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HOW DO YOU KNOW IF COMPUTER IS TOTALLY ERASED

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF COMPUTER IS TOTALLY ERASED


iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jun 21, 2021 5:07 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 21, 2021 5:10 PM

Why do you need to totally erase it?

If you are gifting it, selling, it, etc. do this:

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac - Apple Support

3 replies

Jun 21, 2021 6:46 PM in response to Lakewood33

Unfortunately Apple's instructions that @BobTheFisherman linked assumes the Mac is either using an SSD or the Mac is using Filevault if a hard drive is used. If your Mac uses a hard drive or Fusion Drive, then I recommend enabling Fileault and let it finish encrypting. Then when you erase the drive I believe you will want to select the Fusion Drive on the left pane of Disk Utility. If you are booting to a macOS 10.13+, then you need to click on "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drives and Fusion Drive appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. This is the only deviation from the instructions in the Apple article you need to do if your Mac uses a hard drive.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF COMPUTER IS TOTALLY ERASED

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