I made two attempts to erase my 2009 iMac’s hard drive following instructions on Apple’s site. I chose the most secure option for the erase. Yet, after 14 hours of waiting i see no confirmation that the hard drive has been erased. It still shows the same number of folders, owners, files used, etc. as if I didn’t even try. How can i tell that i am done?
iMac, OS X 10.11
Hi. Thanks for getting back to me. I use the recovery option and Disk Utility to erase the hard drive. One attempt took me 7 hours. I also erased free space. This is a personal computer, i want to make sure that all the personal info is deleted.
Thank you for trying to help me. I appreciate it.
When i restart the comp, i see the Disk Utility window. I choose Erase. The capacity is 249.2 GB. Available is 248. 89 GB. Used 311.7 MB. Number of files 2.
so it appears that very little space is used on the HD. Does this mean that the erase was successful?
Thank you again. I think i gave it my best shot.
I appreciate your help!!!
Whew, the most secure option could take weeks or longer, one pass should make the data nearly impossible to recover.
What are you booted from & how, when trying to erase the drive?
When I restarted the computer, i got the disk utility window. So it looks like my account/profile is gone. I wish there were some confirmation that the HD has been erased successfully.
Well, what amount is used in Disk Utility?
I am sorry, not sure what you mean: amount of what?
Sorry... Amount of Disk space used & free.
It seems so, only real way to tell would be with a Sector reader, but I feel it must have worked.
Good to hear, take care my friend. :)
Erasing hard drive
