If your mac comes equipped with an ssd, apples disk utility software wont actually let you zero the hard drive. Select the format popup window, choose mac os extended, give your reformatted disk a name, then confirm your erasure. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. The stronger the method you use, the longer it will take for the software to complete the wipe. Aug 09, 2017 launch the program and click on wipe hard drive from the given options on the left sidebar. After macos installation is complete, the mac restarts to a welcome screen and asks you to choose a country or region. For most users, the startup disk is the main and only disk listed. Choosing this mode, it means that you still have a chance to save your existing files in your macbook because this mode only will erase the lost data or deleted. How to wipe a computer clean of personal data consumer. I hope you find the information here useful and definitely found the right choice as per your need.
Utilities like active kill disk are very useful and a must have software. Click erase once complete, in the menu bar click disk utility quit. Wipe my computer clean by mikfinkel apr 19, 2009 2. Sadly, theres no easy way to clear them up without special skills. Performing a factory reset on your macbook or mac can solve many macos problems, and is essential if youre selling. If you are planning to buy a new macbook and thinking to sell your old then. Select the internal storage disk in the lefthand menu. Wait for the macos utilities screen to appear, then click disk utility. If you want to leave the mac in an outofbox state, dont continue with the setup of your system. Launch the program and click on wipe hard drive from the given options on the left sidebar. Choose your startup disk named macintosh hd by default from the sidebar and click the erase button.
The stronger the method you use, the longer it will take for the software. I have tried to do this in the past but it seems to remember bits and bobs of my info and or preferences from before i cleared it. Mar 01, 2011 open disk utility to begin the disk erasing process. One of the safest software to rely on for wiping iphone, ipad and ipod clean is mobiledic safe eraser. Choose the disk youd like to use as a time machine backup, then click use disk. So to permanently wipe a mac clean without recovery, youd better try this mac wiping software, it has built many advanced wiping algorithm that can automatically wipe your hard drive or selected sensitive data. Nov 15, 2019 if youve just picked up the 16inch macbook pro or youre going to soon, and youre going to sellgive away your existing mac notebook, follow along for how to wipe your macbook and.
Deleting everything does not wipe a hard drive and formatting does not usually wipe a hard. Oct 18, 2019 the best way to restore your mac to factory settings is to erase your hard drive and reinstall macos. When youve made up your mind to reset your mac, it is very important to create a backup for your important and sensitive data. Utilities like active kill disk are very useful and a must have software for windows users especially enterprise and business users of windows to ensure data security by preventing its leakage. Click on erase from the buttons at the top of the disk utility window. How to completely wipe iphoneipadipod clean, 100% unrecoverable. Before wiping your computer, make sure to back up important files to an external drive or the cloud and disable icloud features, such as find my mac, messages, and apple music. If you want to securely erase the drive, click security options. After booting your mac with the bootable media you will be able to use wipe wizard to irreversibly remove your confidential data. From the format pop up menu, select mac os extended journaled. To wipe a hard drive means to completely erase the drive of all its information.
After removing the files i needed i followed apples directions to erase the data from the machd using mac os x utility. Heres how to reset a mac, whether its an imac, mac mini or macbook. Hold down commandr when you hear the startup chime or the screen turns black on newer macs and keep holding the keys until. Click on the erase button at the top of the disk utility, this brings up our disk formatting options.
Cannot reinstall os x after wiping macbook pro macrumors. Macintoshhd is the default disk name in macos, disk format required is mac os extended. How do i clean my late 2006 macbook pro hard drive so i can pass on the macbook pro to someone else. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume.
If you want a truly clean installation, however, you need to first wipe your hard drive. You can manually back up all your files and apps by copying them on an external drive or icloud. I recently tried to wipe my late2011 macbook pro so i could sell it. This software is available as both a free and a pro version. Before you wipe your macbook pro, you will need to back up everything you want to take with you to your next mac or reload onto this one when youre finished. Dec 26, 2017 we recommend backing up files before you do this, just in case, but otherwise youre ready for step three. How to erase hard drive data completely clean for free. How to wipe a computer clean window xp7810 without. Go to the apple menu in the top left corner of your screen and choose system preferences.
Connect the drive you want to securely delete, then click it in the sidebar. And the deleted data can be recovered by mac data recovery software. With apptrap and appcleaner, you dont have to worry about any harm occurring to your imac, macbook, mac mini, etc. When the boot screen loads up, press enter and choose m to get to the method screen. For those who want to wipe the deleted files or history traces only, this option is perfect. Youll want to locate your macbook air s startup disk. Before you wipe your macbook pro, you will need to back up everything you want to take with you to your next mac or reload onto this one when. How to wipe your macbook before selling or giving it away 9to5mac. Click the erase button at the top of the disk utility window. For most reasons to erase, you should erase the disk, which also erases all volumes on that disk. Heres our guide on how to reset a macbook, or any mac computer, to solve any of those issues. Its the black apple icon in the upperleft corner of the screen.
When you want to permanently delete all files from your 4tb western digital portable hard drive on mac, you may spend much time on cleaning up all your data. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. Clean the mac of your personal data before erasing it. If you are planning to buy a new macbook and thinking to sell your old then before you box up old mac, you will need to migrate its data to your new mac and wipe it clean. How to completely wipe a macbook if your mac comes with ssd solid state disk. Wipe or erase hard drive data completely clean with the free active kill disk. How to wipe a computer clean of personal data consumer reports.
Paragon disk wiper for mac allows to create a bootable usbflash drive or external hard drive that will help you to completely erase a whole hard disk, a separate partition or just clean free. Thats why you need to create a backup to save your important files and data. Below, we explain how to completely factory reset your macbook or imac and reset it to a likenew. Once youve backed up your user data to either time machine or the backup application of your choice, its time to factory reset your macbook air.
How to wipe a hard drive permanently erase everything. There are two methods of restoring your macbook pro to its default settings. This guide is relevant to mac pro, imac, macbook, macbook pro, and macbook air. May 19, 2011 hi people im selling my mac and need to know how to completely wipe my mac clean back to factory. If you restore it to factory condition, it will be like it was when you first bought it all preinstalled programs will be installed.
Choose disk utility to continue the erasing process. Click the erase button or tab, then complete these fields. The third option to permanently wipe macbook data is by choosing the wipe unused space mode. In comparison with hdd, ssd is kind of hard to be erased to zero by way of standard operation. Select your startup disk from the list, then click the erase button inside disk utility. Next, click the erase button at the top of the disk utility window and fill out these three fields.
After selecting the method, then select the drive you wish to wipe. Mar 21, 2017 connect the drive you want to securely delete, then click it in the sidebar. Cannot reinstall os x after wiping macbook pro macrumors forums. The best way to restore your mac to factory settings is to erase your hard drive and reinstall macos. But the reason why youre doing this is because youve gummed up the hard drive and you want it to work better. Three options to permanently wipe macbook data do your data. Google chrome is a very popular internet browser, but some times it runs into problems that make it unstable. Paragon disk wiper for mac allows to create a bootable usbflash drive or external hard drive that will help you to completely erase a whole hard disk, a separate partition or just clean free space.
If you only want to restore the settings and preferences. After removing the files i needed i followed apples directions to erase the data from the machd using mac os. Open disk utility to begin the disk erasing process. Download cleanmymac x a link to a free edition of the app launch the program. Aug 31, 2016 by storing a backup somewhere else, any person can rely on secured sources to completely delete the personal files before handing over the phone to someone else. How to reset a macbook or any mac computer laptop mag. It makes impossible to get back files by making use of any recovery tools. How to securely erase your mac hard drive before selling it. How to wipe your mac and reinstall macos from scratch. Download and install the program on your mac, then launch the program from desktop shortcut. Choose your macs system drive, usually named macintosh hd, then click erase.
Be sure you have an uptodate backup of your important files and data. If by wipe you mean to say return the macbook pros operating system to its factory new condition then you need to restart the machine while holding down command and the r key. Enter a name for the file to be destroyed like macintosh hd or something. Paragon disk wiper 15 for mac os x free paragon software. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Nov 27, 2016 i recently tried to wipe my late2011 macbook pro so i could sell it. Wiping your mac will erase everything, including your operating system, so keeping a backup on an external hard drive or dvd is a good idea. To start up from macos recovery, turn on your mac and immediately. Knowing how to wipe a mac and reset it to its factory settings can be a vital step if youre trying to sell or fix it. To begin, start by hitting the apple icon in the topleft corner of your macbooks display. After macos installation is complete, the mac restarts to a welcome screen. Check all the hard drive names from the list one by one and make sure to select only those hard disk names from which you want to erase the whole data permanently. Before wiping your computer, make sure to back up important files to an external drive or the cloud and disable icloud features, such as find my mac, messages, and apple. When you factory reset macbook pro, all the information you have on your hard drive is wiped off.
If you installed from physical media, deliver those to the new owner. The ultimate checklist to factory reset macbook pro step 1. How to wipe a mac and reset it to factory settings business insider. What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your mac. Now, it is time to decide whether you want to keep or replace your macbook pro. Clean my macbook air software to clean up system junk files. These are the list of best hard drive wipe software.
More, ssd on mac usually exhibits solid state sata drive plus a super drive. How to securely erase your mac hard drive before selling. Choose mac os extended journaled from the dropdown menu and click. How to erase your old macbook before selling it cnet. Weve shown you how to securely wipe a hard drive with your mac, and doing so in recovery mode isnt really different from doing so within macos. Step 1 download and install the wipe mac application, run it. For the latest tech tutorial and software deals, follow us on facebook, twitter. By storing a backup somewhere else, any person can rely on secured sources to completely delete the personal files before handing over the phone to someone else. If you need to erase before installing macos, select disk utility from the. Apr 23, 2020 if your macbook wont allow you to perform this task its likely the backup isnt complete or another application is still using your external hard drive. Rebooting a macbook pro to its factory settings your. However, you could use a faster and secure way with a macbook inbuilt software.
How to permanently wipe a mac clean to sell erase mac clean. How to wipe your macbook before selling or giving it away. But youve backed up your data, youve got your boot disk, so youre ready to go. From here you can choose the type of wipe to perform.
Once youve cleaned up your mac, enable time machine backups. If youve just picked up the 16inch macbook pro or youre going to soon, and youre going to sellgive away your existing mac notebook, follow along for how to wipe your. It knows which files are useless, how to find them and remove completely. If youve just picked up the 16inch macbook pro or youre going to soon. In such cases, the only solution is to completely remove and reinstall chrome from. A factory reset will wipe your mac computer, restoring its software to. When you sell or donate a mac or give it to a family member, its best to make a clean break. As clean my macbook air software, easeus cleangenius can clean up your system junk files and unwanted applications for more disk space and better performance. Your macs recovery mode is a treasure trove of useful tools, and its the easiest way to wipe your computer and start from scratch. Completely wipe wd, seagate external hard drive on mac.
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