If you plan to sell your Mac to get a brand-new one or to give it away because you've already bought a newer model, you must first erase all your personal files to avoid unpleasant surprises afterwards.
There is a very simple procedure that you should follow if you need to remove all your personal data from your Mac, and it will require you to securely format your computer's hard drive or hard drives if it has more than one (as is the case of Mac Pros).
Apple also describes on their support website what one has to do before selling a Mac, and even though their procedure is quite simple to follow, it doesn't take into account the fact that a formatted hard drive will not prevent the buyer to recover files that you thought are lost forever.
Use a small amount of 99% isopropyl alcohol to clean your USB-C port. The best way to apply isopropyl alcohol to your USB-C port is to dampen a small piece of cotton with it. Then insert that cotton and move it around using a toothpick. This allows you to wipe up the dirt inside your port before the alcohol evaporates. Jan 21, 2021 In the Disk Utility menu, choose the drive Macintosh HD under the Internal heading and click Erase in the top toolbar. A dialog box will pop up asking for the drive name and format.
This happens because even though you tell OS X to delete a file from the hard drive, the file will not be completely deleted since the operating system will only remove the memory reference to the file. This allows recovery software to scan hard drives and recover data, a quite helpful feat if you've accidentally deleted any of your files.
Fortunately, there is a way to protect your files from being revived when you part ways with your Mac: securely erasing the hard drive, a process that prevents third parties from recovering your personal data. When you are securely erasing the hard drive, you are telling the computer to overwrite your files with random data two to seven times (OS X supports 2-, 3- and 7-pass secure erasing).
Next, I will describe the entire procedure of completely clearing personal or sensitive data from your Mac, an easy-to-follow four-step procedure that should give you peace of mind once you give away your computer.
Step 1 - Backup
If you decide to securely erase your Mac's hard drive(s), you will first have to back up your information. To do this, you should use the Time Machine app because it makes it very easy to keep a copy of all your important data.
Apple has its own detailed tutorial on how to use Time Machine to back up your data, and you should follow it step by step to effortlessly set up Time Machine, as well as back up and restore your data.
It is important to note that you should always use an external hard drive, a Time Capsule or an OS X Server on your network to back up your data because backing it up on the same Mac means that you will lose all of it once you format the Mac's hard drive(s).
Step 2 - Deauthorize
During this step of the procedure, you will disconnect your Mac from all Apple services you have connected it to.
First of all, you have to deauthorize the Mac from iTunes to prevent it from accessing the content you bought on the iTunes Store, iBooks Store, Mac App Store or the iOS Store in the future.
Next, log out of iMessage by launching the Messages app, going to Preferences > Accounts and clicking on 'Sign out' after selecting your iMessage account.
Afterwards, you will have to sign out of iCloud by going to the menu > System Preferences > iCloud. Here, uncheck Find My Mac and then click on the 'Sign Out' button at the bottom left side of the window. When you sign out of iCloud, all your iCloud data will be removed from your computer, but it will reappear on your new Mac once you sign in using your iCloud account.
Step 3 - Erase
The first thing you have to do is to restart your Mac and enter the Recovery system to format your Mac's hard drive(s).
You do this by going to the menu and clicking the Restart option. Next, hold down and hold down ⌘ + R on your keyboard and release the keys once the Apple logo is displayed on the screen.
After OS X Recovery loads, you have to click on the Disk Utility entry at the bottom of the window. Then, you need to first choose the startup disk to delete your OS X installation, click on Erase tab at the top, select 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' as the partition format in the drop-down confirmation dialog that will appear, and then click on the 'Security Options' button.
Here you can choose the option to use when securely erasing the disk, from a 2-pass overwriting of your data, to a 7-pass US Department of Defense standard that will overwrite your data seven times. Needless to say, depending on the number of overwrites, the erasing processing will take longer.
Once you choose the secure erasing option, click OK and then on the 'Erase' button to completely delete all the files on the disk.
If your Mac has multiple hard drives with multiple partitions, you will have to repeat the procedure described above for each of the disks to avoid leaving any sensitive data on any of them.
Step 4 - Reinstall
Adobe premiere pro 2 0 mac. After you've cleaned your Mac of all your personal files and data, all you have to do is to reinstall OS X by closing Disk Utility and clicking on the 'Reinstall OS X' option in the OS X Utilities window.
Reinstalling OS X is just a matter of following the on-screen directions, and you'll know you're done after the Welcome message appears.
At this stage, you can either configure the Mac and finish the setup process, or you can just power it off by pressing ⌘ + Q and leave it to the new owner to set up the Mac as he likes.
Leave a comment below if you need more information regarding any of the steps described above or if you want to share any other methods of quickly erasing all sensitive information from a Mac's hard drive with the rest of our readers.
Along with the upgrade of Mac OS X, its name has also changed to High Sierra. Due to Apple's restrictions, some older Macs cannot be upgraded to the latest macOS High Sierra. You may want to install a completely new macOS. This article explains how to clean install the macOS High Sierra. First we need to do some preparation before we can install the new operating system.
In the first step, I will explain how to create a bootable USB flash drive that can be used to install Mac OS X. After making this USB, you will be able to easily install Mac OS X from a USB drive.
How to make a bootable USB
There are two methods to create a bootable USB drive:
1. Using a Terminal
I prefer the method of using a Terminal Command Line first. The advantage is that there is no compromise between compatibility and security, and it is easy for a novice to perform.
1. First, get a USB flash drive with a capacity of 8GB or larger. (Back up the old data in this USB flash drive, because the drive will be formatted during this process).
2. Download the official macOS High Sierra installation package. It is recommended to download it from the App Store. Put the keyword 'High Sierra' directly into the search bar in the App Store.
The whole installation package size is about 5GB, so it might take a while to download. It will appear in the 'Application' folder as shown below.
3. Open 'Applications → Utilities → Disk Utility' and then 'Erase' (format) the USB flash drive into 'Mac OS X Extended(Journaled)' format. Rename the USB flash drive to 'Sierra.'
(Note: the drive name should be the same within the corresponding command, if you change the drive letter name, you must make sure that the name within the command is the same.)
4. Open 'Applications → Utilities → Terminal', copy and paste the following command into the Terminal.app:
sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/Sierra –applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app –nointeraction
How To Clear Mac Storage
Press Enter on your keyboard to execute the command, then you will be prompted to enter the administrator password, it will start the process after the operation:
5. As shown above, the process has begun. Wait for 'Done' to appear on the screen which means you have made it successfully! (The entire time depends on the read and write speed of your USB drive.)
2. Using DiskMaker X
If you don't want to use the Terminal Command Line method, there is another way using DiskMaker X.
Diskmaker X is a free macOS USB bootable disk creation application. You will need to first download the macOS High Sierra installation package. DiskMaker X will help you find its path automatically. Click on 'Use this copy.'
DiskMaker X will then prompt you for a USB flash drive with a capacity of at least 8GB. After inserting the USB flash drive into the Mac, click 'An 8 GB USB thumb drive.'
Next, you must choose which disk you want to erase. Choose the USB drive with the name you created in previous steps. Be careful not to choose the wrong drive!!
Choose 'Erase then create the disk', it will show the process on the notifications bar. Well done! You have now created a bootable USB drive.
How to Clean Install from a bootable USB
Now that you have a bootable USB drive, you will still be able to force install macOS High Sierra from the bootable USB drive, no matter how old your Mac is.
We have now completed all the most complex steps. Now let's try the easy steps below to install a completely clean macOS:
How To Clear Usb Mac
1. Backup important personal data from your Mac. Online backup is very popular these days, as it offers an inexpensive way to secure your data. However, the fastest way to retrieve your backup is to use local backup. When you finish the clean installation of High Sierra, you can restore all your data from the local backup.
Note: A clean install of macOS Sierra on the startup drive completely erases all data on that drive including all your files (documents, music, movies, pictures, and even apps). So, If you skip this step, you won't be able to recover your data if something goes wrong.
When choosing what to backup manually, most importantly look at the Users folder, located by default at Macintosh HD/Users/. This will back up your user account, along with any other accounts on the Mac, plus any shared data. Each user account contains your Desktop files, documents, downloads, videos, music, and pictures. If you have more than one user on your Mac, and you're only interested in backing up your own data, just go one level deeper and select your user account from within the Users folder.
There is an easy way to backup each user account on your Mac. First of all, create a new admin account and login with this account. Access System Preferences→Users & Groups, and Clock minus button on the bottom in the left panel. Select Save the home folder in a disk image and Click Delete User. When it is done, backup the disk image to your online/local backup.
1. Insert the USB drive into your Mac and wait for it to be recognized by your Mac. Now shut down your Mac.
2. Press the power button to boot, hold down the Option key or Cmd+R until the boot menu option appears. Make sure to keep it pressed!
3. Choose the bootable USB drive and then Press Enter.
4. Select Disk Utility in the window.
5. In the next window, select the drive where you want to install High Sierra. In most cases the name should be 'Macintosh HD.'
6. In the Erase Tab, click Erase with Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) type. When it is done, you get a clean drive.
7. Quit Disk Utility, Access to Install MacOS item. Follow the instruction showing in the next window, you can get a clean High Sierra.
8. Log in to the clean High Sierra. Insert/connect your online/local backup and copy each folder on the disk image generated in Step 1. Create the same old account names in System Preference → Users & Groups. Restart your Mac and login with the old account name, then you will get a clean system with all the old user data.
How to always keep your Mac clean
If you have done all installation of macOS, you must be enjoying the completely new macOS now. I believe you also want to keep your Mac clean. Let's say someday your Mac has a lot of Junk Files and Duplicate Photos. And there are also many apps you have ever used but you don't need them anymore. I must tell you there is a savior on your Mac! Install git mac os x. Its name is Cleaner One Pro. It's really great to have such a system optimizer. In its 'Junk Files' feature, it can not only clean temporary files, including logs, mail caches, iTunes and iOS temporary files, etc. Empty Trash for current user but also detect remaining files after deleting apps.
It also has a function named 'Duplicate Files', which can find duplicate files on your Mac through fast and accurate scanning technique covers your entire home folder. Duplicates are selected not only by the file name but also by their contents. Files are shown in detailed previews. It can also help you decide which copy to delete by presenting 'Auto Select' button.
Duplicates can be sorted by file type and listed in their full route for you to track. You can decide which way to clean these files; either by sending them to trash or deleting them permanently.
However, you must need an intelligent app uninstaller. Don't worry, Cleaner One Pro has this function. It can auto-clean leftovers of deleted apps and manage all the applications installed on your Mac easily. When you remove an app you don't need anymore, it can get rid of all the associated files of uninstalled applications as well. Alert you about new updates to installed apps is also its duty.
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