Selling Mac - how can I protect my data?

[Mjmar]

I am selling a mac with an SSD and I am not able to overwrite the drive with zeroes in disk utility because it's an SSD. I am trying to think of solutions to this problem and I came up with this:

I don't have firevault turned on, but if I do turn it on it will encrypt the data that is on the drive so it will be useless without a decryption key. Then once everything is encrypted I will boot into the recovery partition to erase the startup disk and then reinstall the OS. I'm assuming that when the OS is reinstalled the original decryption key is lost.

Am I missing anything or will this do the trick and ensure that my data is not at risk of being recovered?

Thanks!

 

[Intell]

Yes, that will securely erase the data.

 

[Mjmar]

Yes, that will securely erase the data.

Do you know if the encrypted version of my data will overwrite my unencrypted data when I turn firevault on, or is it not a perfect science?

 

[Intell]

Yes, it overwrites the entire drive with encrypted data.

 

[satcomer]

Read and do what the Apple Support: What to do if selling or giving away your Mac says and you should be good!

 

[BrianBaughn]

Your plan is good.