Need help wiping a MAC hard drive [Archive] - Glock Talk
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Jay S.
05-08-2010, 16:22
My mother in law is selling her IMAC and needs to wipe the hard drive. Problem is that she can't find the original disc. If I use the disk utility to wipe it, will it also wipe out the OS? Don't want to try and sell it without an OS. Thanks for the help!:wavey:
IndyGunFreak
05-08-2010, 17:09
My mother in law is selling her IMAC and needs to wipe the hard drive. Problem is that she can't find the original disc. If I use the disk utility to wipe it, will it also wipe out the OS? Don't want to try and sell it without an OS. Thanks for the help!:wavey:

Probably... can you call Apple and request a new CD? They might charge you for it. What's the age on the Mac?

IGF
checkyoursix
05-08-2010, 17:17
My mother in law is selling her IMAC and needs to wipe the hard drive. Problem is that she can't find the original disc. If I use the disk utility to wipe it, will it also wipe out the OS? Don't want to try and sell it without an OS. Thanks for the help!:wavey:


Every Mac has the ability to securely delete documents built in. Put the documents you need to delete in the trash, then go to Finder/Secure Empty Trash. I don't remember the exact specs, but the memory sectors get overwritten several times, thus making it impossible to recuperate data.

Voila', done. You're now your mother in law hero. I have never been it, so you're way ahead.
Jay S.
05-08-2010, 19:03
Every Mac has the ability to securely delete documents built in. Put the documents you need to delete in the trash, then go to Finder/Secure Empty Trash. I don't remember the exact specs, but the memory sectors get overwritten several times, thus making it impossible to recuperate data.

Voila', done. You're now your mother in law hero. I have never been it, so you're way ahead.

I'll give that a shot. Thanks again!
jpa
05-09-2010, 10:22
I would go a step further and uninstall any applications she has installed and purchased a license for. Freeware like Firefox, etc can stay, but I'd get rid of any of the paid for software on it. When selling a PC, I used to wipe everything and reload it all to be sure I got all my personal info off the PC completely (including the Owner/Registration info in the control panel).
cgwahl
05-10-2010, 09:29
You're going to sadly need the Mac install disc, but I'd recommend just using software to do a wipe (maybe multi-passthrough of 1's and 0's), whatever...and then reinstalling the OS.

It'll give them a clean version of the OS and you don't have to worry about if you forgot to delete anything.