7 pass erase

[DeChrii]

Heyy all! So recently I gave my iMac 27" 2009 to my dad and decided to restore the iMac back to day 1 . I read around online for directions and most said to use the erase option in disk utilities. They also said to use the 7 pass erase. The iMac only had about 200gB of storage and it has been erasing for almost 4 days now and only at half way done. From what I've read, it should only take a few hours so do you think I should cancel the erase and finish it with a 1 pass erase or just let it finish? It still says 6 days remaining which is an awful long time. Thanks

[simsaladimbamba]

The 7-pass erase is for the complete 1TB, not just for the 200GB you used out of it. You can safely cancel and reformat the HDD again via Disk Utility without erasing it securely now.

DiskWiping – One Pass is Enough

But a one pass of securely erasing 1TB should only take six hours at 50MB/s.

[Vizin]

.

[Criticalmass]

Originally Posted by Vizin

1-pass is generally good enough to defeat amateur attempts to recover deleted data. 7-pass is better if you're worried about data being recovered by security professionals.

As the above poster said, that feature goes over the entire drive, not just the currently used space, because it's intended to wipe previously deleted data as well.

Actually, 1 pass is only good enough for people who wouldn't know what to do with whatever they recovered in the first place.

7 pass is good enough for the people who WOULD know what to do with whatever they recovered.

If you haven't noticed. Cybercrime and data recovery by criminal organizations is big business these days. I guess that's why they call them Organized Crime Syndicates and why they siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars from individuals and corporations in the last couple of years..

[thermodynamic]

Originally Posted by DeChrii

Heyy all! So recently I gave my iMac 27" 2009 to my dad and decided to restore the iMac back to day 1 . I read around online for directions and most said to use the erase option in disk utilities. They also said to use the 7 pass erase. The iMac only had about 200gB of storage and it has been erasing for almost 4 days now and only at half way done. From what I've read, it should only take a few hours so do you think I should cancel the erase and finish it with a 1 pass erase or just let it finish? It still says 6 days remaining which is an awful long time. Thanks

Let it finish the 7-pass method if possible. Or let it go overnight.

If you feel comfy aborting it the next morning, that's probably okay, but the more passes mean a more efficient job. As has been said, most people aren't going to care, but somebody might.

The iMac could be running warm as well; do you have an extra fan you can blow on the back of it?

[Badger^2]

If I was giving my old iMac to my DAD I would just do a simple 1 minute erase.

Are you afraid he might turn into a uber hacker overnight? =)

and if he did -- whats on that old iMac that he couldnt see?

I think you are making it overly complicated.

[kfscoll]

Originally Posted by Badger^2

If I was giving my old iMac to my DAD I would just do a simple 1 minute erase.

Are you afraid he might turn into a uber hacker overnight? =)

and if he did -- whats on that old iMac that he couldnt see?

I think you are making it overly complicated.

No doubt. 7-pass is overkill if you're just giving it to your Dad.

[Vizin]

.