I have a Mac Pro (MA970LL/A) that I am selling, how do I do a secure wipe of the hard drive and reinstall the OS?
Some people have told me that I need to hook my computer up to another mac and then run the disc utility, which I can do. However, I am unsure about how to get the operating system back on there afterward.
I am currently running snow leppard.
Thank you!
Power Mac G5, Mac OS X (10.3.9)
See the following:
Drive Preparation and Installation of OS X
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
When formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Complete the OS X installation.
If you perform Steps 4-6 that will securely erase the drive. However, if you are not selling the computer then those steps would not be necessary and may be skipped per the instructions.
See the following:
Drive Preparation and Installation of OS X
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
When formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Complete the OS X installation.
If you perform Steps 4-6 that will securely erase the drive. However, if you are not selling the computer then those steps would not be necessary and may be skipped per the instructions.
If you have your original install discs, insert the Mac OS X Install Disc (not applications) and boot the computer up while holding C. Once booted to the install disc choose English as the main language and continue once. Once you see the welcome to the installer screen, click on the Utilities menu at the top of the screen. Choose Disk Utility, then once it appears click on Macintosh HD on the left side of the window. To the right, click on Erase, then click on Erase Options. Choose a type of erase (1-pass is usually enough, 7-pass is government standard, 35-pass is typically complete overkill) just bear in mind that the more passes the longer it will take. After choosing how many passes, click okay, then click Erase. It will take a little while to erase but once it's finished, you can close Disk Utility and continue with the installer to re-install the OS. Hope this helps!
How to secure hard drive wipe of Mac Pro? Erase all data.
