Question about IMac Hard Drive Recall and general data security

I still need to take my IMac in to have the hard drive replaced under the recall notice. However, I am curious what steps those of you who have done this already took concerning data security? Did you delete files that contained sensitive info such as tax records, payments etc.. or did you just drop it off and let them swap the drive? I am not overly paranoid but I am cautious, so just looking for ideas of what steps others took before dropping their IMac off at the Apple Store. Thanks.

Apple always warns you to back up any info on your hard drive before having the computer serviced/repaired for any reason...so you certainly want to backup anything important.

As far as the sensitive info/data. Apple employees are supposed to be professionals...so you're not "supposed" to be concerned about this sort of thing. But you never know...so an "Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!"

- Nick

I am not overly paranoid but I am cautious, so just looking for ideas of what steps others took before dropping their IMac off at the Apple Store. Thanks.

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As Nick advised above make a backup first and verify it! And the ounce of prevention I would do is wipe the drive using Disk Utility from the recovery partition. Do a secure overwrite one time.

You might also want to clone your hard drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper as another backup means.

Also, when you receive your iMac back, go through it very carefully and make sure everything is working right.

chscag said:

As Nick advised above make a backup first and verify it! And the ounce of prevention I would do is wipe the drive using Disk Utility from the recovery partition. Do a secure overwrite one time.

You might also want to clone your hard drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper as another backup means.

Click to expand...

Excellent tips!!!

@trave1guy: I forgot to mention above...that Apple may keep the old hard drive...so it's best to do what "chscag" recommended (do a complete backup, verify it...then wipe the HD with a sercure erase).

That old hard drive might just get tossed on a pile...and if it has sensitive files/info on it...I don't think that I would want that "floating around" waiting for someone to erase it. Folks get busy...and things get forgotten.

- Nick