Formatting an external hdd

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Jan 30, 2011
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East Sussex, UK
Your Mac's Specs
2011 21.5" iMac 2.5GHz Core i5
Hi, I've just sold my old windows laptop, but I removed the hard drive to protect my privacy. I've since bought an enclosure to turn it into an external hdd. I haven't plugged it into my mac yet, but wanted to know how to go about formatting it as it's still got the windows vista os and all my old files on it (I don't need to keep them). is the anyway of completely wiping it, so if I were to sell it later, no one would be able to retrieve any of my credit card numbers, passwords etc?

Many thanks,
Minimadj
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
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Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
Connect your external disk
Open Disk Utility
Click to highlight the external disk in the left hand sidebar
Click Security Options
The last option is the most secure
Click OK
Now click erase
You'll be prompted to confirm (check it's the right disk!)
 

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