How can I securely erase a Classic II hard drive without a functioning Macintosh?

[Star Lake]

I am the original owner of a Macintosh Classic II and plan to sell it.

After decades of it resting in a closet in the original box, I recently turned it on and all I got was a relatively large white rectangle on the display that did not fill the screen. The next time I turned it on I just got a blank display. I opened the case and carefully looked at everything I could see and did not find anything that looked like corrosion, leaking capacitors, etc. Except for some dust on the air vent, everything inside looked quite clean to me.

So I took out the logic board to get a closer look but did not find any problems. The battery looked fine - no evidence of corrosion or leaking.

Since I would like to sell it, but don't want to share whatever personal data is on the hard drive, I'd appreciate your advice regarding how I can securely erase all personal data from the hard drive. The challenging part is that now, I do not have a functioning Macintosh of any kind. I do however, have access to a computer that can run a Windows and a Linux operating system -- if that is of any use.

I suppose I could (1) remove the hard drive and just physically destroy it or maybe you can only suggest a way to (2) securely erase everything on the hard drive -- as opposed to just personal data. But I assume either of those options would substantially reduce the selling value of the Classic II. Option (3), deleting all personal data but preserving the operating system, etc., for a potential buyer, would seem to be my best option by far. It seems pretty clear that Option 2 would be my second best choice.

I would really appreciate your advice on this matter.

Also, I think it would be helpful for me to clarify that I am not a computer scientist or engineer or a computer repair expert. I clearly do not have the skills, computer repair parts, tools or computer-related vocabulary that most people on this forum have. Thank you for your understanding of my limitations.

 

[mikes-macs]

You could just remove the hard drive and sell it without one. Whomever buys it will probably add SCSI to SD option.

If the Mac worked then you could obtain a bootable floppy disk with a formatting utility on it to boot the Mac and erase the hard drive. You simply insert the obtained floppy and power up the Mac it will boot from the floppy, then you launch the formatting utility and erase the internal hard drive. Formatting utilities can do low level formatting which takes longer but make the data unrecoverable,* or open the hard drive from Finder and manually remove the items you want by dragging them to the trash and finally emptying the trash.

To increase the sale price of your Mac I'd figure out what is wrong. There are numerous members here with the knowledge to guide you through repairing it.

 

[halkyardo]

Unfortunate as it is, I think simply "remove the hard drive and sell it without" is probably the most straightforward option for you. There isn't really a good way to read or erase the SCSI hard drives in old Macs unless you either have an old Mac, or another machine with a SCSI interface and the means to hook a drive up to it.

In any case, these days it's fairly common to replace old SCSI hard drives with modern flash-based alternatives such as ZuluSCSI, so I don't think that the lack of one would detract too much from your computer's sale value, especially since it sounds like it might be a repair project in any case.

 

[A24A]

Yes, removing the SCSI hard drive is probably the best way under these circumstances. However, I would not destroy the drive. Instead, keep it. You may find someone with a Macintosh LC II or III (or something similar) where the hard drive could be temporarily installed and erased. A disk tools disk with HD SC Setup should be OK. A floppy with a utility like Burn 2.5 could be used for added wiping (overwriting empty space). You could then later sell the hard drive, if you so wish.

 

[obsolete]

This makes me think of the "initiator mode" on ZuluSCSI (and probably BlueSCSI too). You just hook up the HDD to the ZuluSCSI, give it power, and without a Mac or PC involved, the ZuluSCSI copies the entire contents of the HDD to an image file on the SD card.

First of all, it would be a good idea to do something like that if there's anything on the drive you care about keeping

Second, I wonder how hard it would be to add a "destroyer mode" to the ZuluSCSI firmware so that instead of imaging the connected drive, it would securely wipe it.

 

[Star Lake]

Thank you all very much for your comments.

Based on your kind suggestions, I am considering selling the Classic II without a hard drive. But if a potential buyer is as uninformed as I was, they wouldn't even know it is possible to replace the vintage hard drive with modern technology. So I have contemplated including a tip for a potential buyer, e.g., in an eBay ad, to indicate how they might most easily and economically solve the missing hard drive problem. But currently, I don't know how I would convince them that replacing the hard drive is no big deal.

I followed the link you provided to ZuluSCSI, but I could not figure out how a buyer would install and set it up or even how or where they would attach it to the Classic II.

I don't know whether eBay allows links in an advertisement (I assume they do not). But I would appreciate it if anyone could share a phrase or product name or something I could include in an advertisement that could better help inform a non-expert buyer what specifically they'd need to buy, how to get it attached and set up and how much it might cost to replace the original hard drive?

Your expertise is greatly appreciated, but for mere mortals like me and many potential buyers, we lack the needed knowledge base and experience for some things that may seem simple to experts. I'd like to be able to include a tip about replacing the hard drive to show how it is relatively simple and not too expensive (as I believe you were indicating) to help encourage even a Macintosh novice to consider becoming a buyer.

Thank you very much again.

 

[mikes-macs]

In the eBay listing description put something to the effect of...
"Modern technology and ambitious Macintosh developers have made it possible to replace the failed SCSI hard disk drive with newer storage options."
Then give them a Youtube link with a demonstration. From the demo they can figure it out from there or join 68kMLA and ask away. It's ultimately up to the buyer if they want to buy something fully working and ready to go or get their hands a little dirty and tweak it a bit.

 

[joshc]

Then give them a Youtube link with a demonstration.

eBay doesn’t allow links in descriptions.

This is the buyers problem. They are buying a 30+ year old computer so most people will get that it may have either a dead drive or no drive at all. It’s up to them what they do with it. Just say it comes without a hard drive but there are modern SCSI -> SD card storage solutions these days. You could suggest some keywords they could use to search for them on Google, like “Macintosh scsi hard drive replacement SD card”, they’ll find what they need.

 

[Star Lake]

Thank you for your kind response Mikes-Macs.

Certainly, your suggested text will be helpful. Unfortunately, I just checked and eBay does not allow links like that: "To protect our members, listings or products can't contain links that direct customers to a site other than eBay, even if the link is not clickable."

And, for giggles, at the risk of sounding like an idiot (or a wise guy), I will note that I spent hours searching for a video or anything that was clear enough for me to understand how to be sure I found the exact correct product, how to set it up/prepare it and connect it to a Classic II so that it functioned like an emulated hard drive. Each source I found related to the issue seemed to assume that I knew all sorts of background information about which I was clueless and left out lots of points that I would need to know. Although I don't actually need to know, a potential buyer would need to know.

I won't be surprised if someone from this forum knows where to find the perfect video, but I didn't find it. And sadly, I now know that I couldn't link to such a video from eBay anyway. So it appears that if I try to sell it without a hard drive, it may eliminate most potential buyers except for true experts like the members on this forum or someone that is familiar with and very confident in 68kMLA. Well, I could still try to sell it and see what happens!

Thanks again for your helpful advice.

 

[Phipli]

I won't be surprised if someone from this forum knows where to find the perfect video, but I didn't find it. And sadly, I now know that I couldn't link to such a video from eBay anyway. So it appears that if I try to sell it without a hard drive, it may eliminate most potential buyers except for true experts like the members on this forum or someone that is familiar with and very confident in 68kMLA. Well, I could still try to sell it and see what happens!

Thanks again for your helpful advice.

Given vintage computers are like classic cars, and very much not maintenance free, someone absolutely should not be buying one expecting it to be maintenance free. Something like a Classic II will either require a load of work done by the new owner or for them to pay for it to be done. I'm slightly worried by the concept of a novice user expecting an easy ride.

Sorting out a replacement disk is probably one of the easiest things your buyer will need to sort!

 

[Star Lake]

Joshc: Thanks for the keyword search phrase. It led to a relevant video that, at the very end, actually showed me an example of how you might connect the HD replacement to the computer -- finally. Among other things, he used a 3-D printer to craft part of the retrofit.

Phipli: Thanks for the insightful perspective.