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Does reinstalling OS X damage hd?
- Thread starter James17
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There is no harm to your HD in reinstalling OSX.
Just make sure you back up anything important.
OSX can't save you from yourself.
Just make sure you back up anything important.
OSX can't save you from yourself.
On a healthy drive, no, this won't cause any problems.
It's possible, albeit difficult, to recover files from the drive that were "erased" in the formatting process, but have not yet been written over by new data. If you have a drive that was, at one time, full of sensitive data, the only way to be sure that no one recovers the data is to destroy the drive.
yes, thats true
when data on a hdd is deleted, it is not actually removed, just flagged as being deleted, and therefore is not shown in finder
recovery software will easily recover everything
the only way to remove data on magnetic media is to pass data over it several times, for example, secure erase in trash writes random data over files 7 times to delete it
not really, many free tools will recover data from a formatted hdd/usb key - i did it once and it found every file in about 30 secs
I read somewhere that the only way to secure your data on a hd was to format it a few times and write 0's on it amongst other things but I wondered if I reinstalled OS X without doing this and possibly the traces of a previous installation would still be there so I thought it would compromise the health of the HD. Not that I had to explain that to someone who demonstrates a lack of respect for other people.
I'm glad my question could be the funniest ever, it makes me feel proud I asked
If you haven't got anything constructive to contribute to my question then I don't think your post is justified, do you?
Oh really
I would say that most folks find that data recovery is anything but easy
I'm not saying it can't be done... it certainly can, with varying degrees of success, but in my opinion, to say that recovery software will easily recover everything is a bit misleading
Woof, Woof - Dawg
Installing a program or OS on a hard drive cannot damage the physical drive. It's all zeroes and ones. As far as the drive is concerned, it's all just data.... no difference between images, videos, text files, programs or OS components. You can write and rewrite and rerewrite to your heart's content. No danger of harming the drive.
I just got through reading about this actually. Yes, you can erase your hard drive, there are programs to do just that. It takes hours, depending on the size of the drive and wipes it with 0s and 1s, taking several passes to do this. However, if you are wanted by the Fed's, you should probably carry said hard drive away and drop it in an active volcano.
Reformatting doesn't hurt your hard drive though, if it did, I'd be on my 20 drive instead of 4th!
Reformatting doesn't hurt your hard drive though, if it did, I'd be on my 20 drive instead of 4th!
There is no need to run 7, or 35 or any other large number of passes to securely wipe a hard drive. From the Department of Defense:
ok, maybe easily and everything were too far, but its generally not that hard to recover data from a formatted hddOh really
I would say that most folks find that data recovery is anything but easy
I'm not saying it can't be done... it certainly can, with varying degrees of success, but in my opinion, to say that recovery software will easily recover everything is a bit misleading
no, but the more you write over it, the more secure it is
3 is the most basic, and obviously 7 or 35 times will really destroy it
After a 3-pass wipe, all data is completely destroyed and there is zero possibility of recovering anything. Any additional passes are useless effort and add absolutely no additional security.
yep
Everyone likes a funny now and then.
Reinstalling an OS taxes your hard drive no more than accessing it normally does. It would be like asking if I'm using my monitor more when I'm using photoshop or word. Same damn thing.
I'm glad my question could be the funniest ever, it makes me feel proud I asked
Everyone likes a funny now and then.
Reinstalling an OS taxes your hard drive no more than accessing it normally does. It would be like asking if I'm using my monitor more when I'm using photoshop or word. Same damn thing.
The relevance of your post is of the same calibre as the persons before. Why do people waste their time?
you don't need to flame everyone and get defensive. If someone says something you don't like just be the bigger person and ignore it.
Why should I ignore something that is posted in a thread that I created and wanted sensible answers on? What I said was not being defensive as there was nothing to defend.
It is a message board... people chime in, even when they have nothing new to say, they add their voice in support of what is already said.
Woof, Woof - Dawg
It is a message board... people chime in, even when they have nothing new to say, they add their voice in support of what is already said.
Woof, Woof - Dawg
The difference is that the person in this thread did not voice support of what was already said, they found it necessary to laugh at someone so not only did they wastefully "chime in", they mocked another which is sad.
No I don't. I asked the question before reinstalling OS X so wondered if it would have any implications for the future health of the hdd but people like you find it necessary to come on here and waste your time with senseless posts whilst offending people. "Same damn thing" is not required, neither is your senseless comparison of Word and Photoshop, that is informal mockery. Why don't you open up a Word doc and type some waste into that, at least other people don't have to see it.
Bye. -1, great.
Perhaps look into encryption options in the future if you are regularly dealing with sensitive data? or pron?
We all have varying levels of technical knowledge, and nobody likes to be the butt of jokes by those who assume they're own knowledge makes them superior, eh? But I strongly suspect they're just joshing ya, and hope you can feel amused with them, rather then feel they are poking fun at you.
We all have varying levels of technical knowledge, and nobody likes to be the butt of jokes by those who assume they're own knowledge makes them superior, eh? But I strongly suspect they're just joshing ya, and hope you can feel amused with them, rather then feel they are poking fun at you.
I guess the answers have been answered, tongue-in-cheek and not, and there's no need to turn it into bickering...
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