Comments on: Guide to How to Wipe a Mac or Macbook Clean

By: Kuro Kurosaka

Kuro Kurosaka — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 19:04:03 +0000

My MacAir’s motherboard is broken. I cannot use DiskUtility. Should I use soldering iron to remove the SSD chip and destroy with a hammer or something? Any better way?

By: JohnMarshall

JohnMarshall — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 10:34:57 +0000

A much better way to secure erase for any Mac:

1. Enable FileVault, which will encrypt the entire internal drive. Choose the recovery key option, but do not record the key.

2. After drive encryption is completed, reboot the machine into Recovery mode, and enter Disk Utility.

3. In Disk Utility, erase the drive partition. There is no need to run a secure pass erase. A simple erase destroys the FileVault encryption key, rendering the entire drive impossible to read.

4. If you are not removing the internal drive or wish to continue using the machine, reinstall the OS normally from Recovery Mode into the newly created drive partition.

By: GHorne

GHorne — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 18:04:10 +0000

Excellent article. I am on the latest Monterey, MacBook 2015 with SSD Encrypted APFS HD. When I use recovery mode, Disk Utility doesn’t show any such unlock ‘volume name’ option mentioned in this article under the File drop down menu, neither can I find it anywhere in disk utility – not greyed out either.

Is the unlock ‘volume name’ no longer offered by Apple in recovery modes Disk Utility?

Thanks

By: Anand Jethva

Anand Jethva — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 02:04:19 +0000

Okay, but what if I take it to a cellphone store and have them pull the data back somehow off the drive from before? How do I stop that? Becuase these methods are not secure enough for me to sell a macbook, and have someone NOT identity theft me by using the method I spoke about for data recovery.

By: JC

JC — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:40:03 +0000

Overnight, I had done 3 pass erase onto my SSD with Disk Utility. Catalina macos saw no problem with it.

Wt-heck?

By: helder

helder — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 14:18:24 +0000

are there plans for servers in brazil?

By: Isabella

Isabella — Fri, 14 May 2021 04:55:34 +0000

I think I have done something wrong. I can’t restart Mac. I get an error message. I need to trade my mac in tomorrow. I hope this is not going to be a problem :(

By: Jon Dagle

Jon Dagle — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 01:24:49 +0000

I know you say “diskutil secureErase freespace” isn’t really necessary, but the man page for diskutil suggests using it may provide a false sense of security. Seems like that would be worth mentioning to readers.

NOTE: This kind of secure erase is no longer considered safe. Modern devices have wear-leveling, block-sparing, and possibly-persistent cache hardware, which cannot be completely erased by these commands. The modern solution for quickly and securely erasing your data is encryption. Strongly-encrypted data can be instantly “erased” by destroying (or losing) the key (password), because this renders your data irretrievable in practical terms. Consider using APFS encryption (FileVault).

And if you’re going to secureErase, why bother with “freespace” and just nuc the whole drive?

By: Joe Smith

Joe Smith — Sat, 11 Apr 2020 15:21:14 +0000

Thank you! Your ‘how to’ is the only one that truly worked.