I 'm going to be turning in my macbook pro when I change jobs this summer (also going to be lea...

[G+_James Hughes]

I'm going to be turning in my macbook pro when I change jobs this summer (also going to be leaving behind an iMac). My question is if there is a free software to erase the data from the hard drives? I've heard of "shredder" software. I don't want to delete the software on the computers, well at least the software owned by my employer.

 

Thanks in advance.

[G+_Larry Haas]

Don't forget to securly delete the trash, It takes awhile but let it run.

[G+_Eddie Foy]

Plus one for the secure delete of trash.

The 7 pass of erasing free space (in Disk Utility) is overkill and takes a long time.  Its a work PC, the IT dept really doesn't care what you had on it enough to try to undelete stuff..

[G+_James Hughes]

Wayne Hobbins lol. I've mastered the "empty trash" thing. Just concerned about the next person who gets my computers.

[G+_James Hughes]

Thanks for reminding me about the secure delete, it's been a while since I've had to worry about such things. I'm waiting for the new macbook pro to come out and I'm going to buy my own.

[G+_Eddie Foy]

delete your home folder too.  Sneaky stuff can lurk in the ~/library

[G+_James Hughes]

Steve Wolf dband isn't an option because I don't have the software disks.

[G+_Travis Hershberger]

Just have to comment here, it's DBAN, not dband. Darrik's Boot and Nuke. Unless I've completely missed another utility (quite possible, no one person can keep track of it all.)

[G+_Ben Reese]

I've never tried undeleting files on an SSD, but I've heard just the act of deleting the files could mean a complete secure delete if that file - if trim is enabled. Also not sure if you're using SSDs or HDDs in either machine.

[G+_James Hughes]

Both are hdd's

[G+_Eddie Foy]

I've heard that because of wear leveling and limited writes cycles, SSDs are never fully erased.  Even the babbling fool Gibson said it.

[G+_Ben Reese]

Hehe. But does fully erasing matter if the sectors are scrambled across the drive?

 

And even if I don't agree with everything someone says, I typically restrain from calling him a fool.

[G+_Eddie Foy]

I was mainly referring to his babbling.  He confuses himself. (and going off on a 5 minute non-sequator tangent about nothing) Its a 40 minute podcast done in an hour and a half.

[G+_Ben Reese]

Wayne Hobbins to be fair, I'm sure Eddie Foy? is at least half as smart as Gibson. Steve just has to understand everything in intricate detail before he wants to talk about it. Some people just like being know it alls.

[G+_Dan Hockey]

In the linux world there is a program called bleachbit, it wipes the empty space on the drive without harming the rest of the system. If there isn't anything like that for your version of osx you could try compiling the source.

https://www.bleachbit.org/

 

[G+_Jason Marsh]

Ben Reese Some people MUST know all about a subject before they're comfortable speaking about it, especially before trying to put it in terms that make it easy for others to understand.

 

Having taught advanced courses on diagnosis and maintenance of all systems onboard the Abrams family of tanks, I've spent from just days to literally hundreds of hours perfecting how I present the material for each module in the courses.

 

It's a royal pain, but one that requires an intimate understanding of the subject at hand. It's hard to sift down to terms, concepts, and techniques that your audience is likely to readily grasp. If the curricula were changing weekly, as in the case of presenting security news, I don't think it would be so easy to do. I give Steve a wide berth when listening, as I know what he's going through.

 

And for those who think one doesn't need to have much knowledge about a subject to speak publicly as an authority, you have an unlimited supply of such people already; they're on your nightly news, on all the online "news" sites, and also a great deal of them are involved in your government. What a fantastic job they do.