Reformatting old iMac without optical drive - possible?

[mcdavid1]

Is it possible to reformat a previous generation iMac (21.5" running Leopard) without the optical drive, through the use of peripherals?

I've replaced it with the new 27" (love it), and would like to sell it to someone who doesn't mind replacing the optical drive, but obviously I need to wipe the hard drive first... which is a problem, considering I really need the optical drive to do so. Are there any workarounds for this, or am I kinda stuck?

 

[spinnerlys]

Use Target Disk Mode to connect that iMac (20" or 24", or even 17") to your new iMac via Firewire and use it as an external HDD which you then can format via Disk Utility on the new iMac.

 

[Hellhammer]

You could make a new account and delete the old one and its data. The data is recoverable though so it's not the safest option. External DVD drives are ~30$ so I would get one