how to completely wipe mac drive

[holye459]

I am going to sell my old Mac Mini and i need to erase all the data stored on the drive. I heard that a factory reset is not secure enough. The data recovery software can still access the data on the drive. Is worth to a buy third-party app to wipe the drive?

[rproffitt]

Why not use Apple's instructions to erase and install?
https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204904

[rch1231]

There is an option built into the OS to do a drive wipe. Here is a link to a page that explains the procedure with screen shots, etc. :
http://www.howtogeek.com/179284/how-to-securely-wipe-a-hard-drive-on-your-mac/

[rproffitt]

@rch1231. Why do you say that? At the Apple link I gave it wrote "If you want to securely erase the drive, click Security Options. Select an erase method, then click OK"

Did Apple lie?

[holye459]

thank u. I will sort it out and see whether the data is accessible or not.

[rubberman]

There is a tool called dd that is on every Linux distribution. Boot from a Linux live CD/DVD and do this (assuming that the Apple drive is /dev/sda): dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M
When it is done, the drive will be completely zeroed out. If you want, you can also specify if=/dev/random and wipe multiple times for more secure results.

[holye459]

There is a tool called dd that is on every Linux distribution. Boot from a Linux live CD/DVD and do this (assuming that the Apple drive is /dev/sda): dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M

this would be too hard for me. i have no clue about linux. thanks anyway.

[rubberman]

Ever use the command line console window on OSX? That is basically the same thing. :-)

[CimmerianX]

Darin's Boot n Nuke is an ISO image you can DL and burn to a bootable media (usb/CD/etc...)

I will securely erase the entire disk without relying on the manufacturer.