Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
Can I figure out a way to erase my hard drive if I don't have the password?
I can get to the preferences/account tab but it asks for a PW..any backdoor way to erase everything?
Thanks for you help.
To erase the hard drive on your Mac you have to boot from an external drive, typically the OSX installer optical disc that was provided with the computer. Use Disk Utility. If it still asks for a password it is a firmware password, not an Apple ID one or user account one.
To erase the hard drive on your Mac you have to boot from an external drive, typically the OSX installer optical disc that was provided with the computer. Use Disk Utility. If it still asks for a password it is a firmware password, not an Apple ID one or user account one.
Another option is to put the laptop into Target Disk Mode and connect it to another computer (Mac, or any standard PC). If your goal is only to erase the drive to destroy your data, then any PC and OS can be used.
If the hard drive is not encrypted with Filevault, then make sure to write a single pass of zeroes to the drive to destroy your personal data.
If you are connecting this to a newer version of Disk Utility I believe the secure erase (writing zeros) option is not available. Newer Disk Utility is designed to work with newer solid state drives where it isn't possible to securely erase a drive.
Erase my hard drive on a 2006 iBook g4 Mac osx10.6.8
