delete personal info without reformatting the drive? can it be done?

[macgig]

this video says you can remove the account and the data is gone. but I think he is wrong, the data is still on that drive correct?. is their a way to remove all my personal data without formatting the drive and reinstalling the OS? whats the best way to do this?

if so, how?

thanks.

 

[IWT]

Hi,

Obviously you have your own reasons for doing things this way, but I think it is possible.

If you create another User on your Mac and give it Admin status, you can log in via that User and - I think - delete the the original user account, thereby retaining the OS and apps, but removing all the data associated with the original account ----- I've just realised that you included a link to the video. I hadn't appreciated that before. My error.

Well, rather than scrub all I've written, there it is. Same as video says, huh!

Of course you are correct up to a point - the original data could be recovered by the FBI or CIA or similar. But short of physically destroying the HDD, that possibility, however remote, still exists. Even after a reformat/reinstall.

But, in real life, the account is gone and access to the data with it. Your choice, your "paranoia" (no offence - everybody's different).

Ian

 

[macgig]

takes an awful lot to offend me.

the only data Im worried about is bank account logins, paypal, ebay amazon... anything that uses money and may have my credit card info in it. I also had a word file for years on that drive that had login/password info to everything I've ever used on the web... otherwise theirs no data super critical on the drive... think I heard that formatting a drive and reinstalling the OS does not mean the data is completely gone... you have to zero the drive out, and even that is not a 100% guarantee. thanks for replying appreciate it. I do have tech tool pro 8 on their and it has a drive wipe feature, never used it I may look into that.

found this. from apple. I'll probably format and reinstall.

 

[chscag]

@macgig:

When I was working for the US Govt and we replaced a hard drive in a computer that held classified data, the standard procedure was to use a special wiping program (it overwrote 1 and 0 to the data 20 times). After the drive was wiped, it was sent to a special depot to be destroyed. If someone wants your data bad enough, (the KGB or CIA) about the only way to be safe is to completely destroy the drive. ;D

 

[macgig]

friend of mine works for the federal govt. he said the same thing, they physically destroy all the drives there. Im using disk utility to wipe them once with 1s and 0s, then reinstalling the OS. cant destroy the drive I plan on using the imac for a while then giving to friends or family.

 

[IWT]

Well, as long as your friends aren't called Christine Irene Anderson or Frank Bernard Ibbetson, you should sleep comfortably

Ian

 

[cradom]

I see what you did there...