Selling my MBP: Most secure way to wipe out my harddrive?

[macaddict23]

Another option is to sell the laptop without the hard drive. But that might put off a few potential buyers. Thanks!

 

[Consultant]

google:
wipe harddrive secure site:forums.macrumors.com

 

[Le Big Mac]

reinstall the system software from the included CDs. Choose the 7x wipe option.

 

[Amdahl]

The 1-time wipe should be all you need. Anybody who can demonstrate the ability to recover data from a drive that has been wiped is free to post it.

I'm sure the guy in the other room who installed XP over his OS X would like to know about it.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

if you want the *most* secure way to wipe the drive you can use disk utility and do a 35 pass zero out, which will take hours. Really 1 pass will probably be plenty, but you did as for the most secure.

 

[OngL]

1-pass wipe is more than enough. more than that, anyone needs a special device (very expensive) to retrieved overwritten data.

 

[Patriks7]

Like the guys (or girls) above said; the 1 swipe will be more than enough, unless you have some files the FBI or CIA is looking for

 

[pellets007]

Most accurately, there is none. Other than smashing you HDD into pieces. Though, I'm sure someone could always piece it back together. People have demonstrated recovering data after OS installations, reformats, and 3rd party wipes. Though, you should be fine with a single wipe, as others have said.

 

[Pixellated]

I think a 20 time zero out would be fine.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

People have demonstrated recovering data after OS installations, reformats, and 3rd party wipes. Though, you should be fine with a single wipe, as others have said.

Only if the software was coded poorly and left some space unwiped.

Or, if they had the equipment to take the drive apart and examine each bit with a specialised electron microscope to determine what the previous data was.

See here for a little explanation:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7142899#post7142899

A 7 pass erase should prevent that. Of course, a single pass is enough, unless you have something really worth hiding.