How to wipe a Mac drive for inventory release

The DBAN Software does not work on Mac machines. To wipe the drive, you must use the disk utility software that comes with the machine. There are two ways: put the Mac into target disk mode and connect it to another Mac via fire-wire or you can use the installation disk.

Target disk mode will turn your Mac into a mass storage device which you can then connect to another computer using a fire-wire cable. Hold "T" when booting to start target disk mode, then connect the Mac via fire-wire to another Mac, open the disk utilities located in applications under utilities and skip to step 6.

1. To wipe a drive located on the same machine you will need a Mac installation disk. Note that you cannot use a disk that is older then the version of OSX that shipped with the Mac. If it shipped with "Snow Leopard 10.6" then you cannot use "Leopard 10.5". Also note that only the Power PC or Intel processors support certain OSX versions, see full compatibility list below.

To find your version Mac OSX and processor click on the apple button in the top left corner of the screen and select "About This Mac".

2: Boot from the installation disk.

3: Click on the continue arrow located towards the bottom right of the screen.

4: On the screen that says "Install Mac OSX," click utilities at the very top of the screen.

5: Under the drop down menu, click disk utilities.

6: Click the drive you would like to wipe located on the left side of the screen.

7: Click "Erase" tab.

8: Click Security Options button, the Helpdesk recommends 7 passes. Please note that not all OSX versions have the option of 7 passes.

9: Once you have selected the desired number of passes, you can then click "Erase" to start the process. Once you start the process, you cannot skip through the passes and attempt any data recovery if you change your mind.

UTS Inventory Release Form • Once the process has completed, sign off on the UTS Helpdesk Inventory release form which can be found here.