Does anyone know how to erase everything off a macbook pro (2008) when the screen is completely ****** to the point where you can't see anything? I am selling it on ebay and I'm not sure if I left any important information on it.
If you have another Mac with a Firewire port use target disk mode failing that remove the drive and connect it via USB any computer and format it that way.
I plugged the macbook pro into my imac using a firewire but nothing pops up.
did you hold down the T key on the MacBook Pro? keep it held down and you should see the Hard Drive on the desk top or in finder
Sorry, I forgot to hold down T. I ended up erasing all the stuff off the broken macbook using the finder on my imac. I hope that solved it.
So it mounted ok on the iMac?
Yes, Thank you very much!
As a convenience for the buyer, consider installing some version of Mac OS X, if you have a Full Retail DVD that you can use, even an old version. You can often install it using Firewire target disk Mode.
This is especially important when your Mac is going to a charity that may not have the know-how to Install suftware if there is none installed already.
Hi Grant,
Are you saying you can re-install/re-format an old mac in target disc mode via another mac?
Would appreciate your advice - I want to wipe and completely re-format my old mac before selling it, but it has the old NVIDEA problem...
If you have two Macs from a similar era, such that they could run the same version of Mac OS X, you can attach the drive of the old Mac in FireWire Target disk mode, then do the Install using the other Mac onto the old Mac's drive. Be sure to use a "Full Retail" DVD or the drivers for the old Mac may not be included and it will not start up.
Erasing does not actually delete the blocks that hold the data, it just wipes out the Directory so that nothing can be found easily. All the blocks are then added to the free list. If you then re-install Mac OS X, that scrambles things up and overwrites many files, but possibly not all.
To really erase, you chose security Options and Zero All Data. This deliberately writes Zeroes into every block (and takes several hours to complete). 35-pass gives only slightly better practical improvement, takes 35 times longer, and is only really needed for miltary secrets.
Thanks - that's kind of what I thought, but apple say you can't erase data securely through target disc mode. Is that just one of those things they are going to say...? (I did ask they guy from apple what zero all data actually does if it is not zero-ing all data, and he just said in target disc mode it is not a secure way to do it...)
I don't have any military secrets, just passwords and addresses etc.!
but apple say you can't erase data securely through target disc mode.
Disk Utility Over-writing with Zeroes means your data are replaced by Zeroes. Only the National Security Agency (NSA) can retrieve some of your data by dis-assembing the drive in a clean room and physically reading the magnetic regions for traces of the old data. Unless you have military secrets on it, I call that erased.
Hard Drive wipe with broken screen?
