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    erase person information

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by firehousedoor, Dec 7, 2008.

  1. firehousedoor

    firehousedoor Newbie

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    I bought a Mac Book for my wife and she has had a very hard time making the change. Now she wants me to sell it, but I am unsure of how to clear out all of our information without restore disks. I want to make sure that everything gets erased. ANY Ideas. Please help
     
    firehousedoor, Dec 7, 2008
    #1
  2. whizzo

    whizzo Notebook Prophet

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    DBAN ( http://www.dban.org/). nuke the entire drive, and then reinstall the OS from the disc delivered with the notebook.

    EDIT: this is just a suggestion. don't go about it until you're sure you want to, because DBAN will completely wipe your drive.
     
    whizzo, Dec 7, 2008
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  3. Underpantman

    Underpantman Notebook Virtuoso

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    You don't need any external apps. Just use disk utility that comes with the Mac.
    I am assuming that you don't want to re-install the OS (this is the best choice by the way).
    1) Delete all your data (after backing it up to an external) and any apps that you installed.
    2) Empty the trash
    3) Open disk utility select you hard-drive and then the erase tab. Choose Erase Free space... a pop up screen will then appear allowing you to choose the security method, if there are particularly sensitive stuff choose 7 pass, and if your really really paranoid take the 35 pass.
    Leave your lappie to do its thing. The 35 pass could take a day so be prepared to leave it for a long time.
    Once your done, any data should be no longer recoverable.
    a
    :)

    NB: the best method to be really sure is to do a complete format and zero out of the whole drive not just the free-space, but you will need to re-install the OS for this.
     
    Underpantman, Dec 8, 2008
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  4. StrongerThanAll

    StrongerThanAll Notebook Deity

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    lol, it would be easier to re-install the OS..
     
    StrongerThanAll, Dec 8, 2008
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  5. codeoverride

    codeoverride Notebook Evangelist

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    Whizzo, which DBAN should I download?
    DBAN for recent Intel and AMD computers looks like it's for Linux..

    Thanks
     
    codeoverride, Dec 8, 2008
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  6. Robgunn

    Robgunn Notebook Evangelist

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    Reinstalling the OS doesn't completely zero-out the hard disk. You need special software for that, if you want to make sure it's close to impossible for someone to recover information. Just because you reinstall the OS doesn't mean stuff you had on it before is wiped from the hard drive.
     
    Robgunn, Dec 8, 2008
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