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Steps To Take Before Selling MBP?
- Thread starter blairh
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A simple secure erase of the drive should be sufficient. If you look under Disk Utility, it will give you options for erasing a drive, from a simple, single 0's pass to multiple passes.
I would put the original Mac OS X install disc in, open Disk Utility, reformat the drive, erase the drive with one of the secure options, and then install the original Mac OS X. Done.
But how paranoid are you about people seeing the pictures of your junk? If you want to make sure the new owner does not send the drive to the FBI in Quantico, VA to extract the data, you could just replace the hard drive and keep your old drive.
I would put the original Mac OS X install disc in, open Disk Utility, reformat the drive, erase the drive with one of the secure options, and then install the original Mac OS X. Done.
But how paranoid are you about people seeing the pictures of your junk? If you want to make sure the new owner does not send the drive to the FBI in Quantico, VA to extract the data, you could just replace the hard drive and keep your old drive.
Thanks. Should I Google "secure erase mac" and go from there? I'm clueless about the topic.
nope under disk utility (spot light it)
select your hard drive, erase tab and click the security options and choose your method of erase. It goes from simple to more hardcore but they take longer. Then from there just insert your mac OSX to reinstall it for the new user.
I made a quick image for you...
select your hard drive, erase tab and click the security options and choose your method of erase. It goes from simple to more hardcore but they take longer. Then from there just insert your mac OSX to reinstall it for the new user.
I made a quick image for you...
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Thank you very much for this. What are your thoughts about the "35 pass erase"?
35-pass erase will take a very large amount of time - many, many hours.
Only use it if you have really sensitive data on your HD. If not, just zero it out ideally or if you have extra time to kill - go with a 7-pass.
lol if you have the time, might as well. I always do the first or second. I guess I'm not that concerned about someone recovering my stuff to be honest. The second to last option seems to be the best as it confers to magnetic drive secure erasing whatever blah blah haha. Just use that and call it good. 35 seems like overkill unless you had some very private information you wanted to make sure never got into the wrong hands =D
Not worth it unless you work for the CIA or something and mix work files on your personal hard drives. If someone is working that hard to try and recover your data, then you have bigger problems to worry about than how to prep your mac for selling it on craigslist.
Speaking from experience though: on your next Macbook, you might want to look into FileVault encryption for your home directory, and a strong password. This makes it harder for your data to be lifted if your laptop is stolen. As I've learned, some thieves don't just make a quick buck reselling the laptop... they like to see what more they can rip off, using your identity and other data on the drives, too.
And, the next time you sell, a quick zeroing out should be more than enough, since even if someone manages to recover a perfect copy of the entire encrypted volume without ANY errors or data loss, they'd still have to crack the password to get at the data.
I wouldn't even bother with that. If your data is that sensitive, it should be on a flash drive that you always carry with you. I assume that if your laptop was stolen, you'd still be freaking out.
Encrypted flash drive is the best way to go.
