Does deleting Bootcamp erase all content accessed using the Windows partition permanently?

[joe_12]

if I delete Bootcamp from my mac, is the content accessed whilst using the windows partition deleted permanently?

So no authority, law enforcement or any snoopers could ever retrieve it under any circumstances or lengths they could go to no matter what there budget / resources?

Thank you

 

[casperes1996]

Data actually stored on your machine will be removed from the partition table and can thus be reclaimed for use by other things and will be considered "free" space. On a rotating hard drive this will most frequently be done in a way that does not actually reset the bits that store the data, since that is an unnecessary and time consuming process. Mark the data as free and just overwrite it when something else tries to use it. Disk Utility has "Secure erasing" options that will allow you to specify that the entire data section should be written to all 0s or overwritten with random data and even for this process to be performed several times. If it is only performed once it may be possible to get some data back by looking at the relative magnitudes of magnetism on the platter still in some cases.

For SSDs with TRIM enabled this is less of a concern and it generally won't take very long at all using the device before all the data blocks previously storing the data being moved around the drive to optimise its performance levels anyway.

Data extraction is also a very timely process, as can it be to fully delete large blocks on spinning hard drives which is generally why we just mark the data as free and deal with it later in the first place.

That only accounts for data stored locally however. If one made use of services like DropBox, Microsoft OneDrive or other online data storage; All bets are off. Deleting local data won't influence that.

I also want to note that you specify law enforcement. - Privacy is an important human right; But if there's a warrant or justification for law enforcement to seek out your data, purposefully getting rid of it to hide something is, at least in the regions I am familiar with, itself a crime. You should neither attempt to break or circumvent the law. Privacy is important but is undermined when it is used in malicious ways and this gives justification to attempts to create anti-encryption legislation. I assume however, since you also mention "any snooper" that you were simply trying to set a high bar for knowledge and resources. I hope

 

[joe_12]

Data actually stored on your machine will be removed from the partition table and can thus be reclaimed for use by other things and will be considered "free" space. On a rotating hard drive this will most frequently be done in a way that does not actually reset the bits that store the data, since that is an unnecessary and time consuming process. Mark the data as free and just overwrite it when something else tries to use it. Disk Utility has "Secure erasing" options that will allow you to specify that the entire data section should be written to all 0s or overwritten with random data and even for this process to be performed several times. If it is only performed once it may be possible to get some data back by looking at the relative magnitudes of magnetism on the platter still in some cases.

For SSDs with TRIM enabled this is less of a concern and it generally won't take very long at all using the device before all the data blocks previously storing the data being moved around the drive to optimise its performance levels anyway.

Data extraction is also a very timely process, as can it be to fully delete large blocks on spinning hard drives which is generally why we just mark the data as free and deal with it later in the first place.

That only accounts for data stored locally however. If one made use of services like DropBox, Microsoft OneDrive or other online data storage; All bets are off. Deleting local data won't influence that.

I also want to note that you specify law enforcement. - Privacy is an important human right; But if there's a warrant or justification for law enforcement to seek out your data, purposefully getting rid of it to hide something is, at least in the regions I am familiar with, itself a crime. You should neither attempt to break or circumvent the law. Privacy is important but is undermined when it is used in malicious ways and this gives justification to attempts to create anti-encryption legislation. I assume however, since you also mention "any snooper" that you were simply trying to set a high bar for knowledge and resources. I hope

Thank you for your detailed response.
There is no law enforcement involved, I am just setting the bar high as you say as not just law enforcement can snoop to a high degree.
I did not make use of services like DropBox, Microsoft OneDrive or other online data storage.
Pardon me but I am not as knowledgeable as yourself with the internal workings of the device.
You mention data can be written to 0's and overwriting, I don't quite follow.
I removed the Windows bootcamp partition and reformatted (Factory reseted) the Macbook.
Are you suggesting I reset the Macbook a few more times to be sure data is completely irretrievable?

Thank you again

 

[casperes1996]

Pardon me but I am not as knowledgeable as yourself with the internal workings of the device.
You mention data can be written to 0's and overwriting, I don't quite follow.
I removed the Windows bootcamp partition and reformatted (Factory reseted) the Macbook.
Are you suggesting I reset the Macbook a few more times to be sure data is completely irretrievable?

Which MacBook is this? Does it use an SSD or HDD?

If it is even remotely modern it will be using an SSD. In that case, all you need to do is make a very large file and delete it. Using the device normally for a while will eventually achieve the same thing but if you want it to happen right away, you can create a big file that fills up the whole disk (or close to it) and then delete it again and all the old data should be irreversibly gone from the drive.

If you want to instruct the computer to create a really big file full of all 0s, you can do this in a Terminal

cat /dev/zero > ~/Downloads/bigFile

This will make a file in your downloads folder named bigFile. The command will take a while to run (possibly quite a long time), during which you can watch the file size grow and the available space on your disk get smaller and smaller. Eventually the command will stop, complaining it ran out of space on the disk. At that point you can delete the file and no old data on your drive should persist.

Know that this is not recommended. During this will harm the longevity of the hardware as unnecessarily writing so much data to the drive will wear out the NAND cells. However, if you need the data gone fast, this will do it.
Using the machine normally will eventually achieve the same thing though as you naturally acquire files and delete them over time, wear-levelling will ensure different cells of the drive are used and the cells that may hold fragments of old data will be reclaimed

 

[joe_12]

Which MacBook is this? Does it use an SSD or HDD?

If it is even remotely modern it will be using an SSD. In that case, all you need to do is make a very large file and delete it. Using the device normally for a while will eventually achieve the same thing but if you want it to happen right away, you can create a big file that fills up the whole disk (or close to it) and then delete it again and all the old data should be irreversibly gone from the drive.

If you want to instruct the computer to create a really big file full of all 0s, you can do this in a Terminal

cat /dev/zero > ~/Downloads/bigFile

This will make a file in your downloads folder named bigFile. The command will take a while to run (possibly quite a long time), during which you can watch the file size grow and the available space on your disk get smaller and smaller. Eventually the command will stop, complaining it ran out of space on the disk. At that point you can delete the file and no old data on your drive should persist.

Know that this is not recommended. During this will harm the longevity of the hardware as unnecessarily writing so much data to the drive will wear out the NAND cells. However, if you need the data gone fast, this will do it.
Using the machine normally will eventually achieve the same thing though as you naturally acquire files and delete them over time, wear-levelling will ensure different cells of the drive are used and the cells that may hold fragments of old data will be reclaimed

The MB in question:
Apple MacBook Pro 15" Retina Model A1398 Quad Core i7 2Ghz 16GB 256GB BIG SUR
Am guessing this would fall under the SSD category so will try the Code you provided.

Thanks again

​

 

[casperes1996]

The MB in question:
Apple MacBook Pro 15" Retina Model A1398 Quad Core i7 2Ghz 16GB 256GB BIG SUR
Am guessing this would fall under the SSD category so will try the Code you provided.

Thanks again

​

Yep. That's an SSD

 

[joe_12]

Yep. That's an SSD

Sorry, where do I input the code?
Lol

Thank you

 

[casperes1996]

Sorry, where do I input the code?
Lol

Thank you

The Terminal

 

[Fishrrman]

If you want that drive erased completely, I would suggest this:
Is the drive removable?
If so, see if an external enclosure is available (try OWC).
Then... take the drive out of the MBP and put it into the enclosure.
Connect it to another Mac (or PC).
On the Mac, open disk utility.
Choose to erase it.
Does disk utility offer a "secure erase" option? (it may or may not).
If it does, choose that and ZERO OUT the entire drive.
Then, put the drive back into the laptop.
Restore the OS (Internet Recovery comes to mind), restore data.

IF DISK UTILITY WON'T ZERO THE DRIVE, you could try this:
With the drive in the enclosure and connected to another Mac, see if it will erase to HFS+ (Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format).
If it DOES, do so.
NOW... it should be able to be "seen" by some 3rd party utilities such as Drive Genius.
Find an old copy of Drive Genius, which has a "shred" option that should zero out the drive. (this only works on HFS+ drives).

Once done, put the drive back into the MBP and restore.

Yes, this is a lot of work.
But if you want that data GONE, that's how you do it.

The only other way "to be sure" is to destroy the drive.

 

[casperes1996]

If you want that drive erased completely, I would suggest this:
Is the drive removable?
If so, see if an external enclosure is available (try OWC).
Then... take the drive out of the MBP and put it into the enclosure.
Connect it to another Mac (or PC).
On the Mac, open disk utility.
Choose to erase it.
Does disk utility offer a "secure erase" option? (it may or may not).
If it does, choose that and ZERO OUT the entire drive.
Then, put the drive back into the laptop.
Restore the OS (Internet Recovery comes to mind), restore data.

IF DISK UTILITY WON'T ZERO THE DRIVE, you could try this:
With the drive in the enclosure and connected to another Mac, see if it will erase to HFS+ (Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format).
If it DOES, do so.
NOW... it should be able to be "seen" by some 3rd party utilities such as Drive Genius.
Find an old copy of Drive Genius, which has a "shred" option that should zero out the drive. (this only works on HFS+ drives).

Once done, put the drive back into the MBP and restore.

Yes, this is a lot of work.
But if you want that data GONE, that's how you do it.

The only other way "to be sure" is to destroy the drive.

I would only really say this approach makes sense on HDDs. For SSDs, the approach I listed above should suffice.

But as for Disk Utility's Secure Erase options, if they are not available in the GUI they remain available with the diskutil command line tool always, with three distinct operating methods

 

[maflynn]

If it does, choose that and ZERO OUT the entire drive.

Zeroing out SSDs is a really bad idea, as it shortens the lifespan of the SSD. Stuff that existed during the hard disk era doesn't translate over to SSDs, i.e., zeroing out, reorging your drive, etc.

 

[joe_12]

The Terminal

So I run the code and it went as suggested, but then it gave the option to erase something else (some disk) and I must have erased the wrong thing as I tried to restart and now all that comes up on the screen is a folder icon with a question mark on it

Any idea how to fix this?

Thanks again

 

[casperes1996]

So I run the code and it went as suggested, but then it gave the option to erase something else (some disk) and I must have erased the wrong thing as I tried to restart and now all that comes up on the screen is a folder icon with a question mark on it

Any idea how to fix this?

Thanks again

I really don't understand how you got to that stage from what I said. The command I gave you only creates a big file, and then you delete it from Finder afterwards. There should be no step where you get prompted to erase your volume or anything else.

The flashing folder with a question mark means that the system cannot find an operating system to boot. You will need to reinstall macOS

 

[joe_12]

I really don't understand how you got to that stage from what I said. The command I gave you only creates a big file, and then you delete it from Finder afterwards. There should be no step where you get prompted to erase your volume or anything else.

The flashing folder with a question mark means that the system cannot find an operating system to boot. You will need to reinstall macOS

But how do I get to the reinstall mac option on the screen when it wont go passed the question mark folder screen?

Thanks again

 

[joe_12]

I really don't understand how you got to that stage from what I said. The command I gave you only creates a big file, and then you delete it from Finder afterwards. There should be no step where you get prompted to erase your volume or anything else.

The flashing folder with a question mark means that the system cannot find an operating system to boot. You will need to reinstall macOS

I sorted it.

Thanks

 

[casperes1996]

Sorry to keep bothering you but would you know how I reinstall MacOS without being able to get past the flashing ? Folder screen, I cant get past that.
As soon as I turn on its there

Thank you again for your patience

Through internet recovery. You can hold down key combinations during boot to boot into different environments. Internet recovery is one of these.

Use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac

Learn how to use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac.

support.apple.com

If you have another Mac you may also use it to create a bootable usb installer and hold option at boot to pick it. But internet recovery is an easy way to do it without needing another Mac.

 

[joe_12]

Through internet recovery. You can hold down key combinations during boot to boot into different environments. Internet recovery is one of these.

Use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac

Learn how to use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac.

support.apple.com

If you have another Mac you may also use it to create a bootable usb installer and hold option at boot to pick it. But internet recovery is an easy way to do it without needing another Mac.

Thanks

 

[casperes1996]

Hi mate, sorry to keep bothering you

After trying to reinstall, it was downloading but wouldn't complete many times.
Now it starts to download and shows the bar going across under the Apple sign, but then the screen goes black and shows a white circle with a line through it.

Any ideas?

Thank you again

View attachment 2176323

Have you had trouble with this computer before all of this thread happened?
Try running hardware diagnostics (Boot while holding D) and see if any errors are reporting.
Are you just trying to enter Recovery or are you entering Internet Recovery?

 

[joe_12]

Thanks

 

[casperes1996]

I never had any trouble with this Macbook until I did the code thing to erase the data.
Now I am just trying to get it working again.

"(Boot while holding D)" What does boot mean?

"Are you just trying to enter Recovery or are you entering Internet Recovery?"

I have no idea what either of these things mean, I just want it to work again as I already sold it on ebay but cant post until is working again.

Please instruct me on how to get this Macbook to work again or I will lose the £450 I sold it for on ebay.


Thanks

Boot is a term for the process of turning on a computer.

I understand and empathise with your position but it is also difficult to aid when I am not there and my instructions are not understood. I will try to help you the best I can but the initial command I gave you to run in the terminal is frankly not capable of deleting anything, it only creates, yet we wound up with a deleted OS. If all of this is too difficult for you it may be necessary for you to consult someone who is physically closer capable of helping - I don't mean for that to sound rude, it's just that there's a limitation in helping that this is through a forum and I can't physically interact with he machine and do it for you.


Regardless, Hold the D key while turning on the machine to run Hardware Diagnostics.

Hold cmd+option/alt+r to reboot into Internet Recovery
In the article I linked you last it described this, along with Recovery (not Internet Recovery) being simply command+R. You should be using Internet Recovery Command+Option+R