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.

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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.
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I bought a brand new Mac 27" desktop that came loaded with Adobe CS6. Everything worked like a charm until the hard drive, 1Tb, developed a bad sector and the Apple Store reinstalled a new one as I had extended warranty with them. The recycled the drive i

I bought a brand new Mac 27" desktop that came loaded with Adobe CS6. Everything worked like a charm until the hard drive, 1Tb, developed a bad sector and the Apple Store reinstalled a new one as I had extended warranty with them. They recycled the drive immediately (like a fool I didn't ask for it back to get the data off it.) But luckily I have all my data on CrashPlan. I downloaded it and it worked great except I downloaded it to the desktop and not the original location so it got squirrely. I also have an external 1.5Tb drive that I wanted to make bootable so I installed Mavericks 10.9.3 . I then went ahead and installed it on the newly installed drive too.
I think that because I have a new drive Adobe thinks I have a news computer. I bought the 27" Mac brand new from Ebay and it came loaded with software, including CS6. I have a serial number for CS6 but Adobe said it wasn't valid. (I have owned CS2, CS4 and now CS6 which came preloaded onto the Mac by the seller who told me that the software was registered to the Mac???
I am going to re-download the backup but this time to the original location (I still don't think it will work with Adobe. What can I do about this?
iMac 27-inch, Late 2012
Processor 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1024 MB
Software OS X 10.9.3 (13D65)@

You need to contact Adobe Support either by chat or via phone when you have serial number and activation issues.
Here is a link to a page with options to help make contact:
http://www.adobe.com/support/download-install/supportinfo/

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.
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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.
;~)

New Buffalo extreme external hard drive do I need to format before use

Hello
Just purchased a Buffalo extreme external hard drive which can be used for mac or windows. What I would like to know, do I need to format it journaled before using this hard drive for backing up only? Should I partition this hard?
Thank you
rachealfromva

Hi Illaass
Many thanks for your response, what would we do without lads and ladies like you, thank you again
rachealfromva

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

What is the best way to recycle 2010 MacBook? Also, it is completely dead and cannot erase hard drive.

What is the best way to recycle old 2010 MacBook? Also, it is completely dead and I cannot erase hard drive.

Depending on where you are located, country, region, etc, you may have options should
you wish to have it professionally restored or repaired to function properly again...
Even an Apple Store with Genius bar could, in several locations, give the product a look
and perhaps be able to diagnose the underlying issues. However that varies with the
degree of failed components and what is really wrong with it. A battery and a new HDD
could be all that's wrong with it. A diagnostic is often free, even on out-of-warranty Mac
at the Apple Store genius bar; an appointment is advised.
However if you only wanted someone to extract the hard disk drive and attach it to
a 'universal USB drive adapter kit' so at to try and access any readable files on it,
that is something that could be done at an Apple Authorized service provider; as
some of them may even have a section of resale products such as this adapter kit.
An example of this kind of kit includes wires, adapter parts, & a separate power supply
so it can be used to run the hard drive's electronics. This is not intended for permanent
use, but works like a set of patch cables to access the bare drive without an enclosure.
https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/Universal-Drive-Adapter/IF107-108-1
Another kit example says it'd work with almost any HDD or SSD of several build types:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3NVSPATA/
Companies that specialize in restoring Apple portable computers can give you an estimate
on a repair and the good ones can do that without a fee; they will not start a repair after they
see the computer until you get the estimate, and approve of the repair. If other items are
found to be of interest requiring other work or parts, they will also contact you, again before
continuing. One of these kinds of companies I know about (half a hemisphere away) is in
the eastern US, and worth inquiring of even if you are overseas. wegenermedia.com.
While I have no connection with any of these products or service suggestions, they do have
some variety of good reputation (ifixit.com has DIY repair guides; macsales has parts, etc.)
in standing, among many Mac users across a section of the planet...
Any concerns about the data on the hard disk drive should be able to be answered by a
local Apple independent; they also should have the universal USB drive adapter locally.
Not sure if I answered your inquiry, but there are different ways of approaching this matter.
Good luck & happy computing!
edited

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)

Not solved with Blinking Folder with Question Mark after Erasing Hard Drive

Before asking, I found someone had asked exact the same question, but that was actually an unsolved thread.
Re: Blinking Folder with Question Mark after Erasing Hard Drive to try to restore to Factory Settings
Level 1(0 points)sdc3gJul 5, 2013 6:24 PM Re: Blinking Folder with Question Mark after Erasing Hard Drive to try to restore to Factory Settings
Re: Blinking Folder with Question Mark after Erasing Hard Drive to try to restore to Factory Settings
in response to Niel
Thanks for the reply, held command+R again and it is trying to pick up WiFi, but it's not picking up my network and won't accept the password even when I try to put it in manually. Any thoughts on that?
Me too had tried the command+R and failed to manually connect to my network. Can anyone help?

Well, it was solved. I shifted to other place and tried other WIFis. One of the WiFi had the 2002f problem and another was fine, so the reinstall worked smoothly eventually.
On the apple support page it says that Supported network configurations and protocols includs both WPA/WPA2, not matter what they are, but it might not be true.

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.

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

Trying to back up to external hard drive (iomega). Instructions say to erase hard drive. Won't entirely erase. Can't enter iomega in Time Machine. Computer is minimac, operating system is OSx 10.6.8.

Trying to back up to external hard drive (iomega). Instructions say to erase hard drive. Won't entirely erase. Can't enter iomega in Time Machine. Computer is minimac, operating system is OSx 10.6.8.

All you need to upgrade the iBook for Tiger is another 128 MBs of RAM. It has both Firewire and USB ports. You do want to upgrade it for what you plan to do. The problem you may continue to have, however, may be due to the fact that the age of the computer is such the disk controller does not support hard drive volumes larger than 128 GBs, which is probably the reason the drive won't mount.
The reason you get DU errors is likely because the drive was formatted using the Intel Tiger version of DU, while you were using the Jaguar version. That's a definite no-no.

TS1600 I received a 2008 Imac with erased hard drive. I have the two discs to install OS X but when it tries to boot just comes up Mac OS X cannot be installed on this computer. Is there anything I can do to get this running

I rceived a 2008 Imac with erased hard drive. They gave me the two install discs but it keeps coming up cannot install OS X on this computer.
Is there anything to do. Thanks hopefully

Well, Apple would probably point out that what you are trying to do violates the EULA.
Technically speaking, however, the issue is that the install/restore DVDs that ship with Macs do not carry all the drivers, or even all of the various versions of libraries that support all of the various models of Macs. The come-with-your-Mac disks are different than the retail versions of the OS (also, the come-with-your-Mac ones bundle iLife, which the retail ones don't).
Because the come-with-your-Mac disk contains only the drivers specific to that generation and model line of Mac, it contains a stub of code that verifies that your hardware matches the driver set on the install/restore DVD.
Your friend has a different model of Mac, with different hardware, so her install/restore disk won't work in yours. Solution: go get the retail boxed version of Leopard.

Need to erase hard drive and reinstall system on iMac but have misplaced original install disks. Tried to use a my copy of Snow lepord 10.6 from my Mac pro but will not boot. Can original install disks be replaced. Thanks

Need to erase hard drive and reinstall system on iMac but have misplaced original install disks. Tried to use a my copy of Snow lepord 10.6 from my Mac Pro but will not boot. Can original install disks be replaced. Thanks

Yes the original Install Discs can be replaced for a nominal fee. Call AppleCare, you will need a credit card and the serial number of the machine. You can use the AppleCare Contact Info for the phone number on your part of the planet.

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

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