How to delete hard drive

I'm trying to delete my hard drive on my old MacBook Pro before I give the computer away. Is there an efficient way to remove all files, applications, user preferences, cached passwords, etc? Thanks for the help!

Throw away any files which may contain sensitive data and securely empty the Trash.
If it shipped with Mac OS X 10.6.8 or earlier, insert its original disk and restart the computer with the C key held down.
If it shipped with Mac OS X 10.7 or newer, restart with the Command and R keys held down.
Use the Disk Utility to erase the partition with Mac OS X installed, and then install a new OS onto it. If you used a disk and are going to sell or give away the computer, include the disk with it.
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How to Delete hard drive on a crashed computer?

How can I delete the hard drive on an old MacBook Pro so I can take it to ewaste for disposal - when the computer no longer opens/loads?
Or is it safe to discard even if I wasnt able to delete the hard drive?

It would need to have the drive removed and physicaly destroyed. Go to this link and find the MacBook Pro you have and see if you can remove it yourself. If not then maybe a friend could help.
http://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Pro

How come my hard drive is not showing up on the desktop?

How come my hard drive is not showing up on the desktop?

Those are preferences you speify from INSIDE The Finder:
Finder > Preferences:

How do I find how large my Hard Drive is? Please help!

Recently been getting messages saying that my startup disk is full. And I'm thinking about getting a Time Capsule. But the thing is, I can't find out how big my hard drive is. I clicked the apple, then About this mac, and I could only find "Memory", which was only 1 GB. I know that can't be it, because my iTunes is over 90 GB. But I can't find the hard drive. Either I'm blind, or it's not there.
Please help
Thanks

Click more info in the about this mac pop up. Then under Serial-ATA. This will give you the size.
You can also click on your drive in finder and choose Get Info. This will also let you see the size.

How to replace hard drive in macbook pro?

How to replace hard drive in macbook pro?

Hi S,
If you have the newer unibody style, it's very easy. If it's one of the earlier models, it's considerably more difficult. Go to Apple Menu > About This Mac > More Info > Hardware and find your Model Identifier. Then go to ifixit.com, or powerbookmedic.com or macsales.com or youtube or others and there are illustrated, detailed directions. Good luck to you and post back if you have further questions.

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 to install hard drive into mac pro

how to install hard drive into mac pro

I recently bought a new 2TB internal sata drive for my Macpro.
The installation was easy, but I'm not sure what to do next.
For one, should I partition the drive?
My purpose for buying the drive was to use it as my go to drive for Parallels. I used to run my music studio on Windows based machines, and my older project files require a windows OS to recover. I installed Parallels so I can have my studio running Mac and Windows programs which will enable me to access my old project files and take them into my newer Protools system.
So now, I've installed my new hard drive, but I'm not sure if I should partition it....And!? I'm not sure how to designate that drive for my virtual pc on Parallels. I was able to allocate enough disk space to parallels in order to load my music software, but at this point, I'm not sure if I've just promised it disk space from my original partitioned drive (which only has about 350 GB left on it).
I would love to be able to make one internal drive available for Parallels, and the other available for the rest of my OSX. When I use Parallels, I still would like to save some extra information on the 2TB drive as well from my dekstop running OSX.
I hope this makes sense! Your help is much appreciated!

How to check hard drive health

My mac pro starts up and shuts down very slow. Anyone know how to check hard drive health?

Normally if you have a hard drive problem it manifests itself with delays, periodic locks-ups, I/O errors, etc.during notrmal use, not just start ups and slow downs.
Never the less, you asked how you check the health of a drive, so I'll answer.
You can check the SMART status of your drive with Disk Utility or a free tool like smartctl in the smartmontools package. Disk Utility will typically report the SMART status of your drive as "verified" or a message associated with a type of failure right in the Disk Utility window. SMART status will be reported on most internal drives and Thunderbolt drives. More elaborate SMART information can often be obtained with newer OS versions by clicking on the "info" button. SMART is a reporting technology and will only report on errors after they occur. Many in the industry are highly critical of SMART, with a recent study by Google on hard drive problems indicating that it did a poor job indicating impending problems.
Other tools such as Scannerz (http://scsc-online.com/Scannerz.html), TechTool Pro (http://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro) and Drive Genius (http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php) do, IMHO, a better job of testing because surface scans can detect errors not detected by SMART yet, and all three of them do those tests. Personally I like Scannerz myself because it's to the point, hardware testing oriented, and can expose other system problems like cable problems, whereas the others are more like swiss army knife tools with a lot of features that may or may not be of use to end users. Some of the people on this site will swear by these tools, whereas others will swear at them. All three of these also monitor SMART status in one way or another.
With software tools out of the way, I'd have to agree with all previous posts, because it doesn't sound like it's probably a hard drive problem. Yes, it possibly could be, it's just that slow start ups and shutdowns are usually caused by too many apps being saved in an "on" state. Any time the system starts, it has to re-load them and resume them as best as it can, and then any time it gets shut down it must save all that information and this all takes time. (I'm assuming Lion or newer operating system is in use). This is often the most likely cause in Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks.
There are other possibilities, but you should probably ellaborate on the problem a bit more.

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Hello Thatguy1233,
It sounds like you have a Time Machine back up of your computer that you would like to restore. You may be able to use the following article to restore that backup:
OS X Lion: Recover your entire system
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph4351
Make sure your Time Machine backup disk is connected and turned on. If your backup disk is on a network, make sure your computer is on the same network.
Choose Apple menu > Restart, and then hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys while the computer restarts.
Select “Restore from a Time Machine Backup,” and then click Continue.
Depending on your type of backup disk, do one of the following:
If you use an external disk, select it and click Continue.
If you use a Time Capsule, choose your AirPort network from the AirPort menu on the right side of the menu bar, and then select your Time Capsule and click “Connect to Remote Disk.”
If you use a network disk, select it and click “Connect to Remote Disk.”
If necessary, enter the name and password you use to connect to your backup disk, and then click Connect.
Select the date and time of the backup you want to restore, and then follow the onscreen instructions.
After you restore your system from a Time Machine backup, Time Machine may perform a full backup at the next scheduled backup time. This is normal. Time Machine resumes incremental backups after the full backup is completed.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Take care,
Sterling

How big a hard drive do I need for iMac and Time Machine?

Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere already. I am going to buy an iMac, probably the new 24" with a 320G internal HDD. I already have one Lacie external 320G HDD so I was wondering whether I can use this for Time Machine backups, or do I need to buy a bigger one? If so, how big? Is there a rule of thumb for working out how much hard drive space you need to have for Time Machine, for instance if I were to buy the 500G iMac what would I need?
thanks.

I agree with the "double the size" rule of thumb. You should also consider how much of the 320GB you are actually using and are likely to use in the next year or two. After all, it's the amount of storage you use that matters, not the size of the disk. Disks will very likely be cheaper soon. You should also keep in mind that TM deletes old archive data when it runs out of disk space. So as long as you have more disk space than you have data to back up, TM will work, though you will lose older versions of your data.
So if your 320GB drive only has 100GB used and you're not the kind of person who eats up disk like there's no tomorrow, the 320GB drive should be fine for now. If you expect that 320GB disk to be full soon then a 750GB TM disk is more like what you need.
The same logic applies to a 500GB iMac. If you only expect to use 250GB in the next year or two then a 500GB TM disk should be OK. A 1TB drive will be a lot cheaper next year or the year after.

How to clear hard drive?

Hi there
Soon I am giving my powerbook 12" to a friend. How do I clear off my hard drive of all my personal data (i.e., restore back to original)
Thanks for any help you all can give me.

Actually, there are only three options available for a secure erase. (I wondered about that "17-pass" option since it doesn't exist). There is the "Zero Out" option, the "7-pass" option which zeroes out your data seven times, and then the "35-pass" erase that I mentioned which zeroes out, of course, thirty-five times.
Now for the most infamous answer of all to your new predicament. One that I always give out. Target Disk Mode.
You can do this by connecting your PowerBook to another Mac capable of running/installing the version of Mac OS X that's on your disc. Trouble is, this can only be done--because you have the original discs, not retail versions (or are they retail?)--on a similar model PowerBook. (Or if you have retail versions of the disc, since that runs on any machine).
Though I wonder if it would work if it detects a compatible system, your PowerBook, and goes through with the installation process.
Long story short, Target Disk Mode allows you to do many things, but in your specific case, now that I've gone into it, it might not work with original restore/install discs. (That's a first for me... giving a solution that won't work because of a rare stumbling block).
Target Disk Mode is usually for transferring files, but you can also do it to install software to other computers that may have a faulty optical drive. For instance, if you wanted to install, say, iLife '08 on your PowerBook, you connect it to another Mac with the disc running, and then under Target Disk Mode, select your PowerBook as the destination volume.
Message was edited by: Pismo 900
You know, you can do a simple method of deleting your files. Any files that you created yourself and know you did, simply put those in the trash. When you've found all your files, do a "Secure Empty Trash" from the file menu instead of the regular empty trash method. The only other thing I see that would need to be deleted are preference files (this is more risky because if you throw something out that the system needs, there could be conflicts... back in the days of Mac OS 9, it was easy to just pick and choose things to throw out. Not with Mac OS X) from things like Safari, iTunes, iPhoto, and any other place with personal info, like Address Book, iCal, etc.
The other big thing would be your user account itself. You'd have to rename it (the short name can't be changed without using third-party software), change the password to something else or just leave it blank so your friend can use it. The problem there is that even though the password is changed, I've found that the system will sometimes look for an original password for things like Keychain Access, etc. So your friend might want to install something new, or could be just working in Safari, and a pop up dialog box might come up asking for a keychain password or admin password (other than the new one).
So I guess the real thing to do is completely reformat your hard drive to pack it all up and make it clean and usable from the start. =(

About to sell my macbook, how to wipe hard drive clean

I'm about to sell my macbook (I've upgraded) , how would I wipe the hard drive, the whole computer for that matter, clean of all websites I've visited, passwords etc?
Anything else you can suggest? Like clear all bookmarks,and in Safari pull down menu, I guess 'reset safari' and 'empty cache' too, etc?
And in Accounts under System preferences can I change the name? I see I can change the password, sorry I'm not too computer proficient...I hate to miss something.
Thanks all

Here's what you need to do:
1. Re-install Mac OS (don't choose an option that keeps the old files, wipe it clean!)
2. After re-installing, open Disk Utility, and run the Erase Free Space utility on your newly formatted drive. This will ensure that your old files can't be recovered.
If you want your personal data off of your Macbook, simply doing step one will NOT be enough!!! Erasing and deleting are two different things. (Step one deletes, step 2 erases.)
Also, what chipperz posted should work.
Message was edited by: musicmannn

Lost my drivers because deleting hard-drive

I deleted my hard drive because of a virus, I did not save any drivers, most important my intel wireless driver I think, I can not connect wirelessly to the internet. can you help without it costing me any money

Hello Dan Curry,
Do you lose all the drivers? How about the SD card reader, wired network driver and Bluetooth?
If you lose all of them, we will need to download the drivers from the manufacturer website in another computer, and then transfer them to this computer by USB drive.
Best regards,
Fangzhou CHEN
Fangzhou CHEN
TechNet Community Support

Deleting Hard Drive for sale of computer

Hi Everyone....
I have a old iMac G3 Desktop computer which I want to sell.......
It has on it 10.4 (not sure which version as I haven't fired it up in a while.....)
I would like to erase the hard drive (of all applications, music, photos etc) and leave the basic OS X and I was just wondering what is the easiest way to do it......
I know I can go through and delete all of the added application folders, music and photos etc but that will probably leave a lot of excess folders I assume.....
Can I manually delete all of these folders and then use the Disk Utility to clear out the rest and leave just the basic operating system and programs?? (and how do I do that?)
Or is it easier to re-install 10.4 and use the option (from memory) of erasing the target disc when it installs it??
any advice would be appreciated.....
Thanks

Hello Craig
In addition to roam's excellent advice, I recommend that you securely erase your drive before installing a fresh copy of the OS on it. Particularly if you ever stored any sensitive information on your computer. This writes over the drive several times with random patterns to ensure that nobody can read the data that used to be on there.
If you just do a simple erase, only the pointers to the files are removed. The actual data in the files is left on the disk and anyone who wanted to could recover them. It's generally regarded as good practice nowadays to securely erase hard drives before selling them on. It is a worthwhile precaution even if you don't think that there is much on there worth retrieving.
For more information see the bottom of this page: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301270 and also here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1011.html.
Be aware, securely erasing a disk takes a long time.

How to extend hard drive

I am just running out of room on my HDD so I was wondering what people think is the best way to extend storage on the iMac? And what hardware do they reccommed and even what type of configuration do they use? Is there a special system (do I need to use RAID)?
My thought is to create a new drive for itunes, photos and documents, but I have 2 other uses in the family with their own profile, and I want to know how it all effects them and Time Machine? Should I look into a SSHD for speed or is their an alternative?
Well any thoughts would be helpful.

I would definitely invest in two external hard drives.One for just data storage and for creating another bootable copy of OS X to run off on if something should happen to the internal hard drive.
And use the second drive for Time Machine backups only.
You can use twomof the same capacity storage drives, if you want or your can have the Time Machine backup drive larger if you prefer.
The easiest way to transfer everything from your internal hard drive to the new external drive is to first format the drive, using OS X Disk Utility. Formatting as an Mac OS X extended journaled format, using the GUID partition scheme.
Then use a data cloning app such as CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to completely clone your iMac's internal hard drive to the new external drive. This will make a completely bootable external drive.
Once you are convinced that everything is on the external drive, you can go into iTunes and iPhoto and redirect their libraries via the last part of the instructions I have linked here.
Then, you can start deleting all of the large folders and files off of the internal drive and start cleaning it out.
Here is the link to just properly moving both your iTunes and iPhoto libraries to an external drive.
If you use the data cloning method, I describe earlier, then you only need to concern yourself with redirecting where both iTunes and iPhoto to the libraries on the new external drive.
http://mac.tutsplus.com/tutorials/media/how-to-move-your-itunes-iphoto-or-apertu re-library-to-an-external-drive/
As far as hard drives go, I prefer either FireWire 800 or Thunderbolt ext. hard drives. Especially a fast connect drive for a bootable drive. You do not mention what year, screen size, CPU speed of your iMac. So, it may not have Thunderbolt connections.
My preferences are for ext. hard drives from OWC (macsales.com). Their Mercury Pro line and Mini stack lines of ext. HDs are great! The Mini stack line leaves a smaller footprint on your tabletop.
I, also, use Lacie ext hard drives. These are built like a rock, too, and have real good longevity.
You could use one of these for your second hard drive just for Time Machine.
Good Luck!

How to delete hard drive

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