Formatting w/ Tiger

[The Dude]

Hey man,
I want to erase my HD and reinstall my software, but the options with Tiger say that it doesn't actually erase - instead it overwrites using X's and O's...

It was my understanding that in previous versions of OSX, the same procedure would result in an erased (not overwritten) completely clean, fresh HD.
Am I mistaken here?

If not, can I boot from an earlier version of OSX, erase the drive, (so that it IS actually erased) and then reinstall Tiger?
Thanks for any help,
The Dude.

[DeltaMac]

Originally Posted by The Dude

It was my understanding that in previous versions of OSX, the same procedure would result in an erased (not overwritten) completely clean, fresh HD.
Am I mistaken here?

No operating system actually 'erases' a hard drive, but simply deletes or over-writes the file directory. The 'write zeroes' option is for securely deleting files, and is as close as you get to erasing after the drive leaves the manufacturer.
An advantage to the 'write with zeroes' option - the process also will verify and mark out any areas on the disk that cannot be written - areas that accumulate errors, and might slow down the drive to some extent. The result after writing zeroes can be a drive that operates more smoothly, and can be similar to that 'completely clean, fresh HD'

[The Dude]

Thanks a ton!
That's a big help!
TD