How to securely erase hard drive

I'm upgrading and want to sell my old Mac. Can I erase the hard drive, possibly using Disk Utility, in a way that makes all my old data permanently irretrievable?

Cheapster,
According to Step 7. If you're erasing a disk, select the Install Mac OS 9 Disk Driver checkbox if you plan to start up the disk in Mac OS 9, or if the disk will be connected to a computer running Mac OS 9. (You do not need Mac OS 9 drivers to use the Classic environment.)In other words you will have a blank canvas, and OS 9 installation and drivers would be required to allow dual boot capability.
Enjoy your new Mac. What will it be?
Cheers.
;~)

Similar Messages

Securely erase hard drive on Mac Air for sale on e-bay.

I would like to sell my Air (1.6 gz -80GB) on e-bay and want to securely erase hard drive (I use a lot of financial info.). I am running Snow Leopard but I no installations left. I have the original CDs but not the external super drive. Any ideas on how to erase all data? Thanks a million.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3263
Dave M.
Check out the new remodeled MacOSG website! 24-hour Apple-related news & support.
 MacOSG: An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG Podcast  Follow us on Twitter: MacOSG

Recommended # of "zero out" passes to securely erase hard drive?

I'm selling some old hard drives. Apple's Disk Utility (OS X 10.4.8) provides the ability to "zero out" the data on a hard drive. Options include ability to run 1, 7 or 35 zero out passes. The 7 option will take a day per drive, and the 35, obviously, several days.
Is 1 zero out pass good enough to securely wipe the data? Is running two consecutive 1 zero out passes twice as good as one pass?
thanks!

Depends on how paranoid you really are, how important it is that no data be recoverable, and who might attempt to recover data from the drive.
In most common cases one pass should be sufficient. If you have extremely top secret NSA data on the drive that highly trained spies will attempt to discover and have access to the most sophisticated data recovery equipment, then go for 35 passes.
Why reward points?(Quoted from Discussions Terms of Use.)
The reward system helps to increase community participation. When a community member gives you (or another member) a reward for providing helpful advice or a solution to their question, your accumulated points will increase your status level within the community.
Members may reward you with 5 points if they deem that your reply is helpful and 10 points if you post a solution to their issue. Likewise, when you mark a reply as Helpful or Solved in your own created topic, you will be awarding the respondent with the same point values.

Securely erase hard drive to see if bad sectors before using it?

When you get a new backup hard drive, do you securely erase it (write over it with zeros and ones) to ensure that it's working OK and doesn't have excessive bad sectors? I read that that's a good idea to make sure it has a clean bill of health before using it.
I'm curious as to whether people think that's advisable or entirely unnecessary. Bad sectors may be found in normal use, but if a disk is bad, isn't it good to know that so you can return it before starting to use it?

See http://tidbits.com/e/14708 which recommends it. Do note that I've never done it and have ext HDs up to 2 TB in size. It does take a long time.

How do I reformat hard drive when I can't erase the disk?

Machine: imac, OS 10.6.8
Initial Problem: Finder kept crashing for all users immediately after start up. As a result I was unable to try trashing finder preferences as recommended in this forum and elsewhere.
Attempted solutions:
1. Initially seemed unable to boot from Snow Leopard Installation Disk
2. Connected to another imac using firewire and booting problem computer into target mode
3. Ran Techtool pro from master machine. Hard drive and hardware fine but reported need to format disk on target machine.
4. Tried to install new os onto target drive using disk drive on master machine. Error message reported being unable to find target drive, even though it was showing on desktop of master machine
5. Tried to erase disk using disk utility on master machine, but error message stating unable to unmount target drive
6. Successfully rebooted using snow leopard installation disk, but unable to instal. Error message stated that the computer was not available. i.e. it had the yellow triangle with exclamation masrk
7. Tried to erase hard drive using disk utility from installation disk, but was unable to do so. The process commenced to unmount the disk, started to erase but stopped before task completed. Tried a second time with same result.
Obviously the machine needs complete reformatting. I made a backup before starting this series of unsuccessful attempts. I suspect that I need to use terminal from the installation disk, but I am not sure which terminal command to use.
Can anyone tell me? Or have I overlooked some simpler solution?

Install or Reinstall 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.) Optionally, 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: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion 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.

Anyone know how to securely erase an SSD drive?

Does anyone know how to securely erase an SSD drive in a MacBook Pro?
The usual 'security options' are greyed out in Disk Utility...

Erasing it normally is enough. The nature of SSDs itself makes it secure.
(114951)

How to install show panther disk on erased hard drive

How to install show panther disk on erased hard drive?

rlfjof
Feb 2, 2014 1:23 PM
How to install show panther disk on erased hard drive?
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
Snow Leopard 10.6
https://www.apple.com/support/snowleopard/installation/

How to Install 10.7 Lion on New Erased hard drive?

I want to install 10.7 on a new, freshly-Erased hard drive.
My hardware supports 10.7.
Can anyone point me to simple instructions how to do this task?
Thank you.

2 ways to buy Lion. $29.99 as a d/l from the App Store (you need Snow Leopard installed). If you own another Mac with Snow Leopard, you can create an installer DVD/USB) or you can buy the Lion Install USB from Apple for $69.
When you boot from the installer, Select Disk Utility, then erase the disk. Then quit Disk Utility and install OSX Lion.
(See also: Installing Lion: Macworld's complete guide)

How do I install OS software on a erased hard drive all I get is folder icon with blinking ?

Trying to install OS10.6 on erased hard drive but just getting folder with blinking ? symbol any ideas?

Startup with the Snow Leopard installation disk ALREADY IN THE DRIVE.
If it pops out, push it back in during startup. It will take a long time, but be patient.

Yosemite install, trim enabled, won't boot, can't erase hard drive

I recently upgraded to Yosemite, enabled FileVault and foolishly enabled TRIM (had no idea it wasn't supported).
Upon restart, my machine gets the grey screen with the crossed-out circle of death.
After figuring out what happened, I then attempted to restore from a Time Machine backup (10.9). The backup failed almost immediately, but did manage to erase the HD (or at least the partition is gone).
Now I'm completely stuck. Disk Utility can see this drive, but cannot erase or re-partition it. The drive isn't mounted so I cannot access it with Terminal (at least with my level of knowledge). cd /Volumes/mydrive doesn't work - no such directory.
I have re-installed Yosemite on my second hard drive and booted from there. I tried Disk Utility again and I still have no options available to erase or partition my original disk, although it is there.
Can anyone help me get my original disk back into functioning form? If I can just get the disk erased and partitioned, I can load my Time Machine backup and be off to the races. Thanks!

TRIM is on the software side. Therefore if you are going to erase the whole disk and do a clean install of Yosemite, TRIM will not be enabled. If i understand the mechanism of TRIM and OS X right, TRIM is usually only enabled when using an official Apple SSD (e.g. on the newer MacBooks).
Now lets go back to the issue with the erasing. If there is something wrong with the partition/the installation on it, i personally would download ubuntu and erase the SSD. "My HD" is your SSD, isn't it? There is a utility called "hdparm" which lets you erase SSDs quite fast and easily from a linux-terminal (usually it takes only seconds and there are only two lines of terminal-code needed). Unfortunately i couldn't find this tool for os x.
But maybe there is also a solution without using another distribution. Did you try to start the disk utility during the startup of your pc by holding "command + R" ?
Or you could try to create a usb stick with the Yosemite installation and access the disk utility from there. This would prevent the system to mount any partition and maybe let's you format the hard drive.
EDIT: I just found this article: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/6278/how-to-securely-erase-an-ssd-drive /6287#6287
What's the result, if you type "df -k" in your terminal? (it will only display the available space left on your hard disks etc.) There should be two entries for /dev/disk. One should be your "Boot"-Drive and the other should be the broken "My HD".

After erasing hard drive and re-installing Lion, is there anyway i can tell if all my files are gone?

Hey guys.
Basically i have sold my iMac after buying a new Macbook Pro. I erased hard drive in disc utility then reinstalled Lion from disc.
When i turn on the iMac now it does the usual welcome video, then proceeds to try and set up the machine. Which i dont want to do as i have sold it and he will want to do that himself.
Dont personally know the guy ive sold it too so basically i want to know how i can check to see if my files have actually been deleted?
Just so all my personal information isnt accessed by someone else.
Thanks a lot

If you erased the disk, the data is gone. If you want to be sure, you can open Disk Utiility again and erase the disk using a special method (select the hard disk > Erase > Security Options) before installing Mac OS X

I have an 8 year old eMac G3. It will not start up. I need to erase it before putting it in recycling. Apple refuses to open the case and warns me that I will be shocked if I even try. They say no way to erase hard drive. They say use a hammer. Any ideas?

I have an 8 year old eMac G3. It will not start up. I need to erase it before putting it in recycling. Apple refuses to open the case and warns me that I will be shocked if I even try. They say no way to erase hard drive. They say use a hammer. Any ideas?

Hi, no eMacs had G3s, only G4s. Is it maybe an iMac G3?
If you don't know the model, find the Serial# & use it on one of these sites, but don't post the Serial# here...
http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
How to find the serial number of your Apple hardware product...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1349
http://www.ifixit.com/Device/eMac

I have an Ipad, I activated the time capsule with no issues. I added the airport Utility application without issue. However, I do not know how to access the hard drive with either my Windows computer or the Ipad. Does someone know how?

I have an Ipad, I activated the time capsule with no issues. I added the airport Utility application without issue. However, I do not know how to access the hard drive with either my Windows computer or the Ipad. Does someone know how?

On windows load the airport utility .. latest correct version as possible.. there is no windows 8 but win7 works after a fashion.
Make sure the TC is using SMB compatible names.. short no spaces and pure alphanumeric.
Type the name directly into windows explorer.
\\TCname or \\TCIPaddress
If no luck turn off all the firewalls.. internal windows plus security software plus whatever other gargyoles and other rubbish AV software you have running.
Ensure windows is able to at least ping the TC by IP address and name..
Use the utility in windows to set file sharing to guest account on with full read and write access.. and set workgroup to WORKGROUP.

Erase hard drive on eMac OS 10

I am trying to erase the hard drive of eMac OS 10.3.9. Tried Command + R keys while rebooting but disk utility wont let me erase. The erase button is not active/greyed out. Is there another way to erase hard drive completely? I dont need to reinstall because I am trying to discard eMac (15 years+ old). I do not have any of the installer CDs since I threw them out.

You could perhaps try a web search for an old PowerPC release (dban-2.0.0_powerpc.iso) of a free disk wiping utility called DBAN. A CD burned from the iso file should allow a PowerPC Mac to start up (hold down the C key) from a small (Linux) system. It would then be possible to test if and how the utility works on your eMac.
Jan

I dropped my macbook pro and the screen is broken can i still use it with an external monitor? Or can I or how do I transfer hard drive files to my mac mini?

I dropped my 17" macbook pro and the screen is broken. Can I still use it with an external monitor? When I plugged it into a monitor I had used it with before, I'm not able to see anything on the macbook screen to control it. It came on but I just got the blue screen with nothing else after typing in my password. (Didn't see the password form just assumed it was there somewhere and it did go from space to blue screen but no desktop icons, files, dock strip at top or anything else, just blank blue screen) so I can't access the system preferences.
Or can I / or how do I, transfer hard drive files to my mac mini? If not salvageable as is can I pull out the hard drive and make it an external harddrive? In otherwords is anything salvageable? It seems it's coming on I just can't access anything. BTW I was told it would cost aprox $1000 to replace the screen! I paid almost $4000 for this thing and it was running great - makes me sick to lose it!

I'd like to promise you that everything will be fine if you just get the monitor going - but it's hard to know what the hardware damage might be. It might be the monitor, or the damage might be greater.
Your best solution would be visit your local Apple Store and let them know what your situation is. They have access to diagnostics you don't, and they might be able to the best way to save your data and keep you computing. It's still not covered, but they can tell you what your current options are.
Um, you might consider investing in a backup drive.
And there other repair options, too. Powerbook Medic http://www.powerbookmedic.com/xcart1/pages.php?pageid=67 offers reliable repairs, and quotes prices well under Apple's.

How to securely erase hard drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for