Selling Mac Mini: How To Successfully Erase Everything on HDD, Before Selling?

HappyDude20 · Feb 11, 2013, 03:43 PM

I love my Mac Mini, however the lack of portability is really taking a toll here at university. I need to sell this Mac Mini with 500gb HDD, and get rMBP most likely.

Anyways, how can I go about a complete successful HDD erase so as not to worry about a future owner accessing any of my stuff?

Would I need to take the HDD out and erase it as an external? If so, wouldn't it render the HDD somewhat useless (for the new owner) when first reinstalled into the Mini?

Ideally, I would like it where none of my info is on this Mac. Including my personal login account and iCloud features within. Ya' never know, ya know?

simsaladimbamba · Feb 11, 2013, 03:46 PM

Mac 101: Preparing your old Mac for sale or recycling

CrazyNurse · Feb 11, 2013, 11:24 PM

In the dark times...my windows days...dban (Darik's Boot and Nuke) was very handy. Not sure if there ever was a Mac version.

cjgonzales1900 · Feb 12, 2013, 01:19 AM

Reboot into recovery by restarting your Mac Mini holding down the option key than select the mountain lion recovery partition. Once it booted up select disk utility and the erase and then security options and select whichever seems better to you. the more passes the longer it will take.

hamkor04 · Feb 12, 2013, 05:58 AM

I assume you will back up ur system first, right?
If so, clone your system (also make TM back up)
Super duper back up, it gives you bootable drive from USB or whatever external you have. Also, your mini will be ready to ship or collection at any time
1-clone it (super duper is good)
2-boot from cloned drive
3-open up Disk Utility
4-choose 500gb HHD and Erase change the security option as 7 pass
and erase. It will teak at least over night
5- you can install clean OS after Erasing finished
6- use your external drive (boot) untill you sell it(it keeps your data from your HDD

simsaladimbamba · Feb 12, 2013, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hamkor04

4-choose 500gb HHD and Erase change the security option as 7 pass
and erase. It will teak at least over night

A ZERO OUT will suffice though.

DiskWiping – One Pass is Enough

Ice Dragon · Feb 12, 2013, 12:38 PM

How about for an SSD? Do a 35 pass erase for that as well?

simsaladimbamba · Feb 12, 2013, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ice Dragon

How about for an SSD? Do a 35 pass erase for that as well?

Again, a ZERO OUT (1-pass) will suffice for those too, as recovery software have a much harder time with flash based storage data recovery than with platter based storage data recovery.

Why You Only Have to Wipe a Disk Once to Erase It

Edie Brickell · Feb 22, 2013, 12:44 AM

@hamkor04 has given the best answer of your question. First backup everything then erase with disk utility or any third party tool likely a Wipe software but disk utility is preferred because its free to use.

foofan · Feb 22, 2013, 06:34 AM

I thought this was weird and not sure how it happens. 2 years ago I sold a mini server on ebay. Before i sold it I erased the HD and reinstalled software. This past week I bought a brand new 2012 mini. During the initial setup I inputed all my info including my apple email address. When i opened safari for the first time I was shocked to see that safari had all the bookmarks I had on my server from 2 years ago. I thought everything gets erased but apparently not. Somehow apple maintained a copy of all my bookmarks. Makes you wonder what else they have?

Mr. Retrofire · Feb 22, 2013, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foofan

Somehow apple maintained a copy of all my bookmarks. Makes you wonder what else they have?

Do you use iCloud?

Feb 11, 2013, 03:43 PM	#1
HappyDude20 macrumors 68010 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Los Angeles, Ca	Selling Mac Mini: How To Successfully Erase Everything on HDD, Before Selling? I love my Mac Mini, however the lack of portability is really taking a toll here at university. I need to sell this Mac Mini with 500gb HDD, and get rMBP most likely. Anyways, how can I go about a complete successful HDD erase so as not to worry about a future owner accessing any of my stuff? Would I need to take the HDD out and erase it as an external? If so, wouldn't it render the HDD somewhat useless (for the new owner) when first reinstalled into the Mini? Ideally, I would like it where none of my info is on this Mac. Including my personal login account and iCloud features within. Ya' never know, ya know? __________________ MacBook Pro & iPhone 4
	1

Feb 11, 2013, 03:46 PM	#2
simsaladimbamba macrumors Core Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: in front of it	Mac 101: Preparing your old Mac for sale or recycling Clean Install of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard: How to Erase and Install Perform a Clean Install of OS X Lion on Your Mac How to Clean Install OS X Mountain Lion How to Do a Clean Install of OS X Mountain Lion __________________ This is not
	2

Feb 12, 2013, 01:19 AM	#4
cjgonzales1900 macrumors regular Join Date: Jan 2009	Reboot into recovery by restarting your Mac Mini holding down the option key than select the mountain lion recovery partition. Once it booted up select disk utility and the erase and then security options and select whichever seems better to you. the more passes the longer it will take. __________________ 2011 MacBook Air 1.7GHz i5 4GB 128GB SSD 2012 iPhone 5 Black 16GB 2013 Mac Mini 2.5GHz i5 16GB 500GB HD
	0

Feb 12, 2013, 05:58 AM	#5
hamkor04 macrumors 6502 Join Date: Apr 2011	I assume you will back up ur system first, right? If so, clone your system (also make TM back up) Super duper back up, it gives you bootable drive from USB or whatever external you have. Also, your mini will be ready to ship or collection at any time 1-clone it (super duper is good) 2-boot from cloned drive 3-open up Disk Utility 4-choose 500gb HHD and Erase change the security option as 7 pass and erase. It will teak at least over night 5- you can install clean OS after Erasing finished 6- use your external drive (boot) untill you sell it(it keeps your data from your HDD __________________ “All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.”
	0

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Feb 11, 2013, 11:24 PM	#3
CrazyNurse macrumors newbie Join Date: Oct 2012	In the dark times...my windows days...dban (Darik's Boot and Nuke) was very handy. Not sure if there ever was a Mac version.
	0

Feb 12, 2013, 12:38 PM	#7
Ice Dragon macrumors 6502a Join Date: Jun 2009	How about for an SSD? Do a 35 pass erase for that as well?
	0

Feb 22, 2013, 12:44 AM	#9
Edie Brickell macrumors member Join Date: Apr 2010	@hamkor04 has given the best answer of your question. First backup everything then erase with disk utility or any third party tool likely a Wipe software but disk utility is preferred because its free to use.
	0

Feb 22, 2013, 06:34 AM	#10
foofan macrumors 6502 Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: New England	I thought this was weird and not sure how it happens. 2 years ago I sold a mini server on ebay. Before i sold it I erased the HD and reinstalled software. This past week I bought a brand new 2012 mini. During the initial setup I inputed all my info including my apple email address. When i opened safari for the first time I was shocked to see that safari had all the bookmarks I had on my server from 2 years ago. I thought everything gets erased but apparently not. Somehow apple maintained a copy of all my bookmarks. Makes you wonder what else they have?
	0