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How to wipe computer if it has to go to Applecare
- Thread starter PaulMoore
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The simpliest and quickest way is to put your personal files to trash and then, in Finder, choose >Finder >Secure empty trash. That way, the space that's freed up by trashing will be overwritten with random information.
If you really want to be safe, you could perfom a secure erase of the HD using Disk Utility on your install disk. But that's surely not a fast method and your entire disk will be erased.
If you really want to be safe, you could perfom a secure erase of the HD using Disk Utility on your install disk. But that's surely not a fast method and your entire disk will be erased.
You only need to use the 7 pass wipe. The 35 pass wipe will take you a week...lol not really, but a LONG time.
As it is the 7 pass will take probably around 8 hours, but it is the Dept. of Defense/NSA standard for "secure" delete.
It's a good idea to take the time to do it...if you're nice, you can even run your restore DVD's afterwards and reload your OS and see if your problem persists. That way they can reliably test it.
If you're only worried about certain files, then you can probably just use the secure empty trash as has been said.
What is your issue w/ the iMac anyways?
As it is the 7 pass will take probably around 8 hours, but it is the Dept. of Defense/NSA standard for "secure" delete.
It's a good idea to take the time to do it...if you're nice, you can even run your restore DVD's afterwards and reload your OS and see if your problem persists. That way they can reliably test it.
If you're only worried about certain files, then you can probably just use the secure empty trash as has been said.
What is your issue w/ the iMac anyways?
I am a fan of using Carbon Copy Cleaner or SuperDuper to get a bootable image to an external firewire (then boot from it just to make sure you are all set) even with the time machine backup available. In fact it allows you to still use "your mac" if you can snag a friends or something for quick work on your principal dataset. Also when the machine comes back, you can instantly plug in boot from external and work, saving the copy back time for after hours.
Then disk utility, repartition and format the disk and reinstall OSx so you are sending a freshly installed mac to them. I have too many accounts and too much cruft, files, etc. that I do not want to make mistakes when sending my machine off.
Again, this may not be the minimalist waay to do it, but it is a framework of a method that has served me well maintaining all sorts of machine (PCs via Ghost or PING, Linux via PING or dd for that matter).
-unixham
Then disk utility, repartition and format the disk and reinstall OSx so you are sending a freshly installed mac to them. I have too many accounts and too much cruft, files, etc. that I do not want to make mistakes when sending my machine off.
Again, this may not be the minimalist waay to do it, but it is a framework of a method that has served me well maintaining all sorts of machine (PCs via Ghost or PING, Linux via PING or dd for that matter).
-unixham