Clear hardrive of personal info?

clear hardrive of personal info?

I did this when I sold my old G5. Launch Disc Utility, select the drive (the top of the two listings of it). In the resulting window select "Erase", and in the next window select "Security Options. Choose whichever of the four options. The one on the right is of more-or-less military standards and will take several hours; the next one towards the left is probably OK for ordinary people and will take a few hours (do it overnight). I chose the most secure.
I don't know anything about the implications of the statement "Note: Secure Erase overwrites .....". It would have been helpful if Apple had expanded on that. Does anyone know anything?
Just make doubly sure that you have selected the correct disc!

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Clearing out personal info from sim card sold phone on ebay

I cleared out all my info once on my iphone, but I need to remember how to do it again. I sold the phone,and and I want to clear all personal info, Note pad, passwords, contacts etc;
How do I do it?
Thank you

The iPhone store no data on the sim card. To clear all data from the phone itself: Settings>General>Reset>Erase all Content & Settings. If any model phone other than a 3GS or iPhone 4, plug the phone into a wall outlet first, as this can take several hours. On a 3GS or iPhone 4, it takes but a minute or two.

How to clear out personal info a preform a recovery

I just bought a new HP laptop but want to clear out personal info and do a recovery to original settings. I do not have restore disks and don't want to wait to order some nor pay for them. My computer is a HP Pavillion dv681 with vista operating system

You will need five DVDs. Do not use no-name generic DVDs! I use Verbatim DVD+R disks and have never had issues making a working recovery disk set. Creating recovery media requires the use of the power adapter. It must not be done while on battery power alone.
List of DVD bland media rated by quality.
While booted into Windows click on the start orb and select HP. You should see HP Recovery Manager and HP Recovery media creation. Now select the HP Recovery media creation. Click on it and follow the prompts. This may take about an hour to complete with DVDs.
Newer notebooks allow the use of USB flash drives ( also known as thumbdrives) for recovery media. Your notebook requires a 16 GB thumbdrive to do this. This method is superior to use of DVD disks for a couple of reasons. USB thumbdrives are far more durable and allow for incredibly fast recovery times. A USB flashdisk recovery thumbdrive will last five years or more depending on the quality of the thumbdrive. Buy a high quality one such as Sandisk, Corsair or OCZ. USB 2.0 is the standard.
Using the downloadable UBS recoveryflash disk creation utility.
Best regards,
erico
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

IPod Nano - How to keep music but clear personal info

I have sold my iPod nano and want to keep the music but make sure any personal info is deleted. How do I do that?

You should not do that, because the new owner does not own your music. It would be considered illegal, and discussing how is not appropriate on the discussion forum owned and operated by Apple.
Also, even without identifying info "on the iPod," your identity may be embedded in the song files. So, if the new owner extracts the song files from the iPod and distributes them online, song files with your name (or other identifying data) may get replicated by the millions.
Do a Restore and sell it "empty."

I am getting rid of my Ipod Nano 3rd Generation. How do I delete my name and make sure all personal info is gone?

I was able to restore my Ipod Nano 3rd Generation back to factory settings, but the ipod is still personalized with my name. How do I remove or change that? And, how can I be sure all music, personal info is completely gone because I am giving it to someone?

There is a rather large database in Apple Support for all iPod Nano models, though
a quick look through did not provide a simple direct answer to the question of how
to prepare an iPod Nano for a new owner, or for a new user; also to de-personalize
the product so it would not be locked or broken.
•iPod Nano - How To - Apple Support: (main)
https://www.apple.com/support/ipodnano/how-to/
This kind of question comes up in similar form across most iDevice sections; usually
after someone has bought or was given one, and it won't work. At least you are in
the right track, to try & clear it ahead of a problem, so a new owner can use it.
Be sure to deauthorize the unit in the process of removing your identification from it;
and also check to see how the AppleID affects the next owner experience. It will.
There should be a way to accomplish most of this within iTunes from a Mac.
Rather again, too general:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=how+to+reset+ipod+nano+3rd+generation
Sorry to not have the single answer in my reply.
Good luck & happy computing!

Have an Apple TV device I have gone thru setup with and used. Want to sell it now but concerned that it may store personal info that would be at risk if I sold it. Should I be concerned? Can I wipe it clean?

I have an Apple TV device that I attached to my tv, went through the setup, and used for a couple of weeks. I would like to sell the vice now, but I am concerned that it may in some way store personal info on it like the credit card no. that I would use for paying for movie rentals, etc. Does this device store any personal info on it that would be at risk if I sold it to another person? If so, is there some way I can wipe that info off of it?
The Macbook Pro and Apple TV were both bought from the Apple website in December so I assume they are the most recent models and operating system.
Would appreciate any help. Thanks.

Settings > General > Reset > Restore, will wipe everything in preperation for resale.

Selling MBP - how do I remove all personal info but leave apps?

Sorry for the newbie question.
I just bought a new MBP and sold my old one. I want to leave the installed apps on my old MBP (running 10.5.7) but make sure that all of my personal info, data, etc. is gone.
I'm not familiar enough with accounts on a Mac (I've never gone through the process of deleting one) but will the following accomplish what I want to do?:
1) Create a new user account for the new owner. Make that account an Administrator.
2) Reboot and log in as the new user.
3) Delete my current/old user account.
4) Start Disk Utility and use the "Erase Free Space" function.
So I guess my biggest question is in #3 above. When I delete my current/old user account, what does it wipe out and what does it leave behind?
I know my other option is to wipe the whole thing out and install from the OS X CD's that came with the MBP and then re-instal all the software but I'd rather not have to go to that extreme if possible.

The very best way to do this is to do a complete Erase and Install with the original system disc. You can do any additional erasing before that.
What about the apps? Provide the seller with the original discs of those too, and let them reinstall them. Note that with some companies you will want to fill out a Transfer of License so that legal ownership and rights to future upgrade discounts are transferred to the new owner and don't remain with you, because that would screw the new owner if they tried to get an upgrade and they couldn't because it was still registered to you.
I would not sell a machine that hasn't been completely wiped. I want all traces of me off that thing. And that includes any confusion as to the legal ownership of the apps you are selling with the machine.

I'm selling my Macbook Pro 17" that i have upgraded to Snow Leopard but I no longer have the disks because I gave them to the person who bought my iMac. Is there a way to erase all my personal info without having to resort to wiping off the whole HD?

I no longer have the Snow leopard disks so I can't just reload the OS but I told the person I sold the MBP to that it has SL on it so I don't want to wipe it off. Is there a way to remove my personal info without resorting to reloading the software again?

Open Accounts preferences. Click on the lock icon to authenticate. Click on the Add [-] to create a new user account. Give the new account admin status. Set the account for auto-login then restart the computer. The computer should boot into the new user account. Open Accounts preferences, click on the lock icon to authenticate. Select your old account and click on the Delete [-] button. Select the third option to remove the user folder and also check the option to securely erase. If given the option to select the number of passes select one pass only. This should remove your data from any prying eyes.

HT4203 How do I get my personal info back? when i turned the cellular data back on, it was gone

I turned off my data usage and when I turned it back on, the personal info was gone. No email, contacts. How do I get it back? I'm afraid to do any kind of reset with out knowing what I'm doing.

i see i have 17 views, 0 replies. what more can I tell you to help me?

How do i delete all personal info on my macbook air before i sell it?

I`m about to sell my macbook air and want to delete all personal info on the computer (pictures, files, music and so on) how do I do this? Want the computer to start as it did when it was new...
Regards
Kris

You don't mention the hardware configuration of the subject MBA.
Be aware, that if equipped with an SSD, the information on the disk is not "removed" by a simple re-format. Doing a zero-once on an SSD is not as good as on a hard drive, because of the way SSDs handle writing data.
While the information is not readily retrievable by a novice, it is nonetheless intact until overwritten.
I'm sure there are SSD experts here who can comment on just how to prepare an SSD for selling.
I do recognize that in some people's opinion, the concern is overemphasized.

How do i change my personal info on iPhone 4s?

how do i change my personal info on iPhone 4s?

This is covered in the settings section of the manual:
iPhone User Guide (For iOS 5.0 Software)

How do I erase my personal info from a phone with a broken screen?

My iPhone4 has a broken (blank) screen, but the phone does turn on. I have bought another phone, but want to erase my personal info from the broken phone before I donate it. How can I do this?

If you have Find My iPhone turned on you can erase it from iCloud.
iCloud: Erase your device

Not too long ago I was able to delete personal info from forwarded emails in Hotmail, but not now. Works fine in IE. What's wrong and where? Txs

Being paranoid, I like to delete personal info (email addresses, etc.) from emails I'm forwarding. Ican do this right now in IE, but not Firefox.
I had been running FF4(?), but downgraded to FF3.5 because of some other issues, but I don't recall when the problem with email started (before or after downgrade).
IE9 allows me to delete this personal info from forwarded emails.

Try an SMC reset. The article covers when this is required, but doing this will not affect anything.
Reset SMC

How to wipe hard drive bc selling computer and want all passwords/personal info gone? etc

how to wipe hard drive bc selling computer and want all passwords/personal info gone?

You need to boot the computer from another source, e.g. a CD or an external drive. Then run Disk Utility, select the drive you want cleaned up, and run Erase. Note the security options: "write zeroes" will erase the drive completely.

How do i get firefox to remember personal info and fill it in automatically

How can I get Firefox to memorize personal info (name, address, etc.) and automatically fill in forms when ordering products, registering for an account, etc.?

Remove site(s) from the Exceptions: Tools > Options > Security: Passwords: Exceptions
See also:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Password_Manager

Clear hardrive of personal info?

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