Wipe drives on Intel Macs for donation

Jbd45 wrote:

Most of the drives I need to wipe are in Mac Pro's where removing the drive is not difficult; there are a couple of iMac Pros where I would be a bit hesitant to remove the unit shell.

FYI, if you have a 2017 iMac Pro, then that model is special as it was the first T2 system out there which means it uses an internal SSD. Just a simple erase of the internal SSD is all that is needed.

For any other older models where they used an internal Hard Drive (or even a Fusion Drive), then you need to make sure to use the "secure erase" option in Disk Utility to overwrite & destroy the data on the Hard Drive by writing zeroes to the entire Hard Drive. You an also enable FileVault on those systems making sure the encryption process completes.....then you can just perform a simple erase of the whole physical drive (or Fusion Drive) to destroy the FileVault encryption key which makes it so the encrypted data is no longer accessible.

If you do not use the FileVault option, or write zeroes to the entire Hard Drive with a "secure erase" option, then the next owner could be able to use a data recovery app to possibly recover some of your old data.

Another option to securely erase the internal Hard Drive is by creating & using a bootable ShredOS USB stick to write zeroes to the entire physical Hard Drive.

Before you erase these systems....I highly recommend you first create a bootable macOS USB installer for them just in case you have issues with Internet Recovery Mode....or if those systems don't support Internet Recovery Mode. Unfortunately Apple has not been properly maintaining the older online macOS installers.

Also, I'm surprised no one has mentioned this part yet, but you also need to make sure to disassociate these Macs from your AppleID. Here is an Apple article with instructions to prepare a Mac for being transferred to someone else:

What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac - Apple Support

FYI, unfortunately Apple's instructions here don't even consider the older systems which may contain a Hard Drive as opposed to an SSD. Please remember to either first enable FileVault & let the encryption process finish before following Apple's instructions, otherwise you will need to locate the "secure erase" option in Disk Utility.

When using Internet Recovery Mode to access the online macOS installer.....make sure to use the following keys Command + Option + R to hopefully access the last supported version of macOS. If it is an older version of macOS, then it should prevent needing to authenticate with your AppleID to prove you "purchased" the old OS.

If you enabled a firmware password lock on any of these systems, then make sure to remove that firmware lock as well.

If the Macs still work, you can erase the drives and prepare them for sale from Disk Utility in Recovery.

click here ➜ Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac - Apple Support

If they don't turn on, then there is no way to actually erase the drives short of disasembling the Macs and removing the drives if they have removable drives.

Jbd45 wrote:

Most of the drives I need to wipe are in Mac Pro's where removing the drive is not difficult; there are a couple of iMac Pros where I would be a bit hesitant to remove the unit shell.

Yes, disassembling an iMac is a trickier proposition.

Do I correctly surmise that if I use the link you suggested that will (with correct connection cables) allow me to wipe (Intel etc) drives from a M1 Studio?

The link I suggested should work directly in each Mac, you don't need to connect the Macs to be erased to another Mac for this. It will work directly from each Mac.

The Macs you need to erase would need to be started into Recovery, which is a separate boot option to the existing internal hard drive, and will let you erase them when you follow the steps.

If you want to use Target disk mode, you can, but its more complicated than just booting the Macs you want to erase into Recovery.

Thanks in advance; sorry for delayed response.

No worries.

The computer needs to be in Recovery Mode to use the procedure described in the article, or Target Disk Mode to use the Disk Utility on another computer.

(265116)

Most of the drives I need to wipe are in Mac Pro's where removing the drive is not difficult; there are a couple of iMac Pros where I would be a bit hesitant to remove the unit shell.

Do I correctly surmise that if I use the link you suggested that will (with correct connection cables) allow me to wipe (Intel etc) drives from a M1 Studio?

Thanks in advance; sorry for delayed response.

The process described in the link is for Recovery Mode only and cannot be carried out from another computer. If Target Disk Mode is used, yes, but installing an OS through it may be unreliable.

(265118)

I should have clarified my question, will the process work (per links) if an M chip Mac is used to wipe the non-M Mac drive?