Planning on selling my Hard Drive BUT

[billmister]

I have my OEM Interior Hard Drive for my imac (160gig). I want to place it for sell on ebay BUT, at the time i shut down my computer and replaced it with the new one. Then i formatted and installed my Os. Wouldn't my old Hard drive have my Os and all my folder, music, pics, etc... on it? The thing is i keep a file where i stored my username and passwords for web sites and stuff on it. Nothing really personal. I guess i could change my password.

But if someone buys it, they will have access to all of that? I didn't have it set to log-in with a password. Please let me know because i would like to sell the Seagate 160 gig hard drive asap for some extra cash for the hollidays.

 

[LoganT]

I have my OEM Interior Hard Drive for my imac (160gig). I want to place it for sell on ebay BUT, at the time i shut down my computer and replaced it with the new one. Then i formatted and installed my Os. Wouldn't my old Hard drive have my Os and all my folder, music, pics, etc... on it? The thing is i keep a file where i stored my username and passwords for web sites and stuff on it. Nothing really personal. I guess i could change my password.

But if someone buys it, they will have access to all of that? I didn't have it set to log-in with a password. Please let me know because i would like to sell the Seagate 160 gig hard drive asap for some extra cash for the hollidays.

You could buy an external HD enclosure then format it that way. You could even keep it and use it for Time Machine.

 

[bigandy]

If you have data you need to transfer over, an external USB2, or FireWire (far faster than USB2) would be the way to go. You can then wipe it afterwards.

If you don't, you can insert the Install DVD that came with the Mac, enter setup by holding down C while turning the machine on until the Apple logo appears, and opening Disk Utility from there.

And lastly, if worried about data being recovered after formatting (which doesn't actually remove any data, just tells the drive it's empty), you can use the security options to do bit pass erase, up to 35 passes, which writes blank info to each sector of the disk, depending on which option you choose, either 1, 7, or 35 (iirc) times. Note: it takes bloody ages, but it's securerer

It's probably best just going the external drive route. A used 160Gb drive won't net you many Benjamins on eBay.

 

[billmister]

I replaced it with a 500gig internal WD. I already had a 500gig external WD hard drive.

I guess i'll have to look for a external enclosure to format it using disk utility. I would be happy if i god $70 for it.

 

[psonice]

Considering how cheap disks are these days, by the time you've bought an enclosure and sold the disk afterwards you'll hardly make any money. It'd make more sense to swap your new disk out and put the old one back in. Then boot from the install cd/dvd and erase it, and put your new one back in. No money spent, same result.

When you erase it, as another poster said, tell it to overwrite the disk. It can do that 1-35 times, but the more times it does it the longer it takes (35 times actually takes 35 times longer, you could be looking at a week!)

As a rule, 1x will clear the disk completely, but it's still recoverable if you take the disk to a special lab and pay a lot of cash to get the data back. Not really likely unless you work for the CIA. 7x is the standard for disks with sensitive info, so if you DO happen to work for the CIA, go for that one incase the russians get hold of the disk and take it back to their lab for recovery! And 35x.. well, I don't know what that's for. Perhaps it's for data so sensitive that you're worried that in future a new technique might be invented for recovering the disk even after a 7x write? (In which case, I recommend not selling it on ebay in the first place!)

 

[billmister]

Hmmm... You are right. And no, i don't work for the CIA

I would give it to my fiance but her blackbook i believe takes 2.5 hard disk and not 3.5.

To open back up my imac and put it, format then put the other one in is a bit of a hassle. I guess i will wait around to see if anyone with a mac wants one then i'll sell it to them. Someone i trust will format and install his/her stuff on it.

I would of used it as a external but already have that. Maybe my brother will buy it from me and buy a enclosure. I'll format it at his house. Well thanks everyone.

 

[Leon Kowalski]

I have my OEM Interior Hard Drive for my imac (160gig). ...
... I would be happy if i god $70 for it.

Forget it! A brand new 160 GB Seagate or WD from newegg.com costs
about $50 -- and $75 will buy a new, name-brand 320 GB.

If you decide to put it in an enclosure, make sure to buy one designed
for SATA drives -- an IDE/PATA enclosure won't work. All recent iMac
internal drives are SATA.

LK