Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

erasing stuff

Nov 25, 2006 11:13PM PST

My sister is selling her MB and wanted to know how to erase all data from the hard drive. Is there a folder like window's 'temporary internet files' where we can trash all the pages? just that we didnt want the bank accounts ( and other financial accounts and personal info) and other personal sites to remain in the memory somehwere. I know that these are all password protected...but just going a little further and trying to avoid any posiibilities of identity thefts and etc

thanks for reading
K
MB (core duo), OS X tiger

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
I'd reinstall the OS.
Nov 25, 2006 11:16PM PST

There was a long and almost bitter discussion about this. If there is any information you don't want to get out, start over. Don't fret about installed apps and such since you won't be using the machine.

Bob

- Collapse -
Format and Install
Nov 26, 2006 3:44AM PST

As Bob said, trash it all and start over.

Just use the OSX installation disks to Format the HD and Install a new OS.

Safest way

P

- Collapse -
Not sure if a Mac is different, but formatting and
Dec 3, 2006 3:25PM PST

reinstalling the OS on a Windows machine doesn't do squat in terms of rendering the files unreadable. Most can be quickly recovered. I suspect Mac is the same story.

At a minimum you need an app that's designed to obliterate files. That means overwriting them several times. The best protection for your information when selling a system is a sledgehammer applied with sufficient force to the hard drives.