Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!bu-cs!dartvax!eleazar.dartmouth.edu!earleh
From: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Unformatting disks?
Message-ID: <15575@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 14 Sep 89 17:31:44 GMT
References: <5261@merrimack.edu>
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Organization: Thayer School of Engineering
Lines: 26

In article <5261@merrimack.edu> RAND@merrimack.edu (Rand P. Hall) writes:
>Other than degaussing, can anyone suggest a way to get previously
>initialized disks to appear uninitialized?
>
>Why on earth do I want to do this? We're giving intro classes to about
>600 freshmen and part of the class involves initializing disks. The
>kids bring their own and keep them afterward. The problem is the
>instructor(s) now have to keep coming up with blank disks to demo on.

     Several suggestions follow.

     Have the instructors use a disk which is known to be bad and will
not initialize.  This will also show the students what the
"Initialization Failed" dialog looks like.  The instructor can then
perform the rest of the demonstration with a good disk.

     Obtain a raw disk editor such as MacTools or FEdit.  Use it to
zero out the disks after they have been initialized.

     Reformat the demo disks on another make machine if you have one
around.

     Erase the disk, rebooting the Mac via the programmer's switch
halfway through the process.  (Ohh, this is mean!)

Earle R. Horton