Bad hard drive from factory

If the hard drive is bad from the factory, what do you hope to achieve by erasing it? It may not even erase if it is bad. Here's the ultimate erase, but if it is bad, it may not succeed 100%: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1820

1. Boot into Recovery (command-R at startup.)
2. Launch Disk Utility.
3. Select the startup volume.
4. Select the Erase tab.
5. Click Security Options...
6. Set the slider to the second position from the left ("single pass of zeros.")
7. Click OK.
8. Click Erase...

Clone your internal drive to the external useing either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper, bth good programs to have (I have both).

Then you can boot and run the system from the external and Re-Partition the internal drive while running the system from the external.

Once the system returns from the HDD replacement you can again use CCC or SD to ReClone the new internal drive and you'll be back to where you left off when you sent it in.

EDIT: NOTE that running the system from an external drive will make it slower in all functions.

You can boot from another volume by selecting it in the Startup Disk preference pane, or by holding down the option key at the startup chime and selecting it in the Startup Manager display.

Then you can boot and run the system from the external and Re-Partition the internal drive while running the system from the external.

Rather than just repartitioning it, reformat and erase it, including using the zero out data security option. That should wipe all of your data off the HD. Once the HD is replaced, ensure that the machine boots and runs from the new HD; then, when you get it home, boot with the ext HD, wipe the int HD, and restore the bootable backup/clone.

Re-Partitioning it DOES Format and Erase everything. Even the hidden Recovery HD partition.

If you just Erase all that does is erase whatever partition you selected and does not get rid of the hidden recovery HD partition.

baltwo wrote:

Then you can boot and run the system from the external and Re-Partition the internal drive while running the system from the external.

Rather than just repartitioning it, reformat and erase it, including using the zero out data security option. That should wipe all of your data off the HD. Once the HD is replaced, ensure that the machine boots and runs from the new HD; then, when you get it home, boot with the ext HD, wipe the int HD, and restore the bootable backup/clone.

Shootist007 wrote:

Re-Partitioning it DOES Format and Erase everything. Even the hidden Recovery HD partition.

AFAIK, that only deletes the directories (pointers to all files) for all volumes and doesn't erase the data. See Securely erasing a disk in Disk Utility's help.

Sorry but repartitioning does not just erase Pointers to files.

Yes Secure Erase writes zeros and or ones to all of the drive and can do it over and over. But any drive that has been Repartitioned and formatted would need special software to retrieve any data from it and then at best it would be fragmented data.

From the help files:

If you want to prevent the erased files from being recovered, click Security Options, select the option you want, and click OK.

That's enough to tell me that repartitioning doesn't do what you think it does. Most 3rd-party recovery tools can retrieve the data. The only way to remove your data is to securely erase it.

The horse is dead, so I'm out of here.