Is this still how to wipe a computer?
13/07/25 Filed in: erasing
found this on your website... is this how I wipe iMac to recycle?
And will this work for wiping SSDs?
https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/erase-and-reformat-a-storage-device-dskutl14079/mac
___________\
Yes. That process will work. However, sometimes iMacs have a hard time booting into a key triggered mode if the keyboard is bluetooth. I’ve found that the bluetooth sequence won’t always find the keystroke before the entire startup process engages which means you either have to try a few times or plug in a wire to make it happen.
Regarding the second question, disk utility is great. Think of wiping a drive in two ways. Just erasing the drive is fine for about 95% of the population. Erasing a drive just means the file map has been deleted and the computer can no longer find any information on the drive. It’s still there, you just can’t get to it. Much like If a pirate lost the map to the buried treasure. The map is gone but the gold is still out there. Just no one can ever find it.
The other way, which takes a lot longer, is to zero out the drive. That is writing 0s and 1s on top of the entire drive. You can do this in one pass or several passes. This is unnecessary unless you are trying to assure there is no sensitive data still on the drive when giving the drive to someone else who’s planning on going looking for it.
And will this work for wiping SSDs?
https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/erase-and-reformat-a-storage-device-dskutl14079/mac
___________\
Yes. That process will work. However, sometimes iMacs have a hard time booting into a key triggered mode if the keyboard is bluetooth. I’ve found that the bluetooth sequence won’t always find the keystroke before the entire startup process engages which means you either have to try a few times or plug in a wire to make it happen.
Regarding the second question, disk utility is great. Think of wiping a drive in two ways. Just erasing the drive is fine for about 95% of the population. Erasing a drive just means the file map has been deleted and the computer can no longer find any information on the drive. It’s still there, you just can’t get to it. Much like If a pirate lost the map to the buried treasure. The map is gone but the gold is still out there. Just no one can ever find it.
The other way, which takes a lot longer, is to zero out the drive. That is writing 0s and 1s on top of the entire drive. You can do this in one pass or several passes. This is unnecessary unless you are trying to assure there is no sensitive data still on the drive when giving the drive to someone else who’s planning on going looking for it.
Sells Consulting email