
  1. I was unable to force quit.
  2. Activity monitor and terminal unavailable as I had started off the Tiger install CD.
  3. Power down worked. Machine restarted okay and both drives came back up. I was working on the second drive that was totally empty (no system, no docs, etc).
Tomorrow I'll pull out the firewire cable and do the target mode thing (DUH! I never even thought about that!) and erase from this machine and see how that goes. I'd try it tonight, but I'm tired of listening to this tower running, and besides it's right next to my left leg and it's a bit warm. wink.gif

Chris, I haven't run this tower since when I got my iMac and finally got everything transferred over - so maybe late October/early November. It is possible there are probs with both of these drives. They are old enough, and this machine was giving me problems when I replaced it. I'd like to have both drives running, as the guy that is interested wants them -- even if they are almost defunct. I don't know why, but he's willing to pay me $$ (that Sneakers says I can keep and use to buy books! LOL)

What fun. If I totally trusted the guy that's buying it, I'd not be so concerned ... but I'm not a good trusting sort of gal ... and so I'll drive myself bugs getting this to work. biggrin.gif

Thanks for the help!
« Last Edit: January 17, 2008, 07:43:56 PM by kimmer »
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Offline kimmer

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Erasing my old HDs - part 2
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2008, 12:50:10 AM »
Okay, hooked up via Firewire. Ran Disk Utility, drive is good and it's totally cleaned.

Now I start the process for the second drive ... but I can't connect via FW ... hopefully  it won't take 36 hours. wink.gif
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Erasing my old HDs - part 2
« Reply #8 on: January 18, 2008, 11:15:46 AM »
QUOTE
it's totally cleaned. Now I start the process for the second drive
Well, you could use the "Heavy" wash and "Extra" rince cycle on the washing machine. That should do a great job of 'cleaning' the disk. tongue.gif
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Offline kimmer

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Erasing my old HDs - part 2
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2008, 01:40:58 PM »
Oh, maybe I'll try that after the jackets are finished. laugh.gif
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Offline tacit

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Erasing my old HDs - part 2
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2008, 01:44:22 PM »
It's possible the erase hung because the drive is marginal or has developed bad sectors. Drives that exhibit problems with erasing are often drives that are developing problems, and I tend not to trust them.
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Offline kimmer

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Erasing my old HDs - part 2
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2008, 02:43:39 PM »
Thanks, tacit. They are older drives. It's an older machine. biggrin.gif

DiskWarrior and Disk Utility both showed no probs on the drives.

I'm selling the machine to someone who tinkers, so it'll be his prob (and he's a techy guy so he knows what he's buying - I'm not ripping some unsuspecting soul off -- and I will tell him I had probs erasing the drives). I just want my info off them.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2008, 02:44:27 PM by kimmer »
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