Wiping a hard drive clean

[Hansi R]

Hi
I have an old iMac (roughly 6 years old) that I have had nothing but trouble with over the years, that even the experts couldn't sort out, and I have now given up on it and bought myself a new model. I want to throw the old one away but as I have used it for business and banking and some of my financial details have remained the same, I want to make sure that none of these details, passwords, and bank records are left on the hard drive. What's the best way to wipe the hard drive completely clean, as I'm going to dump it I don't mind if everything is removed...
Cheers, Hansi

 

[honestone]

What exact Mac model is it? Assuming it would not be difficult, you could take the internal drive out of it, and then put the drive inside an external enclosure, thus having an external drive. If it's in "good shape", you could then use it for storing stuff, backups, etc. (You are making backups to an external device already, right).

 

[Hansi R]

What exact Mac model is it? Assuming it would not be difficult, you could take the internal drive out of it, and then put the drive inside an external enclosure, thus having an external drive. If it's in "good shape", you could then use it for storing stuff, backups, etc. (You are making backups to an external device already, right).

Thanks very much for your response but removing the hard drive is beyond me, I just need to wipe it clean... can anyone tell me how to do this? Many thanks...

 

[honestone]

i have removed internal drives from various Mac models, and in most instances, it is not very difficult. But, assuming you do not want to do that, let us know the two exact Mac models you have. By knowing that, we can provide you with a definitive way to proceed. Also, for each Mac model, what exact Mac OS is on each one?

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

There is some useful info regarding what you are asking at these links:

What to do before you sell or give away your Mac

Decide whether to erase your startup disk

 

[honestone]

While those links are informative and useful, the op stated that he wanted to throw his old machine away. The most secure thing to do in that case is to remove the internal drive. But, given that the op does not want to do that, that second link provided above (assuming no information is needed from the old Mac):

Decide whether to erase your startup disk

is one way to go. But, it will not be necessary to install/re-install the Mac OS. After using Disk Utility to Erase and Format the drive, that would be enough. One thing, though, that I would recommend is with that screen shown for Disk Utility, before you click "Erase", click on "Security Options". The next screen that appears will depend upon which Mac OS is on the old Mac, but it will allow one to adjust how many "passes" are made in Erasing the disk. It would be best if the "most number" of passes is chosen. It will take some time for the Erase to be completed, but that would completely get rid of everything on the drive.