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What’s the best way to erase my Mac hard drive?

Friday, September 4, 2009 / System Settings

Jacob,

Just bought a new iMac and will be trading in my G4 Mirror Door Power Mac. Please recommend the most efficient and trust-worthy way to wipe/erase my
Power Mac hard disk, before sending it up to Powermax.

And…when I do that, does it also erase the operating system at the same time?

Thanks,
- Barry

I use the Apple Disk Utility to securely erase data from my hard drives. You can do this from your OS Install media. Boot up your iMac computer off the disc and open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Under the Erase tab will be a Security button. Click on it and set it to write zeros over your data. This will take a good amount of time, and be sure to check out Apple’s article on Disk Utility’s secure erase options.

After you erase the drive, you can install the Mac OS on it, but it is not necessary for our Mac trade-in program. We format the drives when they come in, but please do erase your drive to the security level that you would like.

- Jacob

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3 Responses to “What’s the best way to erase my Mac hard drive?”

Mike V
September 6th, 2009 at 7:32 am

You could also, when booted up to the OEM install disc, just ‘Erase & Install’ the OS X system again. Might be faster.??
Mary
September 7th, 2009 at 2:55 pm

My optical drive doesn’t work so how does one clean the HD before giving the computer away?

I doubt that Power Bolt takes a G-4 Imac in trade without a working optical drive.
Jacob
September 15th, 2009 at 10:59 am

Hi Mary,

Actually your G4 iMac could have some trade-in value even with the broken optical drive. It all depends on the make and model. You might consider chatting with our sales team for a quick, no obligations quote on your machine.

- Jacob