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.
