Appointment with Genius Bar tomorrow, should I do a secure erase?

[essential]

I have an appointment with the Genius Bar tomorrow because I think I may have a (iPhone 3G) bad battery. Should I do a secure erase before I go there incase they give me a new phone, or has Apple stated they do a secure erase on all phones they exchange?

Thanks.

 

[Drumjim85]

if you think they're going to trade out your phone, i would secure erase it ... people have found data (hidden of course) on refurb phones, they don't do it themselves (or at least they didn't)

 

[SFStateStudent]

I have an appointment with the Genius Bar tomorrow because I think I may have a (iPhone 3G) bad battery. Should I do a secure erase before I go there incase they give me a new phone, or has Apple stated they do a secure erase on all phones they exchange?

Thanks.

Do a back-up, they can erase everything as part of testing the iPhone, you also want to duplicate the issue don't you? They'll ask you before they hook it up, "when was the last time you did a back-up?"

 

[daneoni]

The good ones will usually prompt you to do a secure erase. Basically wait till he/she confirms the swapping and then just wipe your phone

 

[essential]

The good ones will usually prompt you to do a secure erase. Basically wait till he/she confirms the swapping and then just wipe your phone

I thought secure erases took upwards of 50 mins? Is it faster than that?

 

[Drumjim85]

I thought secure erases took upwards of 50 mins? Is it faster than that?

it should take a long time... not sure how long, but it does have to write over each bit, not just the index.

 

[moloukhya]

When I got my iPhone 3G replaced, the Genius did a secure erase on my old iPhone 3G right before he placed it in the white box to be sent to apple. I didn't even have to ask.

 

[alphaod]

You can't secure erase flash memory because there is write leveling and you can never know where it's erasing.

 

[PoitNarf]

I thought secure erases took upwards of 50 mins? Is it faster than that?

Takes roughly an hour on a 16GB iPhone.

 

[8767092]

You can't secure erase flash memory because there is write leveling and you can never know where it's erasing.

I suppose the word secure can be applied at different levels. It is better security than what was previously available, but could still be recoverable via some methods.

 

[SFStateStudent]

My 8GB iPhone took about 20 minutes to erase by the Apple Store genius, when I had it replaced.

 

[trixnrice]

when i got mine replaced, the genius just put it back in the original black box case, i freakn forgot to ask if he was gonna do so. Either way, it should be standard procedure to secure erase all turned in iphones right? i hope so, but then again, i dont have anything too personal on my iphone; i'm pretty sure i dont.