How to completely wipe a mac hard drive before selling?

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Level 1

5 points

How to completely wipe a mac hard drive before selling?

Hello everyone,

I’m preparing to sell my Macbook Pro, and it currently holds a lot of important files that I need to erase securely to prevent any recovery by the new owner. I want to ensure that the hard drive is completely wiped, leaving no trace of my personal data.

I’m aware that some data recovery methods can still retrieve deleted files, so I’m looking for the most effective approach to completely wipe a mac hard drive before selling. Any advice on step-by-step instructions, best practices, or recommended software would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Oct 28, 2024 1:44 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 28, 2024 2:21 AM in response to susthesis

Restart your Mac. Immediately press and hold Command + R keys together until you see the Apple logo or spinning globe. This will boot your Mac into Recovery Mode. In the macOS Utilities window, select Disk Utility and click Continue.

It is time to wipe a mac hard drive before selling:

In Disk Utility, select your startup disk (usually called Macintosh HD) from the sidebar.
Click on the Erase button at the top of the Disk Utility window.
In the dialog box, choose a new name for the drive (you can still use Macintosh HD), select the format as APFS (for Macs running macOS 10.13 or later) or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for older formats, and choose GUID Partition Map as the Scheme.
Click the Erase button. If your Mac has a T2 security chip or Apple silicon, you may want to select Security Options before erasing. Move the slider to the right for a more secure wipe (the further you go, the longer it will take, but the more secure it will be).

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Answer 2

Lunaip

Level 1

8 points

Oct 28, 2024 2:17 AM in response to susthesis

Before wiping a mac hard drive before selling. If you have a lot of sensitive data, consider using a secure erase option available in the Disk Utility’s Security Options. This overwrites the existing data, making it much harder to recover. Before starting this process, ensure you've disconnected any external drives or devices that you won't be selling or that have personal data. If you've set a firmware password on your Mac, make sure to disable it before selling.

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