Hello all,
I'm selling my mac and wanted to erase the HD and doing the basic one is easy and quick but I definitely know its not safe as files can be recovered.
What is the next best option, as there are 4 options in the disk utility program I also don't have days of time as I heard the most secure one can days.
Its a 1TB Hard Drive
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15
If your Mac uses a hard drive (or possibly using a third party SSD), then you are correct that a simple erase in Disk Utility is not enough to destroy your personal data. Either first enable FileVault and wait for it to completely finish the encryption process so when you perform the simple erase in Disk Utility it destroys the encryption key making it impossible to recover any data. The other option is to select the secure erase option and write a single pass of zeroes to the whole hard drive. I've heard that Apple has disabled this option in the Disk Utility GUI interface (not sure about the command line).
If your Mac has an Apple SSD, then a simple erase using Disk Utility is sufficient since the SSD's TRIM feature will immediately zero out the unused blocks. I have verified this personally. If the Mac has a third party SSD, then I'm not sure if this happens immediately since TRIM may not be working while in Recovery Mode.
If your Mac uses a hard drive (or possibly using a third party SSD), then you are correct that a simple erase in Disk Utility is not enough to destroy your personal data. Either first enable FileVault and wait for it to completely finish the encryption process so when you perform the simple erase in Disk Utility it destroys the encryption key making it impossible to recover any data. The other option is to select the secure erase option and write a single pass of zeroes to the whole hard drive. I've heard that Apple has disabled this option in the Disk Utility GUI interface (not sure about the command line).
If your Mac has an Apple SSD, then a simple erase using Disk Utility is sufficient since the SSD's TRIM feature will immediately zero out the unused blocks. I have verified this personally. If the Mac has a third party SSD, then I'm not sure if this happens immediately since TRIM may not be working while in Recovery Mode.
Giving away, selling
Back up your data, then restore to factory settings by turning off certain features and services, erasing your Mac, and reinstalling macOS.
How to:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065
Because you are selling it, encrypting the Mac data is not an option.
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/encrypt-mac-data-with-filevault-mh11785/mac
Thanks so much, I'll do this.
How to erase HD safely
