Securing Data During Repair

[jazzer15]

I have a late 2009 i7 quad core iMac w/12 gig of RAM. I have a minor problem with the LCD and am considering getting it replaced. At the same time I figured I would either have the 2TB HDD or the Super Drive replaced with an SSD.

I have a lot of personal data on my machine and don't feel comfortable just handing the machine with all of my data and emails over to someone else, despite the fact that I generally trust that the shop is honest. I am wondering how best to secure the data when bringing the computer to the shop for the repairs, upgrades, figuring that I would have to provide my password in order for them to be able to test the machine and do the work.

 

[blueeggs]

I have a late 2009 i7 quad core iMac w/12 gig of RAM. I have a minor problem with the LCD and am considering getting it replaced. At the same time I figured I would either have the 2TB HDD or the Super Drive replaced with an SSD.

I have a lot of personal data on my machine and don't feel comfortable just handing the machine with all of my data and emails over to someone else, despite the fact that I generally trust that the shop is honest. I am wondering how best to secure the data when bringing the computer to the shop for the repairs, upgrades, figuring that I would have to provide my password in order for them to be able to test the machine and do the work.

You could always do a restore from a time machine backup. make a new fresh user account. Delete your original account. then restore from the backup when you get back your iMac.

 

[rigormortis]

either back up the mac to time machine and wipe it with a secure wipe ( 3 or more passes ) if its a mechanical disk

or

turn on filevault and send it as is, and do not give them your password or recovery key

they can use the guest account , they don't need your password

if they insist they need a password to run their tests, send them the hard disk wiped

apple hardware test that comes with macs doesn't even check your disk

 

[rigormortis]

several times i have sent back my dell laptops back to dell repair without hard disks, but those were easy to remove and install


i sent in my mac mini to ny to repair. its still in repair. i just sent it as is with file vault on and guest enabled

i made a test account for the genius once

 

[jazzer15]

Thanks for the responses. Certainly the firevault option would be less time consuming, so maybe I should try that in the first instance. for the issue I am having with the monitor there really shouldn't be a need to access my account. I have a Time Machine Backup but I have about 800 GB of data on a 2 TB HDD, so 3 erase passes and then a restore (over firewire) would take a good bit of time.