Best way to Safely Delete Hard Drive for Sale.

[Traverse]

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?

 

[PicnicTutorials]

reFormatting it would safe delete everything right

 

[ColdCase]

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]

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.

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

 

[PicnicTutorials]

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

Depends what you got on there Better safe than sorry. If it's worth doing it's worth doing right. I got lots more lol

 

[ColdCase]

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]

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.

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

 

[Alrescha]

No-one with the ability to get data from the drive after a single pass overwrite is the least bit interested in your data

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_erasure

"one overwrite is all that is generally required"

A.

 

[Weaselboy]

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?

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.