Macs hold their value very well, and it often makes sense to sell yours to help pay for the new model you are lusting after. Or you may be feeling generous, and you want to hand it down to someone needy. One question comes to mind; how do you secure your personal information? You do not want the new owner to have access to your banking information, browser history and chat logs, now do you? You really do not want to just hand it over as is. This MacTip will guide you through the disk erasing and fresh OS install process, so your can rest assured your data is safe no matter where your old Mac ends up. Following these steps will reset the computer to the “factory” unboxing state for the new owner to setup and enjoy.
Update: Originally published in March 2011, this guide was updated several times to stay current in light of removal of optical disk drives and updates to Internet Recovery. Last updated March 2017.
This guide will walk you though erasing your disk, and re-installing a fresh copy of macOS
Mar 01, 2011 Why you need to erase your hard drive/SSD. When you empty your trash bin on your Mac, the files are not really erased. Instead, the reference to the file is removed from the file system (which keeps a list of all the files on your computer), so the computer is able to write new information in the same physical area when space is needed. The internal hard drive of your Mac, also known as Macintosh HD or startup disk, is used to store operating system directory and other data, supporting computer to work in a normal manner. It could be SSD, yet the internal hard drive may not show up on the Mac, Finder or Disk Utility, stoping you from accessing your data or booting your Mac up.
May 14, 2020 Once you’ve erased your hard drive, that data is gone. You might be able to use a recovery app to restore your files if you ran a fast, low-level erasure. But most of the time, the data is completely cleared from the device. Do you have to wipe a Mac’s hard drive before you sell it? No law says you have to. But it’s smart.
Oct 12, 2019 No it doesnt wipe out your files, BUT you should ALWAYS do a complete backup beforehand, on an outside separate media, to be completely safe. That said please also clean up your desktop! MANY Mac users don't realize that having files and folders o.
Why you need to erase your hard drive/SSD
When you empty your trash bin on your Mac, the files are not really erased. Instead, the reference to the file is removed from the file system (which keeps a list of all the files on your computer), so the computer is able to write new information in the same physical area when space is needed. This is much quicker than rewriting that disk space with blank data, and it also gives you a chance to recover accidentally deleted files with handy recovery software. We recommend erasing the drive with Apple’s Disk Utility keep your personal data safe.
Erasing your storage drive and performing a fresh install using macOS Recovery
You will need:
A Wi-Fi network with an active Internet connection
Time. Budget at least an hour for this process, slower Internet connections and older hardware will take longer.
Let’s begin!
Steps may vary with different version of macOS, and hardware configurations but the general idea is the same. We are erasing a 2014 MacBook Air running MacOS 10.12 Sierra, but the steps will be similar with any recent Mac. We are assuming you already copied all your data to an external backup, or to your new Mac, because the following steps will really erase your disk.
Restart your Mac and hold down the following button combination: Option + Command + R
The computer will begin to boot into the MacOS Recovery mode. The macOS Utilities menu will appear after a few minutes.
Open Disk Utility to begin the disk erasing process. Select the Internal storage disk in the left-hand menu. It will be called Apple SSD on recent Macs.
Click on the Erase button at the top of the Disk Utility, this brings up our disk formatting options. MacintoshHD is the default disk name in macOS, disk format required is Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and the Scheme is GUID Partition Map.
After erasing the disk you are ready to move on to the operating system installation. An Internet connection is required to download a copy of macOS from Apple. Connect to a Wi-Fi network by clicking on the Wi-Fi icon at the top right of the menu bar.
Now that you are connected to the Internet, click Reinstall macOS in the macOS Utilities menu.
Follow the install prompts in the installation guide, read and agree the terms and conditions.
When prompted to select an install disk, select the disk that we had just erased. There will only be one option in most cases.
The computer will download a copy of macOS from Apple, and install it on the disk. The system download is several Gigabytes in size, therefore the length of time is determined by the speed of your internet connection.
Once the installation is complete, the Mac will restart and display the factory fresh Welcome screen. At this point your Mac is ready to be handed over to a new owner.
Unless the new owner is right there already with you, you will probably want to power down the Mac. Press the power button and a dialog box will appear that allows you to shut down.
Give your beloved Mac a good physical wipe down with some dry cloths, and wave it goodbye.
If you want to permanently erase data from a Mac on which is installed the old OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard system, you are at the right place. In this article, we will show you an easy and secure solution to permanently erase data on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It is strongly recommended to read this article before you sell or donate your old Mac computer. Yes, you should make sure all your sensitive data has been erased before you sell or dispose your old Mac computer.
Data eraser for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is an old operating system. However, most of data recovery software still can recover deleted, formatted or inaccessible files under OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. So, if you want to permanently get your data lost, you should find a way to avoid data recovery from the Mac hard drive. Data eraser for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is the best choice.
Here, we have found the reliable data eraser for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard – it is AweEraser for Mac. This powerful data eraser for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard can help you permanently erase data from hard drive or external storage media under OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, making data recovery impossible. Once the data is erased by data eraser for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, the erased data will be lost forever, can't be recovered by data recovery software or manual data recovery method.
AweEraser for Mac is 100% safe. It only help you permanently erase all or targeted data on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It will not destroy the system, and will not affect the operating life of your Mac computer. It has 4 certified data erasure methods: HMG Infosec Standard 5, Baseline; DOD 5220.22-M; U.S. Army AR380-19; Peter Gutmann's algorithm. You can securely and permanently erase your data from OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Mac.
Mac Os Wipe Hard Drive Windows 10
How to permanently erase data on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard?
AweEraser for Mac is very easy to use. It offers three flexible modes to help you permanently erase data on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
Mac Os Hard Drive Format
Mode 1: shred files/folders under OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
Does Reinstall Macos Wipe Hard Drive
This mode allows you to permanently shred files and folders from the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard system. Just add or drop the files/folders to the erasure list, then AweEraser will help you permanently erase the targeted files/folders.
Mode 2: wipe hard drive under OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
The mode2 can help you wipe entire hard drive under OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Once a hard drive is wiped by AweEraser for Mac, all the data on the hard drive will be permanently erased.
Mode 3: erase deleted data under OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
If you only want to permanently erase already deleted data, this mode can help you. It will erase the free disk space of the Mac to permanently erase the deleted/lost data on the hard drive.
Mac Os X 10.6.8 Wipe Hard Drive
AweEraser for Mac is the fast and secure way to permanently erase data from OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Mac. Before you sell or donate your Mac, you can run this powerful data eraser for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard to destroy your sensitive data.