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General discussion

Erasing a drive

Jul 27, 2007 10:42PM PDT

Hi, got a question. When I boot to the OS X cds to erase my hd I have the following options on the left hand side.
1. 100 gig
2. Macintosh HD
3. 95.0 gb

If I erased number 2 and 3 and reinstall the OS is all my data gone from the drive?

Thanks

Discussion is locked

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Not really.
Jul 27, 2007 11:18PM PDT

While it's gone for most people, data recovery houses usually can get it back if need be.

Bob

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Yes,
Jul 27, 2007 11:19PM PDT

If you only have the one drive installed, this is what you are seeing:

1. The actual size of the drive
2. The name of the Volume (The name that appears on the desktop)
3. The formatted size of the drive

It is all the same drive. Erasing any one of those, erases the entire drive.

Even if the drive was partitioned, under OS X you cannot erase a single partition without the aid of a third party piece of software.

ALL data will be lost.

P

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erasing a hard drive
Jul 28, 2007 3:09AM PDT

thanks

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erasing a drive
Jul 29, 2007 12:38AM PDT

When I erased the formatted size of the drive and rebooted it asked me to create a new user account? should the drive have been blank with no os? new to mac just wondering what is going on. I then erased what appears on the desktop and it had no os, I then reinstalled os x. thanks

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Formatting a drive
Jul 29, 2007 5:30AM PDT

As I said in my first post, when you format a drive ALL data will be destroyed.
This includes ALL the user accounts and the OS.

If this was the only drive in the Mac at the time, I am surprised that it allowed you to erase it unless you were booted from the OS X installation disk.

Right now I am unsure of what you actually did to that drive. If you had to reinstall the OS, then you must have been booted from the DVD. However, the only thing that appears on the desktop when you boot from the DVD, is the installer dialogs.

Just as a matter of curiosity, why did you want to format the drive in the first place.

P

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erasing the harddrive
Jul 29, 2007 6:12AM PDT

I was selling it. I was booted from the os x install disks. I erased the formatted partition and the I rebooted, i had to recreate the user account. then after i recreated it i erased the formatted part again and then erased the mac harddrive.

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WOW!
Jul 29, 2007 7:54AM PDT

If you do that again, just erase the base one, you can use the secure erase, and then turn off the machine.

No data left, machine will not boot.

P

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erasing a drive
Jul 29, 2007 8:06AM PDT

ok, thanks. from what i stated from what I did is the data gone? because whe i did the erase it came to a screen with a folder thats when I reinstalled the os and got the os x spalsh screen.

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Data
Jul 29, 2007 9:53PM PDT

All your data went when you erased the disk.
You have now put new data on that disk in the form of the OS.

As long as you do not use this machine anymore, there will only be the OS on it.

If you sell or give away the machine, be sure to tell the buyer what the Admin account name is and what the password for it is.

P