Software To Wipe Mac Hard Drive
Data destruction software, sometimes called data sanitization software, disk wipe software, or hard drive eraser software, is a software-based method of completely erasing the data from a hard drive. When you delete files and then empty the Recycle Bin, you don't actually erase the information, you just delete the reference to it so that the. Restart a Mac and hold down Command-R after the startup chime sounds, and the computer boots into the recovery mode. Select Disk Utility from the startup menu, and you can erase your startup drive.
Before you hand over your laptop or an old hard drive to a friend or a stranger, you have to be very careful and beware. When you delete a file or data from your drive, it’s not really gone. Your system marks that occupied space as free space now and you can recover those deleted files on your Mac. Generally new data overwrite that space making the deleted data harder to find. So you have to make sure that all personal and important are cleaned off. Formatting won’t help you in this case. Instead you have to securely wipe the hard drive.This guide will tell you how to securely wipe a hard drive on your Mac.
Read Also:
Why you need to wipe a hard drive?
Wiping your hard drive data is necessary as it may be recovered by it’s new user and that person can use that data to harm you. Some things such as identity theft, credit-card fraud, bank fraud, hacking, your auto save passwords, emails, browsing history and personal content can be used to blackmail you or commit crime in your name. So it is advisable to erase your hard drive to reduce the risks.
How to Securely Erase Data from Your Mac and External Drives?
You can use Disk Utility to securely erase hard drive in mac or an external hard drive. All you have to do is follow the steps given below:
1.Wiping your hard drive will erase everything. So it’s better to back-up your data in an external source before wiping your drive.
2.Open the apple menu and restart your computer. Then wait for your mac to restart.
3.After the system restarts press and hold the Command+R keys.
4.Hold the Command+R keys until you see the Apple logo.
5.After that a window named “OS X Utilities” pops up.
6.Click on the Disc Utility option as shown in the image below and click on continue.
7.Select the hard drive you want to erase from the available drives list in the left column.
8.You have to be very careful at this moment. Make sure you select only hard drives and not partition.
9.Once you have selected your drive, click on ‘Erase’ button.
10.After doing so the system will ask you to name the hard drive after erasing it and how you want to format the drive. The default settings are preferable.
11.Then select the ‘Security Option’ button.
12.A window will pop up asking you how you want to erase your drive. Fastest way is the default. Adjust the slider and select the option which you want. You can choose from the following options.
(a)Fastest (Least preferred): This option doesn’t erase your drive securely and a disc recovery application may be able to recover the files.
(b)Option 2: It erases the information used to use your files and writes over the data two times.
(c)Option 3: It erases the information used to use your files and writes over the data 3 times.
(d)Most secure: It erases the information used to get access to your files and writes over the data 7 times.
As the option 1(fastest) is least secure it is foolish to choose it. Option 4 is most secure but it will take a lot of time. So I suggest you to choose from Option 2 or Option 3 depending how securely you want to wipe it out.
This method works for all hard drive (internal or external). But if you want to erase your startup drive you have to boot your computer from an external source. You can use Diskmaker X to create a bootable external source.
How to Securely Erase a Mac SSD or a flash drive?
Solid state drives or flash drive stores data differently. So using Disc Utility is a bad choice. It may affect your drive memory cells or affect it’s performance. There is a simple way to erase your SSD by using FileVault 2 . In FileVault 2 the full-disk encryption (FDE) option keeps your startup drive encrypted all times. When you boots your system with a FileVault encrypted account, OS X encrypts everything written to disk.
You can erase the File Vault encrypted drive using Disc Utility. But before erasing the system will ask you to unlock the drive. To unlock the drive you need to enter the password for the FileVault enabled account. If successful, disc will be unlocked and erased.
Erasing a File Vault encrypted drive will make the drive data irrecoverable.
What if you can’t access the hard drive?
If you cannot access the drive then Disc Utility won’t help you in this case. Professional data recovery companies may help you in this case. Hard drive platters can be extracted from the drive enclosure and read out using specialized equipment. So smashing or breaking your hard drive is your best option.
Read Also:
Conclusion
You can use FileVault,Disk Utility and Mac Washing Machine to encrypt and erase your startup or external hard drive.You can always hire a professional service.After wiping your mac hard drive you can wave it goodbye.
DriveStrike’s KillStick Enables Offline Hard Drive Wiping
Secure Delete & Hard Drive Wipe
Remote Wipe
Delete personal or client data from any DriveStrike enabled device, remotely
Geo Location
Find your lost or stolen device quickly and easily
Remote Lock
Software To Wipe Mac Hard Drive Flash Drive
Keep unauthorized users away from sensitive data – even if the device is lost
Disk Encryption
Whole or container encryption assistance with BitLocker or VeraCrypt
Hard Drive Wiping with DriveStrike an Overview
DriveStrike helps you quickly find your PC laptop, MacBook, Android, Linux tablet or smartphone – and protect the invaluable information contained on it – if it’s ever lost or stolen. And you can use any browser, anywhere, anytime to find out where it is and remotely lock or wipe it. We support tracking Windows Laptops, Android phones and tablets, iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks. Our Geo-Tracking and Remotely Locate features are as follows:
Wiping Windows Laptops
- Remote Wipe your hard drive using the DriveStrike Device page – click Wipe and you will be prompted to enter your credentials again to confirm the remote data erasure action. Once you confirm the remote wipe action DriveStrike issues a secure command that the Windows laptop will execute. Once DriveStrike receives and executes the command the data on your Windows laptop will be securely erased and the laptop will require a new operating system installation before you can use the laptop again. Keep in mind that DriveStrike will wipe all physical drives on or attached to the machine – so if you backed up your laptop and are testing DriveStrike Remote Wipe please makes sure you unplug your external drive that contains your backup because we will wipe that physically connected drive as well.
- Offline Hard Drive Wiping using DriveStrike KillStick is quick and easy. Siimply insert the DriveStrike KillStick USB into a USB port on the Windows Laptop and boot the laptop up using the USB drive. The DriveStrike operating system will load into RAM on the laptop and once fully booted up you will see a QR code displayed. Logon to DriveStrike using a smartphone and on the Dashboard page you will see a KillStick link “Click Here to scan DriveStrike KillStick QR Codes”, click the link and click the button to capture the QR code. Once captured Submit the QR code and you will be presented with a four (4) digit verification code. Enter the four digit verification code and click either “Quick Wipe” or “Forensic Wipe” depending on the requirement. Scanning the QR code ensures we capture all of the available hardware information and associate it to your account for inventory and audit purposes without requiring you to connect the laptop to the internet. Once the wipe is complete the DriveStrike operating system will display a “Wipe Complete” message and you can scan the displayed QR code again and upload it to DriveStrike – this will ensure an audit trail indicating the type of Wipe selected and completed on the device in the event that you require an audit trail.
Wiping MacBook Pro
- Remote Wipe your Mac hard drive using the DriveStrike Device page – click Wipe and you will be prompted to enter your credentials again to confirm the remote data erasure action. Once you confirm the remote wipe action DriveStrike issues a secure push command that the Mac will execute. Once DriveStrike receives and executes the command the data on your MacBook Pro laptop will be securely erased and a firmware lock will be placed on the Mac. You will not be able to boot up the Mac until you enter the firmware lock code.
- Offline Hard Drive Wiping for Mac is unavailable and unsupported at this time.
Wiping Linux Laptops
- Remote Wipe your hard drive using the DriveStrike Device page – click Wipe and you will be prompted to enter your credentials again to confirm the remote data erasure action. Once you confirm the remote wipe action DriveStrike issues a secure command that the Linux laptop will execute. Once DriveStrike receives and executes the command the data on your Linux laptop will be securely erased and the laptop will require a new operating system installation before you can use the laptop again.
- Offline Hard Drive Wiping using DriveStrike KillStick is quick and easy. Siimply insert the DriveStrike KillStick USB into a USB port on the Linux Laptop and boot the laptop up using the USB drive. The DriveStrike operating system will load into RAM on the laptop and once fully booted up you will see a QR code displayed. Logon to DriveStrike using a smartphone and on the Dashboard page you will see a KillStick link “Click Here to scan DriveStrike KillStick QR Codes”, click the link and click the button to capture the QR code. Once camptured Submit the QR code and you will be presented with a four (4) digit verification code. Enter the four digit verification code and click either “Quick Wipe” or “Forensic WIpe” depending on the requirement. Scanning the QR code ensures we capture all of the available hardware information and associate it to your account for inventory and audit purposes without requiring you to connect the laptop to the internet. Once the wipe is complete the DriveStrike operating system will display a “Wipe Complete” message and you can scan the displayed QR code again and upload it to DriveStrike – this will ensure an audit trail indicating the type of Wipe selected and completed on the device in the event that you require an audit trail.
Wiping iPhones and iPads
- Remote Wipe your iPhone and iPad (iOS) using the DriveStrike Device page – click Wipe and you will be prompted to enter your credentials again to confirm the remote data erasure action. Once you confirm the remote wipe action DriveStrike issues a secure push command that the iPhone will execute. Once DriveStrike receives and executes the command the data on your iPhone or iPad will be securely erased and the device will be back to a factory reset.
- Offline Hard Drive Wiping for the iPhone and iPad is unavailable and unsupported at this time.
Wiping Android Phones and Tablets
- Remote Wipe your Android using the DriveStrike Device page – click Wipe and you will be prompted to enter your credentials again to confirm the remote data erasure action. Once you confirm the remote wipe action DriveStrike issues a secure command that the Android will execute. Once DriveStrike receives and executes the command the data on your Android will be securely erased and the device will display just as a factory reset had taken place.
- Offline Hard Drive Wiping for Android devices is unavailable and unsupported at this time.
How To Wipe A Hard Drive Clean
Implementation
Implementing our solution is easy. Installation can be done a number of ways: via email invitation where recipients simply click on a link and follow instructions, via mass deployment software using group policies or other over the air push technology, by physically installing individually or by leveraging a remote desktop solution to remotely install on each of your devices.
Once installed you simply navigate from the Dashboard to the device in question and review the Device Details for the information you need. In the future we will have additional elements available that will allow you to set automatic wipe tripwires for situations where the device does not connect to the internet.
Upcoming DriveStrike Hard Drive Wiping Features
We have an extensive feature road map for laptop and mobile device remote wipe. Here is a list of some of the high-priority features that are coming this year:
- Remote Wipe Deadman Switch allows administrators to set rules that require device owners to authenticate on the device or connect to the internet – failure to do one or the other triggers an automatic wipe of the device.
- BYOD Remote Wipe Enforcement requires that DriveStrike is installed on any device accessing corporate resources. This helps to ensure employees and contractors have DriveStrike enabled on their personal devices if they are accessing company resources.
If you have some feature suggestions or questions about our product and offering please use the contact form below to let us know and someone form our team will contact you within 24 hours.
Use in the Enterprise
Secure devices and data within your mobile fleet is critical to actively managing your data breach risk in the best possible way. We are committed to helping you achieve your data security goals as well as giving you control to secure your digital assets as needed on demand. Know where every asset is and have the power to protect against data breach immediately.
You know the demands on your business and we are there to help you manage risk while empowering your team to optimize resource utilization.
Use in Small Businesses
The demands on small businesses to keep track of their employees, their laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other wireless devices is growing every day. How do you ensure data security, customer information privacy, and minimize your risk while servicing your customers as best you can? With DriveStrike you can track any digital asset and lock it down if it goes missing. Imagine being able to know where your delivery, sales, service, and field maintenance person is without interrupting their work. Imagine being able to review the location data for specific employees to see if there are ways to better deploy them in the future. Add all of that capability with the reassurance that DriveStrike delivers by empowering you to remotely wipe or lock a device that is lost or stolen.
DriveStrike also gives you the power to lock out terminated employees on devices they haven’t yet returned giving you the peace of mind necessary to speak with confidence that your client data won’t be used to harm you or your clients because a disgruntled employee misused company data.
Personal Use Laptop & Device Security
Ever lose your phone or laptop? Did you ever want to know where your kids were at a moments notice? Ever need to check to make sure someone was where they said they would be? With DriveStrike, peace of mind has never been easier or more secure.