Comments on: Securely Format a Mac Hard Drive http://osxdaily.com/2010/05/03/securely-format-a-mac-hard-drive/ News, tips, software, reviews, and more for Mac OS X, iPhone, iPad Sat, 18 May 2013 19:31:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: How to Secure Erase a Mac SSD / Hard Disk from Recovery Mode http://osxdaily.com/2010/05/03/securely-format-a-mac-hard-drive/#comment-552313 How to Secure Erase a Mac SSD / Hard Disk from Recovery Mode Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:46:33 +0000 http://osxdaily.com/?p=3235#comment-552313 [...] Options” button is greyed out in the Disk Utility options, seemingly preventing a standard “secure” erase procedure. The precise reason for this isn’t entirely clear, though some speculate it’s [...] [...] Options” button is greyed out in the Disk Utility options, seemingly preventing a standard “secure” erase procedure. The precise reason for this isn’t entirely clear, though some speculate it’s [...]

]]> By: Alex http://osxdaily.com/2010/05/03/securely-format-a-mac-hard-drive/#comment-401733 Alex Sun, 24 Jun 2012 19:22:45 +0000 http://osxdaily.com/?p=3235#comment-401733 While doing this and selecting the Hard Drive, the option of SECURITY OPTIONS is grey and cannot be highlighted and under the FORMAT dropbox it reads MAC OS X (JOURNALED). Whats wrong or what is the next step to format the hard drive and perform a clean install? While doing this and selecting the Hard Drive, the option of SECURITY OPTIONS is grey and cannot be highlighted and under the FORMAT dropbox it reads MAC OS X (JOURNALED). Whats wrong or what is the next step to format the hard drive and perform a clean install?

]]> By: Buxtor http://osxdaily.com/2010/05/03/securely-format-a-mac-hard-drive/#comment-101270 Buxtor Mon, 03 May 2010 16:46:43 +0000 http://osxdaily.com/?p=3235#comment-101270 The 35-pass erase option is generally considered pointless & a waste of time these days. Even at the time of writing in the '90s the author of the 35-pass method said it was a 'catch all' to cover all types of HD technologies around at the time so was an overkill approach. Since then the author has criticised how his algorithm is over-prescribed for data scrubbing. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutmann_method#Criticism One might also argue that the 7-pass is overkill too unless you truly believe that someone so intent on reading your data that they'll crack open your hard disk and analyse the magnetic wave forms on the platters directly, for this is what it would take to read the previous data once the HD has truly overwritten it with some other data. So unless you have paranoid delusions or are James Bond, the 'zero out data' option is just fine for the average user. Of course, the last point in the OP about physically destroying the disk is still the most reliable method to erase data. Drills or Steamrollers spring to mind here. Though you might want to extract & save the magnets in the drive that control the heads, they're incredibly strong for their size so can be really useful. The 35-pass erase option is generally considered pointless & a waste of time these days. Even at the time of writing in the ’90s the author of the 35-pass method said it was a ‘catch all’ to cover all types of HD technologies around at the time so was an overkill approach. Since then the author has criticised how his algorithm is over-prescribed for data scrubbing.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutmann_method#Criticism

One might also argue that the 7-pass is overkill too unless you truly believe that someone so intent on reading your data that they’ll crack open your hard disk and analyse the magnetic wave forms on the platters directly, for this is what it would take to read the previous data once the HD has truly overwritten it with some other data.

So unless you have paranoid delusions or are James Bond, the ‘zero out data’ option is just fine for the average user.

Of course, the last point in the OP about physically destroying the disk is still the most reliable method to erase data. Drills or Steamrollers spring to mind here. Though you might want to extract & save the magnets in the drive that control the heads, they’re incredibly strong for their size so can be really useful.

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