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General discussion

G3 Ibook format Hard Drive

Oct 19, 2006 9:09AM PDT

My ibook wont boot to OS I dont have the install/restore discs.

How can I format my ibook HD so I can run Ubuntu without booting to OS?

Discussion is locked

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MY post may be unclear
Oct 19, 2006 9:12AM PDT

I want to format the HD but since my ibook wont boot to OS and I dont have the OS discs I need to be able to format the HD without having to boot into OS.

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Format iBook HD
Oct 19, 2006 11:01AM PDT

The principles behind formatting a HD in an iBook is exactly the same as formatting a HD in any computer.
The computer has to be on and capable of accepting commands, however basic.
This usually means that the computer has to be booted into some sort of Operating System. On a Windows machine it is possible to boot into DOS, contained on a floppy, and tell the computer to format the drive. iBooks don't have floppy drives, as is becoming common on other computers. You could boot from an external drive, Firewire in the case of the iBook.

If you had an Ubuntu OS disk, maybe you could boot into that OS and format the drive.

Which ever way you slice it, which ever way you ask the question and however many times you ask it, the computer has to be booted into an OS for anything to happen.

Sorry

P

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I tried ubuntu
Oct 19, 2006 3:27PM PDT

I try booting into ubuntu from cd but it freezes.

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Did you ever try
Oct 19, 2006 10:24PM PDT

to find the Mac OS disks for this machine on eBay?

That's where we left your last thread on this very subject


P

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No
Oct 20, 2006 4:13AM PDT

I dont have them thats why I was asking if there was a possibility of formatting it in single user mode or somthing like that. I dont want to spend $50 on restore discs just to find out the HD is fried anyways. Also I am going to be using a different OS.

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Formatting a Drive
Oct 20, 2006 4:42AM PDT

You cannot format the drive that you are booted from.

Therefore, if you do not have boot disks for any OS that the iBook will boot into, you cannot format the drive. Unless you know someone with OS 9 or OS X on an external drive, you will need to get a bootable CD for that machine.

OR

Just replace the HD and you will know that it is good and you can go from there.


P

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Oh yes, one other thing
Oct 20, 2006 8:53AM PDT

Even with a new hard drive, you will still need to format (initialize) it before you can install an OS on it.

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Okay
Oct 21, 2006 6:05AM PDT

I now know I need to buy at least the OS discs I guess I just need to cough up the cash for em. I am on a tight budget but buying these is absolutley necessary.
Thank you for your help.