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How do I zero out my disk?

TSX

TSX

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 1, 2008
2,632
80
Texas
I want to zero out my HD and I'm in mountain lion. How do I go about doing this?
 
TSX

TSX

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 1, 2008
2,632
80
Texas
1 pass,3 pass or 7 pass? And how long will it take for a 1 TB drive.
 
dastinger

dastinger

macrumors 6502a
Mar 18, 2012
818
3
It depends on which type of security you want to implement. If you really want to make sure the data is never recovered ever use the 7 pass option.
 
Quad5Ny

Quad5Ny

macrumors 6502a
Sep 13, 2009
984
22
New York, USA
TSX said:
So a secure erase is an option in disk utility im guessing?
Click to expand...

zerop.png


TSX said:
1 pass,3 pass or 7 pass? And how long will it take for a 1 TB drive.
Click to expand...

A Zero pass on a 120GB drive takes about a hour at USB2 speeds (33MB/s). A good 1TB HDD today can hit about 130MB/s. So best case is about 2 hours, worst case 8 1/2.

dastinger said:
It depends on which type of security you want to implement. If you really want to make sure the data is never recovered ever use the 7 pass option.
Click to expand...

While it might have been true sometime in the 70's/80's, it's in no way true today. The density of today's hard disks prevent any recovery after the drive has been Zeroed.

For a HDD all you need to do is a single Zero pass, anything more and your wasting your time. SSD's on the other hand need to have the Secure Erase ATA command sent to them (and this only works if the SSD manufacturer implemented it correctly).
.​
 
Last edited:
dastinger

dastinger

macrumors 6502a
Mar 18, 2012
818
3
Will do! I was talking mostly based on what OSX itself says (or said?) when describing the different security options available.
 
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