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How to wipe an iMac for recycling

Recycling a 2009 iMac- I see no way to wipe the data. How does one do this?


Posted on Apr 8, 2020 9:55 AM

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11 replies

Apr 11, 2020 9:39 AM in response to Mapper3

If you just want to securely erase the free space (not macOS or applications), you can use the following command in Terminal:


diskutil secureErase freespace (level 0-4) /Volumes/(Drive Name)


Notes

  • ‘freespace’ indicates you are erasing only the free space
  • (level 0-4) is a number indicating the number of passes to write to the free space
  • (Drive Name) is self-explanatory
  • I'm assuming here that you have already moved all your data files to the Trash and emptied the Trash


If you want to erase everything, including macOS & applications, boot the Mac, open Disk Utility and erase the drive; there are options for quick erase, zeroing-out the data, 7-pass and 35-pass erase. In most cases zeroing-out the data is sufficient because it writes 1's to all locations on the drive. Note that this completely erases the drive, including OS X/macOS. It's possible you might eventually get a 'disk full' warning and the process may seem to hang (I believe this process actually writes a single, gigantic file of 1's to the hard drive and then erases it on completion.) If that happens, try booting into Recovery Mode and run Disk Utility from there.

Apr 11, 2020 10:07 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Turns out USB A to USB A won't work. You need Firewire or Thunderbolt. Sigh, since my current machines don't have Firewire, plus I lost my Firewire cables in the 90's, I would need to get a firewire cable, a Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter ($30) and likely a Thunderbolt cable as the the only one I have is the power cable for the MacBook Pro, (does it carry data?). So in the current times there is no way to get all that in the time frame to use the return label and the I am not thrilled to spend $50+ just to recycle this thing. Apple's I/O port architectures have always been very paternalistic, trying to force a configuration into common use. Its been three years for my MacBook Pro and I still have to use clumsy, expensive, EXTREMELY annoying adapters to use all -repeat all-- my cabled peripherals. Its Firewire all over again. Apple needs to consider that well over half of computer use require access to legacy systems and peripherals. Wireless is fine but starting with WiFi security issues and throw in travel, and installed expensive legacy peripherals and you are marginalizing your systems.


[Edited by Moderator]

Apr 11, 2020 9:08 AM in response to Mapper3

Someone suggested taking out the hard drive-- I really do appreciate the community responding and not an unreasonable thought-- unfortunately its an all enclosed iMac. If I take the time, get the tools and crack the thing open, well, it would be a major project to accomplish what should be a very simple task. If I could haul it into an Apple store all this would be moot. Alas the the timing sucks.

R

Apr 11, 2020 11:30 AM in response to MartinR

Good stuff. I used the Free Space erase. I ended up following RKauffmann87's advice deleted what I could and shipped it off. In that process, I went through and deleted everything in every folder that I was allowed to access (yeah that took a while), then erased the free space , as you described.

This would be easier if I hadn't waited until Apple changed its I/O ports and recycled the computers earlier. But it came up while going through stuff during this enforced home time. What started out as a good idea was something done much easier when accessing an Apple Store was available.

Note: your last paragraph is interesting- Do you mean you can erase the start up drive I assume. Can you boot into recovery mode over the web and then erase the normal start up drive? Recovery mode is newish to me. For my 2009 MacBook, getting on the internet is going to be tricky. My 2012 MacBook Air with El Capitan should be easier- I hope. I will research Recovery mode--Thanks all for the help.

How to wipe an iMac for recycling

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