Formatting external drive to wipe all data?
What is the best way to format an external USB/FW drive to securely wipe all the data off of it? I know data can always be recovered, however, I am only interested in attempting to ensure that the average person will not be able to get the data.
Thanks.
Follow the directions in KB 107437, Mac OS X: How to zero all data on a disk.
Similar Messages
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Problems after formatting external drive
I have recently formatted a partition on my external WD drive. One partition has mac os x extended file system on it as a format, the other I formatted using a PC, as the NTFS file system. When I plug into the Mac both show up, but no information can be exchanged between the PC part of it. I get a message saying the drive can't be modified. I want to try and format it again with my Mac but I can not access it through the system utility as a single drive. Meaning it won't let me do anything with the PC itself. Now if I highlight the entire Hard drive, I can only partition it. I have locked the Mac portion of it and would like to format the other half as MS-DOS file system but am worried about loosing information on the Mac part of it. If I format can the info on the locked portion be saved or does the entire drive get partitioned. Thanks
Hi
Let me confirm - if you go into Disk Utility on the Mac, select the NTFS partition on the left, go to the Erase tab, you are NOT able to change the format to MS-DOS and re-format? Is the "Volume Format" option greyed out?
That would not affect the Mac partition. Re-partitioning the drive using the Partition tab would wipe all data from all partitions.
Matt -
ExFAT formatted external drive not mounting in Mavericks?
Hi all,
I'm wondering if anyone is experiencing this issue. I have an external usb drive (WD MyBook) that was formatted to the ExFAT filesystem under OS 10.8. The problem is that the drive is no longer readable by systems that have been upgraded to Mavericks. Disk utility on these systems can see the volume, but cannot mount the ExFAT partition. Disk Repar returns an error to the effect that the drive is faulty. Mind you, I can still mount this drive on any machine that is not running Mavericks, so it makes me sceptical that the drive itself is soley at fault.peacedotnik
I'm wondering if anyone is experiencing this issue. I have an external usb drive (WD MyBook)
You should NOT connect any WD MyBook right now under Mavericks, you have a high likelihood of severe data corruption
WD is telling its customers to REMOVE WD SOFTWARE especially on WD MyBook
keep your WD MY BOOK unconnected right now until a resolution unless you have a backup of ALL DATA on your MyBook stored elsewhere
http://community.wd.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/bd-p/passport_mac
Also,..
If you have a RAID setup, data corruption is possible. Exact source determination has not been made yet.
Until there is resolution, keep all RAID setups unconnected and consider other means for backup, such as simplex USB non-RAID backup.
Bill_S
Community Manager WESTERN DIGITAL
External Drives for Mac Experiencing Data Loss with Maverick OS (10/30/13)
There are reports of Western Digital and other external HDD products experiencing data loss when updating to Apple's OS X Mavericks (10.9). Western Digital is urgently investigating these reports and the possible connection to the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and WD SmartWare software applications.
Until the issue is understood and the cause identified, WD strongly urges our customers to uninstall these software applications on their systems before updating to OS X Mavericks (10.9), or delay upgrading. If you have already upgraded to Mavericks, WD recommends that you remove these applications and restart your computer. WD has removed these software applications from our web site solely as a precaution as we investigate this issue.
Wait for resolution of this occurance.
Peace -
Transfer files from Mac formatted external drive to PC formatted drive
i need to transfer quicktime files (that were captured from video with FCP) to a PC formatted external drive (for editing them in after effects on a PC). the files can be transfered by burning them on a DVD, but that will take a very long time and waste many DVDs because i have 60 GB of material... can this be done (without having to purchase expensive software)?
thanx tom,
first of, i like that you made the link appear as one word. how did you do that? it's really cool!
i downloaded the program, but i'm not sure how to use it... reading the guide just made me more confused... if i understand correctly, it will automatically reformat ALL my files to NTFS-3G ones, which are not as stable... i'm a little scared to install it... though i may have totally misunderstood what it says. i see mostly black when i try to read these kind of things...
anyone out there have experience with this program? -
since you can no longer backup to disk, how to restore from external drive without losing all ratings and playlists?
My own opinion is that you should install the later appropriate version of Silverkeeper. That said, I would in fact recommend if you can wait a few days for an answer, that you email the La Cie Silverkeeper backup team via the email link on the site at http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/
They are careful to say they are not officially providing a backup service, but when I emailed them with a query regarding usage about a year ago after downloading Silverkeeper for myself, I got a reply within a couple of days that cleared up my question. -
Intel iMac running 10.5.8. Belonged to a relative who has passed away. I want to wipe all data and give the iMac to my grandson. I have no install discs. How do I proceed?
Contact Apple (call AppleCare) and for a nominal fee the discs will be replaced. You can do that or purchase Snow Leopard (still availble from Apple for $20) and do an erase and install of OS X making the machine like a new machine.
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I've run out of room on my hard drive. I bought an external drive and exported all my albums to the external drive then deleted the albums from iPhoto. I want to sync both from my ext drive and new albums in iPhoto. My photos on the devices get wiped out when I sync to iPhoto since I deleted all the albums. But when I sync to my hard drive (where I maintained the album structure) the photos are copied to my iPad but lose all the hierarchy and folder structure. Now I have to scroll through thousands of photos to try to find the one I'm looking for. Before I sync any more devices I want to know the following: 1) can I restore the album structure on my iPad by using the photo cache? 2) is there a way to sync both new iPhoto albums AND pictures in the folders in my hard drive? And 3) how can I keep the photo hierarchy structure from my hard drive intact on my devices?
TigerMom28 wrote:
I've run out of room on my hard drive. I bought an external drive and exported all my albums to the external drive then deleted the albums from iPhoto.
Don't do that.
Copy /Photos/Photo library/ to the external.
Hold Option and launch iPhoto.
Select Choose library and select the Photo library you copied to the external. -
I exported one folder to an external drive. Now ALL my projects in Aperture are gone! WHERE ARE THEY? I've tried to rebuild and repair database. It only shows the one project I had exported because I opened it in Finder back into Aperture. HELP PLEASE!
I found them. Sorry, don't know how to delete post.
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How to access an ex fat formatted external drive on OS 10.6.8
How do I access an ex fat formatted external drive on OS 10.6.8 ? Drive has audio files and was originally formatted and created by a Windows PC.
When the La Cie drive is plugged in to my mac mini, it says can not recognize formatting.Read this thread
exFAT mounting problem -
Format External Drive - From Mac for Windows
I have a Maxtor One-touch that I need to back up a bunch of data for a Windows XP user. After some research, I thought that formatting the drive in the MS-DOS (FAT) format would do it, however, after doing so and moving all of the data, I have tried the Harddrive on a PC running Windows XP. The drive doesn't mount.
The external drive is a PC/MAC compatible version. Am I overlooking anything? Is there something I need to do in windows to access the drive.... because it's not obvious.Hi Christopher,
follow either Templetons advise or (if not possible) use Disk Utility and set the partition scheme (behind the Options button) to MBR (Master Boot Record) and use MS-DOS (= FAT32) as file system.
That should also do the trick.
The 'standard' partition scheme on Intel Macs is GPT (GUID Partition Table) which can sometimes lead to the effect with Windows PC that you observed.
Hope it helps
Stefan -
Hi,
I purchased a 160 Gig external drive. I want to be able to do an easy backup to it so I assume FAT 32 will not work as file sizes will be greater than 4 Gig, also clicking and dragging doesn't work because of all of the file name errors make it difficult to be sure everything is copied. I would also like to use this every once in awhile to sync music files with my PC but if that is a problem I can work around it.
What format should I use, and what application is easiest at backing up all of the data well. Preferably cheaply or free as well. It is too bad macs don't come with a backup program, or do they??The Mac OS Extended file system (HFS+) is the Mac equivalent of FAT-32, in that the minimum allocation block size is maintained at 4K, regardless of drive size. The older Mac OS Standard (HFS) file system caused a continuous increase in the minimum allocation block size, when formatting larger and larger drives. Small files parked in oversized allocation blocks caused a considerable waste of storage capacity, so that a large drive would fill up quickly. Journaling is an option that you chose, when you formatted the USB hard drive as an HFS+ volume. As the name indicates, a journal of the hard drive's activity is maintained, to assist in restoring it to the last reliable state, following a crash or power interruption. You can read about it here.
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How to partition/format external drive?
Hi,
I bought a WD MyBook 320 GB external drive. It is by default formatted in fat32. However, fat32 has a ridiculous file size limitation! (<4GB)
I have 2 Macs, one windows and one linux boxes at home, one linux and one windows boxes at work. I want that all the machines has access to it. But maybe I can forget windows box. I need some advice, which one is better:
1. Format it as HFS+, forget windows, maybe I can use hfsutils for windows, and maybe I can access to it by this (is there anybody using hfsutils???)
2. Format 120 GB in HFS+, the rest fat32. I will use HFS partition just for full image of my mac's harddisks, and fat32 will be accessible to every computer.
Any suggestions?
Thanks...You cannot format the drive with both Mac OS Extended and FAT32 partitions. If you need FAT32 you must format the entire drive FAT32. If you format the drive Mac OS Extended, then you will need software on the Window's PC that enables reading/writing Mac disks such as MacDrive.
To format the drive:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing (this does not apply to external drives.) Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Click on the Options button and select the GUID partition scheme then click on OK. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
If you prefer to format the entire drive as FAT32, then in Step 3 select the MBR partition scheme instead of GUID.
If you plan to use the external drive to backup your main hard drive then do that by cloning the main drive:
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Select the destination drive on the Desktop and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Permissions section be sure the box labeled "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked. Set Ownership and Permissions as follows: Owner=system with read/write; Group=admin with read/write; Other with read-only.
2. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
3. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
4. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button.
5. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
6. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
7. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
8. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
For added precaution you can boot into safe mode before doing the clone. -
Partitioning External Drive w/o Erasing Data
I have one 500GB external drive (USB) that I want to partition. I have 85GB on data on it now and really don't want to copy it back to the Mac HD (if at all possible).
When I run Disk Utility/Partition and select 2 partitions, it allows me to shrink either partition to ~52GB - smaller than my current data size. So I'm not confident what I am doing will partition w/o erasing data.
The drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
My eventual goal is to use SuperDuper for a clone backup. I'm using the free version that only allows erase & copy. If I purchase SD, could I add a clone to the external w/o erasing existing data?
Any other suggestions?yes you can.
quote from disk utility help:
Creating new volumes on a disk
You may be able to create multiple volumes on your disk without losing any data. Each volume works like a separate disk. You may need to create a new volume if you want to install multiple operating systems on your computer. Volumes can also help you organize your files.
NOTICE: Back up your data before creating new volumes on your disk as a precaution.
To create new volumes on a disk:
Select the disk from the list at the left, and click Partition.
Select an existing volume in the Volume Scheme list, and click Add .
Disk Utility splits the volume into two, leaving the data in one of the new volumes. If the volume is less than half-full, Disk Utility creates two volumes of equal size. Otherwise. it creates one volume large enough for the data, and another volume with the remaining space.
Resize the volumes as needed.
You can drag the dividers between the volumes in the Volume Scheme list, or you can select a volume in the Volume Scheme list, and then enter a value in the Size field.
Choose how to format the volumes that will be erased or created.
For each new volume, select it, enter a name, and then choose a format.
Click Apply. -
Hi,
I have a macbook with OS X 10.4.11. I recently purchased a Mac Box Set to install Snow Leopard. Not wanting to lose precious files I purchased an iomega eGo portable hard drive (sadly not the Mac version). It arrived today and has instructions to format the drive for mac. Followed instructions, all seemed well until a drop down box appeared warning about losing data and erasing files. Didn't like the sound of that so thought I would seek advice. checked out the Iomega site and they recommended backing up important files - which is what I bought the external hard drive for!!
Basically, I just want to know will all my files be erased if I continue to format, or should I return the hard drive and purchase a Mac edition?
Apologies if this question has been answered previously.
Many thanks in advance for any helpful advice you can offer as I really just want to get on and install Snow Leopard.The instructions for formatting your new iOmega drive will not harm the files on your MacBook. The iOmega with no files on it yet will be formatted thus erasing nothing because there's nothing on it yet. You just need to format it for Mac to use it with your MacBook.
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How do I securely wipe all data on an iMac before it iOS given away?
As part of an estate, I need to securely wipe an iMac before it is given to the heirs.
Install or Reinstall Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) To securely erase the drive,
click on the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
because it is three times faster than wireless.
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