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erasing hard drive so it is "as new"

S

scottfenner

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 12, 2008
27
0
hi,
i'm selling a hard drive from my macbook and want to make sure that when i've erased it, it will be as if the drive was bought new, so it will work in whatever computer it is put in.

i've already deleted everything on it, in the MS-DOS (FAT) volume format, using the 7 pass secure erase option, just because i assume there's more chance of the winning bidder on ebay being a windows user than a mac one.

was this the right thing to do though? because now i'm thinking maybe the drive won't work if the winning bidder has a mac! i'm pretty rubbish at this kinda thing so if someone could shed some light on it, that'd be mint :)

oh, also i notice at the bottom of disk utility, where there's all the drive info, it says 'partition map scheme: apple partition map,' even when i made sure i deleted any partitions on the drive before erasing. that seems a bit worrying as i don't know if a drive with an apple partition map would work in a windows computer. although having said that, it has just begun its 6 hour job of erasing, so maybe it will automatically make a new partition when it's done. like i said, i don't really know what i'm doing :confused:

hope someone can help, thanks in advance.
scott
 
Mac or any PC vendor can work with the same drive. HDD's don't care what make of computer they're in. ;)
The new owner should format in the desired file system , then partition as they please. :)
 
oh! ok then, i'll wait for it to finish formatting then send it away! thanks very much :)
 
just change the partition map under the partitions tab in disk utility then and make it WIndows partition mapped. You can run disc utility from the install cd of mac OS so even if it is a mac buyer that ends up winning, they can just reformat it for mac anyhoo
 
i did read, but i don't know how do do what he said. i can't find a way to make it windows partition mapped.
 
scottfenner said:
i did read, but i don't know how do do what he said. i can't find a way to make it windows partition mapped.
Click to expand...

Go to disc utilities - select the disc (not the indented partition) then the partition tab. Select 1 partition from the Volume scheme dropdown - select 1 partition and then on the right side of the pane you select format in the dropdown - FAT32 near the bottom.

Is that easier to follow ?
 
logana said:
Go to disc utilities - select the disc (not the indented partition) then the partition tab. Select 1 partition from the Volume scheme dropdown - select 1 partition and then on the right side of the pane you select format in the dropdown - FAT32 near the bottom.

Is that easier to follow ?
Click to expand...

hi, i understood that, but there was no fat32 in the drop down box.

i've just realised that i had to click options at the bottom and change it to master boot record, and then fat32 appears in the drop down box when i click it. told you i was clueless!

earlier i deleted the partition from the drive completely, and now in the left hand list of all my drives, this particular drive has nothing underneath it anymore. is this how the drive would be if bought new? or do they come with an MS-DOS (FAT) partition as standard?
 
Bought new is a rough term. It could have no partition on it, if it's OEM or something, but if it's for a dumb user, it should be formatted to Fat32 with one partition. Fat32 can be read and written to from Windows, Linux and Macs with no aditionaly software.
 
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