The eMac was given to me years ago, and I don't seem to have (or was never given) the startup discs. How thorough will using only the erase function on the disc utility under applications be? I will be recycling the computer via the BestBuy recycling program, so (I would hope) the concers about someone trying to retreive the data might be minimal. There probably is little if any usable data on the computer in any case.
Hi Tom,
Depending which OS version you're running, you can create a new aqdmin account, log out & into the new account, remove the old account, then use Disk Utility's Secure erase free space.
Thanks BDAqua! I've got the Disk Utility erase function running now, but I'm not sure that what I've got running is the "secure" erase. When it's done, I'll see if I can figure that out (unless you have any tips in the meantime). I'm not following your mention of why I would create a new admin account - ? I was able to go in and start the erase running without doing so. Can you explain why I'd have to create a new admin account, and/or if it's necessry?
Thanks again. I appreciate your time and expertise.
A new account so we don't have any personsal info of your original user left, you need to delete that account, then Secure erase to remove it.
OK in 10.5.8 anyway, it's called Zero out deleted files. 🙂
How do I erase the data from an eMac without the startup discs?
