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Any personal information left when installing with bootable USB?

Silly John Fatty

Silly John Fatty

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
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Assuming I reinstall Mavericks from a bootable USB, and wipe everything from the drive before I do so obviously, would any personal information be left on the Mac?

I ask this because usually for OSX Mavericks you have to use your Apple ID to download it. Will my Apple ID be saved somewhere, even if it's installed with a bootable drive? My name, my email address, anything?

Thanks a lot :)
 
A

asriznet

macrumors regular
Dec 21, 2013
241
0
Singapore
Sanchez25 said:
Assuming I reinstall Mavericks from a bootable USB, and wipe everything from the drive before I do so obviously, would any personal information be left on the Mac?

I ask this because usually for OSX Mavericks you have to use your Apple ID to download it. Will my Apple ID be saved somewhere, even if it's installed with a bootable drive? My name, my email address, anything?

Thanks a lot :)
Click to expand...

Technically it shouldn't save any information if you erase it properly using disk utility. Best to repartition the whole drive, that will get rid of the recovery partition as well. If you're a bit paranoid, you can run the secure erase instead. Do note that this process is extremely time intensive.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3680
 
Silly John Fatty

Silly John Fatty

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Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
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Yeah I'll be doing secure erase, but I'm not too worried about what's left on the drive, but more what comes with Mavericks when I install it with the USB installer.

You see, you can't buy Mavericks like you could buy earlier OSX systems on DVD - Mavericks is always dependent of your Apple ID.

Now - if I make a fresh install of Mavericks with a USB installer, that's where I'm wondering if any data will be left? Because the Mavericks system I'll be installing through my installer is still the only I downloaded from my personal Apple Store account, see what I mean? :)
 
A

asriznet

macrumors regular
Dec 21, 2013
241
0
Singapore
Sanchez25 said:
Yeah I'll be doing secure erase, but I'm not too worried about what's left on the drive, but more what comes with Mavericks when I install it with the USB installer.

You see, you can't buy Mavericks like you could buy earlier OSX systems on DVD - Mavericks is always dependent of your Apple ID.

Now - if I make a fresh install of Mavericks with a USB installer, that's where I'm wondering if any data will be left? Because the Mavericks system I'll be installing through my installer is still the only I downloaded from my personal Apple Store account, see what I mean? :)
Click to expand...

I doubt the OS X installers downloaded from the app store is unique to each user. With that, a clean installation of OS X should be as it is(Clean install) however if I'm selling or passing my mac to someone, I would not install OS X Mavericks on it. I would install the OS X version the mac came with, either using the installation DVD or internet recovery. In case the new owner needs to perform a clean installation and didn't had the chance to add OS X Mavericks to his "Purchased" list in time for the installation.
 
Silly John Fatty

Silly John Fatty

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
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Hmm, you think it doesn't have any personal infos stored? One thing is true, when you do a fresh install and start it the first time, it will ask you your Apple ID for iCloud and iMessages, etc. but if you don't enter it, possibly to user information would be stored on it.

I don't want to sell the Mac, just return it to the seller actually. It shows an error code in the Apple Hardware Test.

But when I sold my iMac a few months ago, the new buyer wanted to install Mavericks himself because it worked with his Apple ID then, and so on. I don't know.
 
A

asriznet

macrumors regular
Dec 21, 2013
241
0
Singapore
Sanchez25 said:
Hmm, you think it doesn't have any personal infos stored? One thing is true, when you do a fresh install and start it the first time, it will ask you your Apple ID for iCloud and iMessages, etc. but if you don't enter it, possibly to user information would be stored on it.

I don't want to sell the Mac, just return it to the seller actually. It shows an error code in the Apple Hardware Test.

But when I sold my iMac a few months ago, the new buyer wanted to install Mavericks himself because it worked with his Apple ID then, and so on. I don't know.
Click to expand...

Like I said, use the installation DVD or internet recovery to perform the OS X installation, this will confirm none of your data will be stored.
 
Silly John Fatty

Silly John Fatty

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
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asriznet said:
Like I said, use the installation DVD or internet recovery to perform the OS X installation, this will confirm none of your data will be stored.
Click to expand...

I only have installation DVDs for Leopard or Snow Leopard I think, but it should work. My Mac is from January 2011. Internet recovery takes too long, but still it would be interesting to know if Mavericks saves some user data. Perhaps someone knows. :)
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

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Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
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California
Sanchez25 said:
I only have installation DVDs for Leopard or Snow Leopard I think, but it should work. My Mac is from January 2011. Internet recovery takes too long, but still it would be interesting to know if Mavericks saves some user data. Perhaps someone knows. :)
Click to expand...

It most definitely does not. When you enter that AppleID, that just allows you to DL the installer from Apple's servers. That AppleID is in no way attached to the installer.

If you were to download the installer then run MD5 hash in Terminal you would find that the file is digitally identical to the one I downloaded or the installer's available on pirate sites etc. There is no AppleID info embedded in the file or the MD5 hash would not match from different sources.
 
Silly John Fatty

Silly John Fatty

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
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Weaselboy said:
It most definitely does not. When you enter that AppleID, that just allows you to DL the installer from Apple's servers. That AppleID is in no way attached to the installer.

If you were to download the installer then run MD5 hash in Terminal you would find that the file is digitally identical to the one I downloaded or the installer's available on pirate sites etc. There is no AppleID info embedded in the file or the MD5 hash would not match from different sources.
Click to expand...

Awesome, that's what I wanted to hear! You always seem to have the right answer when I ask about something :D
 
Silly John Fatty

Silly John Fatty

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Nov 6, 2012
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BTW: I know where I read that the OSX installer contains private informations now. In this article in german: http://www.macwelt.de/ratgeber/Mavericks-vom-USB-Stick-installieren-8294693.html

It states that the Apple ID is saved in the installer. That's just for the installer? Or for OSX. Or did they make a mistake?

This was the reason why I created this thread, now I remember, it was because of that article. :)
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,602
California
Sanchez25 said:
BTW: I know where I read that the OSX installer contains private informations now. In this article in german: http://www.macwelt.de/ratgeber/Mavericks-vom-USB-Stick-installieren-8294693.html

It states that the Apple ID is saved in the installer. That's just for the installer? Or for OSX. Or did they make a mistake?

This was the reason why I created this thread, now I remember, it was because of that article. :)
Click to expand...

They are mistaken and you can prove it by comparing MD5 hash output from the installer DMG downloaded under different AppleIDs. The MD5 hash matches, thus proving the files are digitally identical.

For example, when Mavericks first came out there was a post here showing the below MD5 hash for the installer DMG.

Code: 
f222952400db8535c03697c3293e168e

If you Google search that string you will see the same MD5 hash string mentioned by different people as being the MD5 hash for the installer file they downloaded.

Here is a forum post showing the MD5 hash of all the Mavericks versions up to 10.9.4. You can do the same thing with those and you all find the same MD5 hash all over the Internet downloaded by different people with different AppleIDs.

So this proves the files are digitally identical and there is no AppleID embedded in the installer.

All the AppleID does is allow your to DL the file from Apple's servers, but we all get the exact same file with no AppleID embedded.
 
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