How To Wipe Mac Hard Drive With 35 Passes?
Disk Utility allows wiping a Mac drive with 3 tools:
- Zeroes – Writes single pass of Zeros over the partition/disk
- 3 Pass – Writes 2 passes of random data followed by single pass of known data.
- 7 Pass – Considered to be ‘Most Secure’, it writes over the data 7 times.
Any secondary partition or an external hard drive can be securely wiped using Disk Utility Erase function.
Disk Utility ‘Erase’ vs Stellar ‘Wipe’ Mac
Shortfall of Disk Utility: – Though, Disk Utility offers concrete secure wipe features, it deals with its own shortcomings. For instances, Disk Utility won’t wipe Mac startup disk drive. None system can wipe its own startup drive without being booted from another media (CD, DVD or USB). A bootable media that starts the Mac system, makes itself the primary drive and Macintosh hard drive becomes secondary. When this is met, the Mac drive can be easily wiped using the boot media.
This is exactly what Stellar Wipe Mac utility offers over Disk Utility. It allows imaging of the OS X startup drive, which can be burned to a DVD. The boot DVD created can now be used to run Mac in bootable environment. In this environment, Stellar Wipe Mac is launched from the Boot DVD and enables secure wiping of the Startup disk drive.
Peter Gutmann 35 Passes
Stellar Wipe Mac software had built-in wiping algorithms that secure wipe any Mac hard drive. Among them most prominent are:
- Peter Gutmann (35 Passes) – The most secure algorithm to wipe any HFS formatted hard drive. It overwrites data 35 times thus eradicating any chances of file recovery, even with the most powerful data recovery software. Mac’s own Disk Utility does not offer it.
- 7 Passes: Stellar Wipe Mac possesses three kinds of 7 passes algorithms, each being extremely secure itself. These are:
- DoD5200.28-STD
- B.Schneier’s Algorithm
- German Standard
- Others: Other prominent wiping algorithms to mention are:
- Russian Standard – GOST
- US Army AR 380-19
- US Air Force, AFSSI 5020
- NATO Standard
Other than drive wipe, Stellar Wipe Mac also enables wiping of individual files/folders, browser’s history, Internet Activity, Instant Messaging, System Traces and File History.
Is it necessary to wipe with 35 passes?
Hello Nicolas,
No, it is not necessary to wipe with 35 passes. Even one pass is sufficient for complete data removal.
I took out my Mac hard drive from an old MacBook Pro and with the help of an enclosure it mounted on another Mac OS X. I want to wipe this Mac disk since it had all my personal information stored on to it. Which would be my best option to wipe it – Disk Utility or Stellar Wipe Mac?
Hi Lucas, IMO, you should trust Stellar Wipe Mac utility since it;s a professional Mac wiping tool that securely erases files with 35 Passes, 7 Passes and 3 Passes. There are several other Standard Wiping Algorithms with which you can perform wiping of the Mac disk. Be assured with Stellar Wipe Mac since data once wiped with this utility cannot be recovered with the most advance data recovery application(period).
How I can create a bootable dvd for booting my Mac OS X El Capitan?
Hi Daniel, for creating a bootable DVD, there are certain requirements like:
1.A blank CD/DVD
2.Mac OS X
3.An image file of operating system, i.e. .ISO
Now, follow the procedure as below:
1. Locate the image file and right click on it. Open it using, DiskImageMounter.
2.Now, go to the Spotlight and then search for Disk Utility in Mac.
3.In 3rd step, put the CD/DVD in the optical drive of your Mac.
4.Right click on the image file in Disk Utility and click on Burn ISO.
Hope, it will solve your problem.
How to secure wipe my startup drive using Peter Gutmann algorithms?
Create bootable DVD with Stellar Wipe Mac utility and boot the Mac using this DVD. Once booted, navigate to software and select Macintosh HD. Also select Peter Gutmann 35 Passes algorithm to secure wipe Mac. Hope this information helps.