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I am trying to reformat/wipe the hard drives of some older macs. I do not have the original install disks and pressing Command R does not open disk utility on restart. Just opening disk utility without the Command R restart does not give me the option to erase the hard drive. The only option is to erase free space. Is there another way to erase the hard drives? I would like to do this before recycling.
July 22, 2011 is the magic date.
command-R will let you boot Macs newer Macs than this date, and so will command-option-shift-R
Prior to this date, a firmware update may be available to enable command-option-shift-R.
Before running recovery, backup your data, make sure it is migrated to your newer machine, and make sure the older machine is deregistered from your AppleID.
Then you can use Disk Utility to either wipe the data partiton, or the entire hard drive, so it is available for the newer user. Inform the new user they may need an ethernet connection to restore the operating system.
When using internet restore on a Sierra or older machine, wipe the hard drive HFS Extended GUID, as APFS formatting is not recognized by the older operating system.
Older Macs you need to find the original installer discs and distribute the computer with them.
Option key boot with the disc, will let you at least run Disk Utility to wipe the hard drive and leave it open for the new user to install the OS of their choice.
July 22, 2011 is the magic date.
command-R will let you boot Macs newer Macs than this date, and so will command-option-shift-R
Prior to this date, a firmware update may be available to enable command-option-shift-R.
Before running recovery, backup your data, make sure it is migrated to your newer machine, and make sure the older machine is deregistered from your AppleID.
Then you can use Disk Utility to either wipe the data partiton, or the entire hard drive, so it is available for the newer user. Inform the new user they may need an ethernet connection to restore the operating system.
When using internet restore on a Sierra or older machine, wipe the hard drive HFS Extended GUID, as APFS formatting is not recognized by the older operating system.
Older Macs you need to find the original installer discs and distribute the computer with them.
Option key boot with the disc, will let you at least run Disk Utility to wipe the hard drive and leave it open for the new user to install the OS of their choice.
Is the goal to have macOS reinstalled afterwards, or is the goal just to securely erase these Macs?
If the goal is to reinstall macOS afterwards, then make sure you first create a bootable macOS USB installer now while you can still boot these older Macs. Make sure to also verify the resulting USB stick will even boot.
With a bootable macOS USB installer, then you can use Disk Utility to securely erase the drive...I believe you will need to click "Options", or "Advanced", or possibly "Secure Erase" button to get the secure erase options. If these Macs are currently running a version of macOS which support Filevault 2 with full disk encryption, then you can instead first enable Filevault...wait for Filevault to finish encrypting the hard drive (it will take some time depending on the size of the drive and the health of the drive). Then afterwards just a simple erase with Disk Utility will destroy the Filevault decryption key so the encrypted data can no longer be accessed.
Another option for older Intel Macs would be to create & use a bootable ShredOS USB stick which would allow you to write zeroes to the whole hard drive (not necessary for an SSD). You can use the downloaded ShredOS .img file as a source for Etcher (Mac/Windows/Linux) to create a bootable ShredOS USB stick. Option Boot the ShredOS USB stick and select the orange icon labeled "EFI". Then follow the instructions from ShredOS. Most Macs from 2007-2015 should support the 64 bit option....if it is a 2006 Mac, then the 32 bit option may be necessary.
Also, before erasing these Macs, you should also make sure to disassociate the AppleID & iCloud from them if you are going to sell or recycle them:
What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac - Apple Support
Wiping hard drives of older macs ≈
