How do I properly zero out or erase the hard drives in my early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 tower?

Question

How do I properly zero out or erase the hard drives in my early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 tower?

I assume there are already instructions on Apple.com someplace but haven't seen them yet… I have to one terabyte drives one the operating system the other is blank I want to start fresh I want to zero out both drives but I didn't want to make any mistakes

I know I can use disk utility to 0 Out Dr., #2 that means I will have to take out the operating system hard drive out of my 2008 Mac Pro and put it into my 2009 Mac Pro to use the disk utility to zero out drive one the OS drive in my 2009 Mac Pro am my correct

I just need a little bit a help I want to go slow so I don't make any mistakes with the sleds or with the erasing process which journaled to choose encrypted or not etc. etc.

Furthermore is there instructions on the site on how to change the hard drive into a different sled because the sleds and my 2009 are different than my 2008 any advice

Thank you

Mac Pro (Early 2009), OS X Mavericks (10.9.2), iPhone 5, 2009+8+6 Mac Pros, ApplTV

Posted on Apr 21, 2014 10:05 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

kaz-k

Level 8

49,068 points

Apr 22, 2014 1:06 AM in response to APPLE DREAMER - PC CLINGER

You don't need to move Hard Drive from 2008 to 2009 Mac Pro, instead using Install Disc which came with early 2009 Mac Pro to launch Disk Utility to clean up the Hard Drives.

Reply

Answer 2

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Apr 22, 2014 3:12 AM in response to APPLE DREAMER - PC CLINGER

What to do before selling or giving away your Mac

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 22, 2014 5:19 AM in response to kaz-k

Unfortunately I bought this computer used last week and it does not have an install disk in fact I have not even begun to use the Mac Pro yet I am now in the process of moving completely away from PC to Mac…

Consequently I will have to remove the OS drive from the 2008 Mac Pro and since the sleds are different I want to read and or watch a tutorial on how to install the hard drive in the sleds....

I am completely new to Mac I bought 2006 I was going to use that and before I got started I found a deal on a 2008 and before I got started on that one I found a amazing deal on a 2009 last week which I bought now I'm ready to roll and finally get away from PC forever… fOREVER!!!

Reply

Answer 4

Apr 22, 2014 5:33 AM in response to lllaass

In that article in a link labeled Mavericks about erasing hard drives it didn't mention the option of selecting encrypted is it safe to select encrypted instead of the non-encrypted one

In disk utility there are also a couple other options again remember I'm completely new to this I have not even used a Mac yet… And since I don't have the install disk because I just bought this used I will have to pull the hard drive out of my 2008 and put it into my 2009 to erase the OS X or drive number one in my 2009 correct ....I Can Erase Dr., #2 in my 2009 as it stands but I will need to do this hard drive switch right..... And since the sleds are different from the 2008 to the 2009 Id like to read instructions or see a tutorial on how to change hard drives to different hard drive sleds

Thank you

Reply

Answer 5

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Apr 22, 2014 5:53 AM in response to APPLE DREAMER - PC CLINGER

You are doing this because...?

The best tool still today is WD Lifeguard to quick or full zero and its extended test.

Just fire up Disk Utility, chooose the ERASE tab and then choose security options to do a zero, 3-way write.

Lifeguard does do a better job and handles bad sectors better.

There just screws, there is nothing special or that would need more than unscrew where they are and attach to.

There is no special relation to drive bay or SATA port 0.

Startup Disk control panel in system preferences tells the system and stores the path you set to where to boot from.

Got to go for now.

Reply

Answer 6

Apr 22, 2014 6:59 AM in response to The hatter

I'm doing this because my friend told me that zeroing out the drive can nap bad sectors and also later for some kind of diagnostics usage of the drive or something like that he wasn't really clear

My friend was really specific he said choose the option that writes zero's once over the drive that is plenty good enough I was inclined to use the maximum seven write ...I just want to make sure the drive has no bad sectors and that's it's it's zeroed out for possible future diagnostics usage or something that he said was usable later

he also advised me to run a test on it but I don't have the software you mentioned or the software that he has… So I may have to take the drives over to his house unless you have some kind of free software that's easy to use that you could suggest that will not only zero out the drive but test the drive completely

I am completely new to Mac I'm no dummy but at the same time I'm not super technically capable I mean I can surprise myself I'm pretty good but I need a good teacher… How expensive is this lifeguard software?

Thank you

Reply