wipe a Mac Air

[Vedge]

I have a Mac Air that I'm getting rid of. I need to make a complete wipe of the machine. I'm not too familiar with Macs in general, and I remember hearing that just following the procedure on their webpage may not be sufficient.

 

Are there any guidelines I should follow? Help would be appreciated

[pwn_intended]

turn the mac off completely, then hold command+r while pressing the power button to get into the recovery mode.

Here you will need to go to utilities -> disk Utility. Then find Macintosh HD and go over to the erase tad, you can do a secure erase with multiple wipes if you like.

Once wiped, it may be a nice touch to re-install the OS before selling, but thats entirely up to you.

[MrSuperb]

I have a Mac Air that I'm getting rid of. I need to make a complete wipe of the machine. I'm not too familiar with Macs in general, and I remember hearing that just following the procedure on their webpage may not be sufficient.

 

Are there any guidelines I should follow? Help would be appreciated

do you have OS X on a USB drive? if so you could boot from it and completly wipe the Macbook.

[MrSuperb]

turn the mac off completely, then hold command+r while pressing the power button to get into the recovery mode.

Here you will need to go to utilities -> disk Utility. Then find Macintosh HD and go over to the erase tad, you can do a secure erase with multiple wipes if you like.

I don't think you can secure erase when booted from the same disk (i.e. recovery mode)

[MrSuperb]

it is possible with a workaround:

http://osxdaily.com/2013/04/22/secure-erase-mac-ssd-drive-recovery-mode/

[pwn_intended]

it is possible with a workaround:

http://osxdaily.com/2013/04/22/secure-erase-mac-ssd-drive-recovery-mode/

You are right, wow this didnt used to be a thing. I work IT and we have to fix a lot of macs so I do have OSX on a usb and I guess I take that for granted.

 

That article looks like it should work, even though it is a little bit of PITA

[MrSuperb]

You are right, wow this didnt used to be a thing. I work IT and we have to fix a lot of macs so I do have OSX on a usb and I guess I take that for granted.

 

That article looks like it should work, even though it is a little bit of PITA

doing a 35-pass on a ssd is (imho) not the smartest thing to do ... also I wonder how SSDs that work with various compression techniques handle those ...

[pwn_intended]

doing a 35-pass on a ssd is (imho) not the smartest thing to do ... also I wonder how SSDs that work with various compression techniques handle those ...

well a 35 pass is ridiculous, I maintain that a single pass is enough if youre worried about files getting recovered.

[Builder]

I don't think you can secure erase when booted from the same disk (i.e. recovery mode)

Really?

[Satlen]

I don't think you can secure erase when booted from the same disk (i.e. recovery mode)

You can, I just did it about 2 months ago when I sold an old macbook.

 

Edit: I am not 100% sure what we did is the same as what you guys are talking about but I remember booting into recovery, and choosing secure erase (most secure or something like that)

[MrSuperb]

Really?

 

 

You can, I just did it about 2 months ago when I sold an old macbook.

 

Edit: I am not 100% sure what we did is the same as what you guys are talking about but I remember booting into recovery, and choosing secure erase (most secure or something like that)

.... guys ... I tried it with my macbook ...

[Satlen]

 

 

.... guys ... I tried it with my macbook ...

yeah...... and I was just saying what I did with mine.