User profile for user: Steviebobs
Steviebobs Author
User level: Level 1
24 points

Accessing dead iMac HDD

Hi all, my late 2014 28" iMac died recently and the repairman has suggested both the psu and logic boards need to be replaced. The expense of this has made me decide to 'retire' the iMac. Using Bootcamp, I ran Win 10. After removing the HDD, using my Win 11 pc, and connecting the HDD via a caddy, I can see the Windows partition but not the Mac partition. As I don't have access to another Mac, I need a way of accessing the Mac side of the HDD to delete any sensitive data. Any ideas?


Regards


S

Posted on Mar 3, 2025 3:21 AM

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
63,176 points

Mar 3, 2025 1:21 PM in response to Steviebobs

If this is a Hard Drive, then you will want to perform a secure erase by writing a single pass of zeroes to the entire physical Hard Drive. You can use any computer for this purpose, even Windows. However, creating & booting a ShredOS USB stick can make it easier since I'm not sure what options Windows may offer for secure erasing a hard drive.


A simple erase of a Hard Drive usually only destroys the partition table, but leaves all the data behind on the platters where a data recovery app can easily recover the personal data. So it is necessary to secure erase the drive by writing zeroes to the whole physical drive. If it is an SSD, then a simple erase should be enough as long as TRIM is active.



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Accessing dead iMac HDD

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