35 pass erase froze?

[Malus]

Hey, I'm totally erasing my HD since I'm selling my mac.

One question. When I clicked on the "erase empty space" or something like that, it took about 24 hours, but right at the almost end it froze and has been stuck there for about 7-8 hours. Is it froze?

Thanks

 

[Fearless Leader]

no it didn't freeze. but wow 35 times overpass, what are you trying to hide?

the reason it took so long was take the size of the hard drive multiply it times 35, and thats how many gigabytes of you wrote to the drive. It just takes a long time to write that much data.

edit: after rereading your post it sounds like it misjudged how long it was going to take (yes thats possible). It could have froze, and even if it did, it doesn't matter. You still wrote over it so many times, it would be impossible to retrive anything. you might have to partition the drive to install osx again if it did freez.

 

[yippy]

Did you know that the military standard for erasing a drive is 8 or 10 pass?

For 35 pass I would say that is a reasonable amount of time, especially if it was a large drive.

When you say it froze how do you know it froze? The mouse doesn't move or just that the bar hasn't moved? If it is just the bar, try stopping it, you have already erased the drive well enough.

 

[Malus]

no it didn't freeze. but wow 35 times overpass, what are you trying to hide?
QUOTE]

Haha, nothing illegal I assure you. Just my SS# and other vital information that I don't want to be recovered.

I'm just going to do the zero through the drive just to make sure everything is safe. I'm a worry wort.

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

[Eniregnat]

Reset then empty the trash.

The system will recover and likely you will find something like EFTFile1.sparseimag in the trash or on the main drive. I think this error is caused when one is low on diskspace and when one erases the free space on the boot drive.

This has happened to me.

A single pass renders the majority of the data unrecoverable to recovery software. Anything beyond that requires removing the jewel and using specialized equipment that scans the platers, images the individual magnetic regions, and then builds a virtual image of what the drive contained. In all practicality, not even law enforcement would do this.

 

[lexus]

Hey, I'm totally erasing my HD since I'm selling my mac.

One question. When I clicked on the "erase empty space" or something like that, it took about 24 hours, but right at the almost end it froze and has been stuck there for about 7-8 hours. Is it froze?

Thanks

What does apple do when you return a computer?

 

[tristan]

I tried to do the same thing when I sold my Powerbook. (And yes, not only do I have plenty to hide, but lots of expensive intellectual property I want to protect!) It froze or did the next best thing or whatever, and I had to hard reset it and start over. It's a neat option, but either doesn't work or is impractical.

I ended up just repartitioning, reformatting, and re-installing OSX. I'll just have to assume that the guy who bought my Powerbook actually wants to use it, not spend his nights recovering snippets of my old HD.

 

[Fearless Leader]

What does apple do when you return a computer?

a quick partition (erases table of contents, data still thier) and an install of the newest version of osx. so lets proptect our data with 35 time overpass...

 

[jdechko]

Yeah, 7 times at the DoD standard is probably overkill (http://www.killdisk.com/dod.htm). Even 1-3 times probably won't be recovered by anyone who ever has possession of the disk. So just reset the computer and do a 3-pass erase of the free space.

Don't be so paranoid about your data.

 

[lexus]

So if I buy a refurb I can see someones data??????

 

[tristan]

Yes. Assuming you have the most cutting edge data recovery tools at your disposal and loads of time on your hands! And if you have all this time and equipment, what are you really looking for? The previous owners love letters? No, probably bin Laden.