I mentioned in Bitches that I am finally letting go of 5 working macs in my possession.

Having just acquired a new/used mini on which I discovered all sorts of residual data from the previous owner, I'd like very much to erase everything on my hard drives.

I do not, however, have installation disks for the OS.

On this one, I am currently erasing free space, which is supposed to take care of previously deleted material. I've deleted all the photos and docs and will delete all the non essential apps once that's done, but it is taking an AGE.

Short of taking a hammer or a Wile E. Coyote sized magnet to the other boxes, is there anything else I can do to erase them?

A complete reformat of the drive using the secure erase settings in Disk Utility and then reinstalling the OS from scratch is what I always do with machines I'm selling.

I want into Disk Utility for just that reason, but the erase function would not let me select the drive. It was greyed out, and the 'security options' button was non-functioning.

I went to the forums and read that I need install disks to boot from in order to erase the disk. It makes sense, I guess, but I cannot erase the disk I am using to erase the disk!

Is there a work around I am missing?

That's correct. You need to boot from an install disk, because once you erase the disk the computer won't be able to boot until to reinstall an OS.

On the Mac I use Roxio Toast to copy stuff off a Tivo HD onto the Mac and then convert for playback on iPods and Android devices. I think I've only run into DRM issues once or twice doing that and not in a long time.

I actually kind of liked the Time Warner DVR I used for a year or two before dropping cable. It wasn't as user-friendly as the Tivo, but it did everything I wanted and cost signficantly less than a Tivo.

Now I'm OTA and want nothing more than a HD digital VCR with no subscription feed (I don't want or need the guide information, honestly, and would be happy to program it myself), but can't seem to find one. Building my own MythTV is too much work.

On the Mac I use Roxio Toast to copy stuff off a Tivo HD onto the Mac and then convert for playback on iPods and Android devices. I think I've only run into DRM issues once or twice doing that and not in a long time.

Hm. That seems like a lot of effort. Normally it's just "hey, I went to bed early, but if it was on my iPad I could watch last nights ep of good wife while on the plane!"

Hey! HDD-based DVR with OTA tuner!

[link]

Yay for simplicity. Have to decide if its worth it since I can stream most of my shows, but glad to know this obvious and simple product exists for the manually-minded.

Hey! HDD-based DVR with OTA tuner!

Wow, I had no idea they sold those in the US. Thanks, Gris!

My old DVR I have from BC finally won't pick up the broadcast signal I get free from my cable line, and I really want to replace it.

I get most of my shows through Hulu and Netflix, but I do like to program PBS stuff.

ND, I suddenly remembered that I did make a Mountain Lion install jump drive.

It allowed me to erase the disk, but not to reinstall, saying the OS needs 2GB...which is what the system has now, but which is clearly not enough.

Sigh.

I have no more patience. Will address this issue on another day.