I'm selling my macbook
I'm selling my MacBook how can I remove my personal
information (log in & password iTunes account & photos)
mac osx
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IF you're concerned about possibility of someone recovering your deleted data off your disk, even after a simple format, you should do a secure erase of your drive (first reboot from OS install disc then run Disk Utility from the menu). After that, reinstall a clean copy of the OS.
it's also possible to securely erase just the free space on the disk using Disk Utility. you could do that after following what mayer suggested (create a new admin user, delete your old user...) But simply deleting the user directories may still leave some traces of you elsewhere outside the user directories so you're better off doing a full secure erase and reinstall.
otherwise if you're not so concerned, just do a format and reinstall
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I can tell you what the NSA considers a secure wipe:
- 37-pass erase
- Crush it
- 50,000 volts applied
- incinerate
In that order! I'm actually not kidding. :)
Cheers!
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Boot from the install disk, reformat the drive and reinstall the operating system.
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note that simply reformatting the drive will NOT fully erase the actual data on the disk, just the directory info. Reinstalling the OS after that may overwrite some of your deleted data, but there's no guarantee some of your old data can't be recovered.
Well, chances of recover are very low at this point, however, if you want to be sure, erase the drive, reformat, reinstall.
