crazzy88ss Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 I'm selling my old iMac and want to completely erase its drive, but all of the options in Disk Utility are greyed out. Am I going about this the wrong way...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattmatik Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Yes, go under Partition tab. Then you want to make the drive one partition with the OS X format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamawesomewicked Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 You also can't format while running the OS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazzy88ss Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 So I probably need to do this from the boot disk huh...? I'll give that a try... brb? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PNWDweller Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Load into your installer and then do the disk utility to erase the disk. Be nice and reinstall OSX for them? ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazzy88ss Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 Load into your installer and then do the disk utility to erase the disk. Be nice and reinstall OSX for them? ;) That's mah plan. I'll even install my copy if iWork 09 too :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Neo Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 You'd think it goes without saying you can't format your drive while the OS is running from it. How exactly would that work considering Disk Utility would erase itself with it? ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazzy88ss Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 i dunno... never had to erase the drive, before :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Neo Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 i dunno... never had to erase the drive, before :p Some things are just common sense really. Formatting the drive will delete all files on it, including the OS. Expecting Mac OS X to continue functioning afterwards is like expecting Mac OS X to continue functioning even though you pulled the HDD from your Mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadEndAccount Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Remember to zero free space to ensure that they can't retrieve anything too easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xtreme $niper Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Also, keep in mind that you have to actually select the partition in order to have anything in the Erase tab become enabled... Even on my one partition drive I have to select "Macintosh HD" for anything to be enabled. So yes, you'll have to re-partition the drive so that it only has one, and then format it... All from the OS boot disk's version of Disk Utility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceminess Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 You're selling it eh? If you haven't done so already, or for future reference, I would just use Dban - http://www.dban.org/ Just in case, securely wipes the drive and makes it harder to recover any data. Just make sure you don't have any other hard drives or USB sticks plugged into the PC/MAC, because if you select the auto option it might erase all drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Neo Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 You're selling it eh? If you haven't done so already, or for future reference, I would just use Dban - http://www.dban.org/ Why exactly? Disk Utility on the Mac OS X Install DVD supports the secure erase of data in one pass, 7 or 35. There's absolutely no need for a third-party tool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadEndAccount Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Why exactly? Disk Utility on the Mac OS X Install DVD supports the secure erase of data in one pass, 7 or 35. There's absolutely no need for a third-party tool. For some reason there are people who automatically think that third party applications are automatically better than what the OS vendor provides - see the Microsoft Security Essentials debate as a prime example of that phenomenon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xtreme $niper Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Orrr, maybe he was simply not aware that Disk Utility had such a feature? Alternatively, if for any reason you've lost your OS disk (I know that may not be the case here) then you can't really run Disk Utility on boot, so you can't do a secure wipe without a third party tool in that scenario. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Neo Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Alternatively, if for any reason you've lost your OS disk (I know that may not be the case here) then you can't really run Disk Utility on boot, so you can't do a secure wipe without a third party tool in that scenario. And that's where you're wrong. You can securely erase the empty space on your Macintosh HD without booting from the Mac OS X Install DVD. Creating a new user account, erase your used one (which can be done securely as well) and afterwards erase the empty space of your Macintosh HD with Disk Utility is just as effective. On Mac OS X Tiger and later a third-party tool isn't required in any case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xtreme $niper Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 And that's where you're wrong. You can securely erase the empty space on your Macintosh HD without booting from the Mac OS X Install DVD. Creating a new user account, erase your used one (which can be done securely as well) and afterwards erase the empty space of your Macintosh HD with Disk Utility is just as effective. On Mac OS X Tiger and later a third-party tool isn't required in any case. I'm missing something here... If you want to wipe out your current drive and everything on it, how can you do that while you are actively booted into it? You need a live cd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceminess Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 For some reason there are people who automatically think that third party applications are automatically better than what the OS vendor provides - see the Microsoft Security Essentials debate as a prime example of that phenomenon. Thanks for jumping to conclusions :rolleyes: . I don't assume something is better. Dban is a free and easy to use utility that is better then the supplied MS utility that is why I recommended it. BTW, I love MSE and use it as my anti-virus on my windows box. Orrr, maybe he was simply not aware that Disk Utility had such a feature?Alternatively, if for any reason you've lost your OS disk (I know that may not be the case here) then you can't really run Disk Utility on boot, so you can't do a secure wipe without a third party tool in that scenario. Yup, I was not aware that the disk utility had that feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPressland Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Hey, erm, guys.. /thread. End of discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Neo Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I'm missing something here... If you want to wipe out your current drive and everything on it, how can you do that while you are actively booted into it? You need a live cd. You don't have to. If you get rid of all personal / sensitive files (which normally are all stored in in your Home folder) after you created a new user account and then use Disk Utility to securely erase all free space. Thanks for jumping to conclusions :rolleyes: . I don't assume something is better. Dban is a free and easy to use utility that is better then the supplied MS utility that is why I recommended it. How does that in any way relate to Apple Support and Mac OS X? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillz Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Remember to zero free space to ensure that they can't retrieve anything too easily. How do I do that with Disk Utility? All I see is the standard erase option. I have an old Apple notebook I want to give to someone but want to be sure the drive is completely cleared out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadEndAccount Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 How do I do that with Disk Utility? All I see is the standard erase option. I have an old Apple notebook I want to give to someone but want to be sure the drive is completely cleared out. What version of Mac OS X are you installing? worse case scenario is to load up terminal when running Mac OS X installer from the utilities menu, unmount /dev/disk0s2 then go: dd bs=512000000 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0 walk away for a few hours, come back and voila, zeroed out fully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillz Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Reinstalling 10.6. I can go into Disk Utility and erase the partition, but I want something more secure so the old content can't be discovered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gocom Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Reinstalling 10.6. I can go into Disk Utility and erase the partition, but I want something more secure so the old content can't be discovered. Click the Security Options button (next to the Erase button) for advanced erasing options. Check the 35-Pass Erase from the list, hit OK and then Erase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadEndAccount Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Reinstalling 10.6. I can go into Disk Utility and erase the partition, but I want something more secure so the old content can't be discovered. I've already told you what you need to do - open up the terminal window via the utilities menu (you need to boot off the Mac OS X Install DVD) and use the dd command I provided - that does a start to finish writing of zero over all areas of the disk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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