Safe deleting data on hard disk

[CmdrLaForge]

Hello,

I have some private confidential data on an external firewire drive that I have to send in for repair. I would like to secure delete all my data on that drive.

How can I do that?

Thanks for your help
LaForge

 

[Blue Velvet]

Use Disk Utility and reformat it using the 8x or 35x write zero option which writes many zeros all over the thing. But be warned, this can take a looooong time; it's the kind of thing you may need to leave running overnight or during the day when you're out.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Use Disk Utility and reformat it using the 8x or 35x write zero option which writes many zeros all over the thing. But be warned, this can take a looooong time; it's the kind of thing you may need to leave running overnight or during the day when you're out.

Thanks a lot. Is 8x faster?

Cheers
LaForge

 

[yellow]

7-pass is definitely faster..

You need to weigh your paranoia against the eventuality of someone scraping your data off the HD.

 

[WildCowboy]

It's actually 7-pass, not 8-pass...and it should be five times as fast as 35-pass. It will still take many hours. 35-pass will likely take multiple days.

 

[regre7]

No, those won't work. The only way to securely delete your data is to open all of your confidential documents and drip a drop of lemon juice where the 'B', 'V', and 'SPACE' keys meet, and then move the screen to a 43 degree angle to the keyboard, moving it to a perpendicular position every two minutes, then immediately moving it back. All this while singing Voodoo Child by Hendrix.

Unless your hair is brown or dark blonde.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

No, those won't work. The only way to securely delete your data is to open all of your confidential documents and drip a drop of lemon juice where the 'B', 'V', and 'SPACE' keys meet, and then move the screen to a 43 degree angle to the keyboard, moving it to a perpendicular position every two minutes, then immediately moving it back. All this while singing Voodoo Child by Hendrix.

Unless your hair is brown or dark blonde.

Thanks you made my day!

I don't mind if it takes some hours. Its just private data I don't want to get into the hands of anybody. The drive is DOA that usually means that I will not get my own drive back but a completly different one. I never erase disks e.g. when I just send my Mac in to Apple for repair. But this is different

 

[yellow]

If the drive is DOA, will you even be able to erase it?

 

[CmdrLaForge]

If the drive is DOA, will you even be able to erase it?

Yes because I already copied all my data over. The drive is DOA because it arrived with some quite ugly scratches. It is a LaCie BigDisk 500MB. Expensive but good. At first I thought I can live with all the scratches and let it go because I wanted to start working. That was yesterday. Today I think I paid so much money that there shouldn't be scratches.... And they should know that this happens and they should take better care in manufacturing. So my guess is the distri just sends me a knew one - the cover will be replaced in the factory and then shipped to a new customer - better not with my data