![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/3/3/8/133848264/656262160.jpg)
Apr 18, 2019 There are plenty of reasons to wipe a hard drive, SSD or external drive. You may just want to free up space, set it up to work with a different file system, or delete every trace of data on the. Mar 21, 2017 To wipe your mechanical drive, open Disk Utility, which you’ll find in Applications Utilities. Connect the drive you want to securely delete, then click it in the sidebar. Make sure you click the drive you want to securely delete: you do not want to erase some other hard drive by mistake! When you’re ready, click the “Erase” button. Aug 30, 2016 Some Mac users may require the ability to erase a disk or erase a hard drive from the command line on Mac OS, a task which is typically performed through the Disk Utility application from the GUI.
Here are instructions on how to use Disk Utility to securely erase a hard drive connected internally or externally to your Mac. These instructions were written for Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.6. The process is very similar on older versions of Mac OS X, but the screens will look a bit different.
[UpdateNov2014: If your Mac has OS X 10.7 or newer installed then Apple didn’t give you an OS X install disc with your Mac. Instead, you can startup your Mac from its Recovery Partition and then use its copy of Disk Utility to securely erase your hard. Click one of the links below to follow the appropriate instructions for the type of hard drive that you have. If you’re not sure which type of hard drive you have, then you most likely have a mechanical, spinning, hard drive.
If your Mac has a mechanical, spinning hard drive and OS X 10.7 or newer then use these instructions.
If your Mac has a solid state drive (SSD), aka Flash Storage, and OS X 10.7 or newer then use these instructions.]
Requirements
You’ll need either the Mac OS X install disk that came with your Mac or another OS X install disk that’ll boot your Mac, such as a retail copy of the Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 install disk.
I recommend securely erasing a hard drive before you recycle it or give it away. The instructions below include the option to re-install Mac OS X onto the hard drive at the end of the process.
If you’re securely erasing an external hard drive you do not need to use a Mac OS X install disk. Instead, you can simply open Disk Utility which you’ll find in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. In Disk Utility, select the external hard drive and then follow the last few steps of these instructions to erase it using one of the Security Options described below.
Background
Technically, it’s not possible to erase or remove data from hard drives. Thus “securely erasing” is a misnomer. Instead, what we’ll be doing is over-writing the data on your hard drive with gibberish, a random string of bits of data. When you securely erase your hard drive you’ll have a choice of how much over-writing you want to do. This process can take many hours if you select the 7-pass overwrite procedure. I recommend starting this process and then letting it run overnight.
- Insert the Mac OS X install disc that came with your Mac.
- Note: The disc will begin the process of installing Mac OS X on your Mac. Whether or not you actually choose to install Mac OS X is your choice, but if you do, you’ll do it after you’ve securely erased your Mac’s hard drive.
- Select your preferred language from the list presented.
- When you see the welcome screen for the Mac OS X Installer, go to the menu named Utilities and select Disk Utility.
- In the left pane of the Disk Utility window, click on the hard drive you want to erase.
- In the right pane of the Disk Utility window, click the Erase tab.
- Click the Security Options button.
- I recommend that you select the 7-Pass Erase options, but you could choose the 35-Pass Erase option. Here’s my description of these options.
Don’t Erase Data— This option does not provide any security. This option only over-writes the directories on the hard drive. Your files could still be recovered.
Zero Out Data— Provides a pretty good level of security. All of your files are over-written with a string of zeroes. There are forensics utilities that in theory could retrieve some data.
7-Pass Erase— Provides a lot of security. This is considered sufficient by government standards to erase data from a disk. It writes a random string of ones and zeroes over your data files seven times. It may take several hours or more to complete this process.
35-Pass Erase— Provides the maximum amount of security offered. This option takes an extremely long time, possibly more than one day.
Zero Out Data— Provides a pretty good level of security. All of your files are over-written with a string of zeroes. There are forensics utilities that in theory could retrieve some data.
7-Pass Erase— Provides a lot of security. This is considered sufficient by government standards to erase data from a disk. It writes a random string of ones and zeroes over your data files seven times. It may take several hours or more to complete this process.
35-Pass Erase— Provides the maximum amount of security offered. This option takes an extremely long time, possibly more than one day.
- Click the radio button in front of 7-Pass Erase.
- Click OK.
- Click the Erase button next to the Security Options button.
- Confirm you want to erase and the process will be begin.
- If you want to install Mac OS X then go to the Disk Utility menu and select Quit after the erase is complete.
- You’ll be taken back to the Mac OS X Installer welcome window. Click Continue.
- Agree to the software license.
- In the “Select a Destination” window click on the icon for the hard drive which you just erased and then click Continue.
- Click the Install button to start the installation process. Depending upon the speed of your Mac and the version of Mac OS X which you are installing this process could commonly take anywhere from 20-60 minutes.
Update Oct 2014: In OS X 10.9, Mavericks, the 35-pass erase is no longer an option. Also, there are no longer radio buttons to select how many passes to erase. There is a slider that goes from Fastest to Most Secure.
Summary: This post will show you solutions to fix the Mac not recognizing internal hard drive issue. Also, you can learn how to recover lost data from unrecoginzable Mac internal hard drive with data recovery software for Mac - iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
Usually, the internal hard drive is the statup/boot drive for a Mac. It not only loads the operating system but also is responsible for storing data. Therefore, it is frustrating if your Mac doesn't recognize the internal hard drive and you can't access the data on this drive. What's worse, when you want to recover lost data, you find that you don't have any data backup. Luckily, according to your situation, this article will provide 4 feasible solutions for you to fix Mac not recognizing the internal hard drive.
Scenario 1: The internal hard drive can be recognized by Disk Utility
If your Mac doesn't recognize the internal hard drive, you can check if Disk Utility under Recovery Mode is able to recognize it. This really matters because if you can see the drive but the internal hard drive is not mounted in Disk Utility, your internal hard drive has no hardware problem and you can try the following solutions to fix your issue.
Solution 1: Repair with First Aid in Disk Utility
The issue that Mac doesn't recognize the internal hard drive could be fixed with First Aid under Recovery Mode. macOS Recovery is part of the built-in recovery system of your Mac, from which you can start up and use its utilities to repair certain logical errors of the internal hard drive.
Step 1: Restart your Mac and immediately press and hold Command + R keys to get into macOS Recovery mode, then release the keys when you see the Apple logo.
Step 2: Select Disk Utility in macOS/Mac OS X Utilities and click 'Continue'.
Step 3: Select the internal hard drive and run First Aid to check and repair errors in this drive.
Solution 2: Try to boot in Safe Mode
Booting in Safe Mode will check the errors in the directory of your internal hard drive. To boot in Safe Mode, you need to restart the Mac and hold 'Shift' immediately, and release it until you see the login window. When you see a 'Safe Boot' message on the startup window, you can restart the Mac and try to recover data from this internal hard drive.
Solution 3: Recover lost data and erase the unrecognizable internal hard drive
If the internal hard drive is not recognized by your Mac still, then the file system of this internal hard drive could have corrupted. Is there any other way that you can access the data on this unrecognizable internal hard disk? Of course. You can recover lost data from this unrecognizable internal hard disk with Mac data recovery software like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac. Then, you can reformat this internal hard drive so that you can use this drive again.
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is professional Mac data recovery software. It can not only recover lost data from a Mac that is unbootable, but also recover documents, photos, emails, music, etc. from formatted/unmountable/inaccessible external drives. This software supports recovering data from encrypted APFS, APFS, HFS+, exFAT, FAT32 drives on macOS Catalina/Mojave/High Sierra/Sierra and OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
Method 1: If you have only one Mac computer
If you have only one Mac computer, please directly run iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac in macOS Recovery mode and recover lost data from the unbootable Mac computer. This method is greatly recommended because it is easier and more effective.
Method 2: If you have two Mac computers
Step 1: Download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on another Mac, install and launch it.
Step 2: Click iBoysoft Data Recovery at the upper left corner of Mac menu bar and select 'Create Boot Drive'.
Step 3: Insert a USB drive into the healthy Mac computer.
Step 4: Follow the wizard to create a bootable recovery USB drive.
Step 5: After you have completed creating boot drive, insert this bootable USB drive into the failed Mac and press the Power button and Option key (⌥) to start the MacBook up.
Step 6: Select iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac from the boot options.
Note: If you're running macOS Mojave or earlier, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac will launch immediately when your Mac boots up. But, if your Mac is running macOS Catalina, you need two additional steps to launch this program.
How Do I Wipe My Mac
span>Step 7: Wait for your Mac to boot up, open 'Terminal' application from 'Utilities' drop-down menu.
Wipe Hard Drive Mac But Keep Os Windows 10
Step 8: Run the following command:
Step 9:Follow the wizard to recover lost data from the internal hard drive.
https://flowclever685.weebly.com/blog/mac-os-external-hard-drive-format-type. Step 10: Restart the Mac, press and hold Command + R keys immediately to get into macOS Recovery mode.
Step 11: Select Disk Utility in the Utilities and click 'Continue'.
Step 12: Select the internal hard drive and click 'Erase' to reformat this drive. Hl 1440 printer driver.
Step 13: Return to macOS/Mac OS X Utilities in macOS Recovery mode and select 'Reinstall macOS'.
Wipe Hard Drive Mac But Keep Os Free
After reinstalling the operating system, this internal hard drive could be showing up again.
Scenario 2: The internal hard drive cannot be recognized by Disk Utility
However, if your Mac can't recognize the internal hard drive, this internal hard drive might have some hardware problems. You can either send it to a local repair store, which could be costly, or say goodbye to this drive and buy a new one. Change boot drive mac os mojave.