- Mac pro 2007 remove hard drive how to#
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- Mac pro 2007 remove hard drive free#
This renders the information stored on the drive unreadable. Cryptographic Eraseīasically, a cryptographic erase means encrypting the drive, then throwing a way the encryption key. And that’s called a “cryptographic erase.” Selling your SSD Mac? Cryptographic erasure is a great option.
Mac pro 2007 remove hard drive mac os#
The very best description of the difficulty conventional tools have in completely erasing an SSD comes from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF.) The article is: “ How to: Delete Your Data Securely on Mac OS X.” Skip to the very last major section labeled: “Secure Deletion on Solid-state Disks (SSDs), USB Flash Drives, and SD Cards.” It’s a long paragraph, but the language is simple as it describes how SSD “ wear leveling” undermines the best efforts of erasure tools to completely overwrite SSD data.Īs a result of how SSDs write data, the best practice today involves going one step beyond the simple process of using Apple’s Disk Utility “standard erase” for an SSD. That last throw-away comment, “for more security,” suggests that there’s a little more to cover, so that’s the next topic. For more security, consider turning on FileVault encryption when you start using your SSD drive. These options are not needed for an SSD drive because a standard erase makes it difficult to recover data from an SSD.
Mac pro 2007 remove hard drive free#
With an SSD drive, Secure Erase and Erasing Free Space are not available in Disk Utility.
You’ll also want to read “ OS X: About Disk Utility‘s erase free space feature.” A note at the end starts to get to the heart of the matter. However, that Apple article skips over the nuance of completely erasing an SSD.
Mac pro 2007 remove hard drive how to#
“ What to do before you sell or give away your Mac.” Item #6 in that document launches the discussion and links to a pretty good article: “ How to reinstall macOS.” That article, by the way, has a nifty table that summarizes which versions of macOS you can install from the recovery partition. The first thing to do is read Apple support article. You’ll want to securely erase that SSD, but it’s a bit tricker than a plain hard disk. These days, because SSDs have been an option for Macs for almost a decade, it’s very likely that you have, or will soon have, a Mac for sale that boots from an SSD. Securely erasing a hard disk isn’t hard to do, and it’s been discussed in many places. Back when I did that last, the Mac had a hard disk. If the Security Options button is not available, Disk Utility cannot perform a secure erase on the storage device.It’s been awhile since I sold an old Mac. Secure erase options are available only for some types of storage devices. (Optional) If available, click Security Options, use the slider to choose how many times to write over the erased data, then click OK. If the Scheme pop-up menu isn’t available, make sure you selected the storage device you want to erase-it’s at the top of the hierarchy.Ĭlick the Format pop-up menu, then choose a file system format. Ĭlick the Scheme pop-up menu, then choose GUID Partition Map. In the sidebar, select the storage device you want to erase, then click the Erase button. If you want to erase any other type of storage device: Double-click Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Note: If you want to get your Mac ready to trade in, sell, or give away, and your computer is a Mac with Apple silicon or an Intel-based Mac with an Apple T2 Security Chip, use Erase Assistant.