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Best way to Safely Delete Hard Drive for Sale.

Traverse

Traverse

macrumors 604
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
7,688
4,400
Here
Hi,

I have an external hard drive that I no longer need and I can get fifty dollars for it. I used it for time Machine backups and I "restored" it so it has like 499 GB free (I just used the quickest setting in Disk utility), but I wan't to make sure the drive is clear and my information is safe.

What is the best way to complete clear a HDD?
 
C

ColdCase

macrumors 68040
Feb 10, 2008
3,359
276
NH
You use disk utility to erase, under security options is a slider to select how secure to erase, from none to write over 7 times. If its a friend, just a reformat may be good enough.

Then reformat.
 
Traverse

Traverse

macrumors 604
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
7,688
4,400
Here
ColdCase said:
You use disk utility to erase, under security options is a slider to select how secure to erase, from none to write over 7 times.

Reformat.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's what I figured, do you feel that 7 is necessary?
 
C

ColdCase

macrumors 68040
Feb 10, 2008
3,359
276
NH
Depends on how well you know the person you are selling to and how valuable the data is. Overwrite once or twice should be good for typical data.
 
Traverse

Traverse

macrumors 604
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
7,688
4,400
Here
ColdCase said:
Depends on how well you know the person you are selling to and how valuable the data is. Overwrite once or twice should be good for typical data.
Click to expand...

I don't know the person, so I'll probably use the max. Thanks!
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,127
15,589
California
Traverse said:
Hi,

I have an external hard drive that I no longer need and I can get fifty dollars for it. I used it for time Machine backups and I "restored" it so it has like 499 GB free (I just used the quickest setting in Disk utility), but I wan't to make sure the drive is clear and my information is safe.

What is the best way to complete clear a HDD?
Click to expand...

Attach the drive then right click it in Finder and select encrypt. Then go to Disk Util and select the drive brand name at the top (not just the partition) and erase it. Any data on there is gone forever. Even if someone managed to restore what you deleted it would be encrypted.
 
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