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How to Wipe a Hard Drive on Mac (2026)

Selling, donating, or recycling a Mac without wiping it first is a serious privacy risk. Studies consistently show that a significant percentage of second-hand drives still contain recoverable personal data — photos, passwords, financial records, and browsing history. The good news: Apple has made secure erasure straightforward on modern Macs. Whether you have the latest M4 MacBook Pro or a ten-year-old iMac with a spinning hard drive, this guide walks you through every method available.

Key Takeaways:

  • Modern Macs with Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) or a T2 chip use hardware encryption — erasing destroys the encryption keys, making data unrecoverable instantly
  • "Erase All Content and Settings" is the fastest and easiest method for Macs running macOS Monterey 12.0.1 or later with a T2 chip or Apple Silicon
  • Disk Utility from macOS Recovery works on every Mac, including older Intel models without a T2 chip
  • The Disk Utility "Security Options" slider for multi-pass overwriting only appears for HDDs — it is removed for SSDs because overwriting is unreliable on flash storage
  • Always sign out of iCloud, iMessage, and Find My Mac before wiping your Mac

Which Mac Do You Have?

The method you should use depends entirely on your Mac's hardware. Apple has shipped three distinct generations of security architecture, and each one handles data erasure differently.

Apple Silicon Macs (2020 and Later)

Macs with M1, M2, M3, or M4 chips have hardware encryption built into the SoC (System on a Chip). Every byte of data written to the internal SSD is encrypted with AES-256 by the Secure Enclave. This means erasing the drive does not need to overwrite every sector — it simply destroys the encryption keys, rendering all data permanently unreadable.

Models include: MacBook Air (M1, 2020 and later), MacBook Pro (M1, late 2020 and later), Mac mini (M1, 2020 and later), iMac (M1, 2021 and later), Mac Studio (M1 Max/Ultra, 2022 and later), Mac Pro (M2 Ultra, 2023 and later).

Intel Macs with T2 Security Chip (2018-2020)

Apple's T2 chip brought hardware encryption to Intel Macs starting in 2018. These machines also encrypt all SSD data automatically, so cryptographic erasure is available. The T2 handles the same AES-256 encryption that Apple Silicon provides through the Secure Enclave.

Models include: MacBook Air (2018-2020), MacBook Pro (2018-2020), Mac mini (2018), iMac (2020, Retina 5K 27-inch), iMac Pro (2017), Mac Pro (2019).

Older Intel Macs Without T2 (Pre-2018)

These Macs do not have hardware encryption unless FileVault was enabled manually. If the Mac has a spinning hard drive (HDD), you can perform traditional multi-pass secure erases through Disk Utility. If it has an SSD (most Macs from 2012 onward), overwriting is less reliable due to how SSDs handle data differently. Enabling FileVault before erasing adds a layer of cryptographic protection on these older machines.

How to check your Mac model: Click the Apple menu > About This Mac. You will see the chip (Apple M1/M2/M3/M4) or the processor (Intel). For T2 chip verification, go to Apple menu > About This Mac > System Report > Controller — look for "Apple T2 Security Chip."

Method 1: Erase All Content and Settings (macOS Monterey or Later)

This is the fastest and simplest method. It is available on any Mac with Apple Silicon or a T2 security chip running macOS Monterey 12.0.1 or later. It performs a cryptographic erase, signs you out of all Apple services, removes your fingerprints from Touch ID, and deactivates Find My Mac — all in one step.

Steps

  1. Back up your data if you need to keep anything. Use Time Machine or manually copy files to an external drive.

  2. Sign out of iCloud (the erase process handles this, but verifying beforehand avoids complications). Go to System Settings > Apple ID > Sign Out.

  3. Open System Settings. Click the Apple menu in the top-left corner and select System Settings. (On macOS Monterey, this is System Preferences.)

  4. Navigate to the erase option:

    • macOS Ventura or later: Click General in the sidebar, then click Transfer or Reset on the right. Click Erase All Content and Settings.
    • macOS Monterey: Click System Preferences in the menu bar, then select Erase All Content and Settings.

  5. Enter your administrator password when prompted. If your Mac has multiple user accounts, you will need the password for an admin account.

  6. Review what will be erased. macOS displays a summary: all data, settings, accounts, and Apple ID associations. Click Continue.

  7. Enter your Apple ID password to sign out of Find My Mac and deactivate Activation Lock.

  8. Click Erase All Content and Settings to confirm. Your Mac will restart and display a progress bar. The process typically completes in under five minutes.

  9. Your Mac restarts to the Setup Assistant. If you are selling or donating the Mac, do not complete setup — power it off and leave it for the next owner.

This method preserves the installed macOS version while removing all user data. There is no need to reinstall the operating system afterward.

Bottom Line: If your Mac supports Erase All Content and Settings, use it. It is the most thorough single-step method available — combining cryptographic erasure, Apple ID deactivation, and a factory reset into one operation. For Macs that do not support this feature, move to Method 2.

Method 2: Disk Utility from macOS Recovery

This method works on every Mac ever made, from the oldest Mac Pro to the newest M4 MacBook Air. It is the go-to approach when Erase All Content and Settings is not available, or when you need to erase the drive and reinstall macOS from scratch.

Booting into macOS Recovery

The process differs depending on your hardware:

Apple Silicon Macs (M1/M2/M3/M4):

  1. Shut down your Mac completely.
  2. Press and hold the power button until you see "Loading startup options."
  3. Click Options, then click Continue.
  4. Select a user you know the password for and enter the password if prompted.

Intel Macs (with or without T2):

  1. Restart your Mac.
  2. Immediately press and hold Command (⌘) + R until you see the Apple logo or a spinning globe.
  3. Release the keys when the macOS Utilities window appears.
  4. If prompted, enter the password for an admin account.

Erasing the Drive

  1. In the macOS Utilities window (or Recovery Assistant on Apple Silicon), select Disk Utility and click Continue.

  2. In Disk Utility, choose View > Show All Devices from the menu bar. This is critical — it shows the physical disk, not just the volume.

  3. In the sidebar, select the top-level internal disk (typically labeled "Apple SSD" or the manufacturer name like "APPLE SSD AP0512Q"). Do not select the indented volume underneath it.

  4. Click Erase in the toolbar.

  5. Configure the erase settings:

    • Name: Macintosh HD (or any name you prefer)
    • Format: APFS for macOS High Sierra and later; Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for older versions
    • Scheme: GUID Partition Map

  6. Click Erase. On SSDs with T2 or Apple Silicon, this triggers a cryptographic erase and completes in seconds. On HDDs, it performs a standard format.

  7. When complete, close Disk Utility. You will return to the macOS Utilities or Recovery window.

  8. If you want to reinstall macOS, select Reinstall macOS and follow the prompts. If you are giving the Mac away, this lets you hand it over with a clean OS install.

Security Options for HDDs (Older Macs)

If your Mac has a spinning hard drive, Disk Utility in Recovery offers a Security Options button during the erase process. This slider lets you choose the number of overwrite passes:

  • Fastest (no security): Standard format, no overwriting. Data is recoverable.
  • Single pass of zeros: Writes zeros to every sector. Sufficient for modern HDDs per NIST SP 800-88 guidance.
  • Three-pass erase: Two passes of random data plus a final pass of zeros. Meets the DOE standard.
  • Most Secure (seven-pass): Multiple overwrite patterns. Overkill for modern drives, but available for those who require it.

For any modern HDD, a single pass is enough. Multi-pass overwrites are a holdover from an era of lower-density drives where partial data recovery from residual magnetic traces was theoretically possible. That has not been the case for decades. See our explainer on how many passes you actually need for the full breakdown.

Note: The Security Options button does not appear when erasing SSDs. Apple removed it because overwriting cannot reach all areas of an SSD due to wear leveling and over-provisioning. For a deeper look at why, read our SSD vs HDD data erasure guide.

Method 3: Terminal Commands (Advanced)

Terminal provides command-line access to disk erasure on macOS. The diskutil command can perform secure erases, but with a critical caveat: these overwrite-based commands are only effective on HDDs, not SSDs.

diskutil secureErase (HDD Only)

Boot into macOS Recovery (see Method 2 for instructions), then open Terminal from the Utilities menu.

  1. List all disks to identify the target drive:

    diskutil list

    Look for your target disk — typically /dev/disk0 for the internal drive. Verify by checking the disk size and partition layout.

  2. Run the secure erase command:

    diskutil secureErase 0 /dev/diskX

    Replace X with the disk number of your target drive.

    The number after secureErase specifies the erase level:

    • 0 — Single-pass zero fill (recommended; sufficient per NIST guidance)
    • 1 — Single-pass random fill
    • 2 — US DOE 3-pass secure erase (two random passes + zero fill)
    • 3 — Gutmann 35-pass erase (unnecessary for modern drives)
    • 4 — US DoE 3-pass erase (two random passes + zero fill)

  3. Wait for completion. A single-pass zero fill on a 1 TB HDD takes approximately 2-4 hours. The Terminal will display a progress percentage.

diskutil secureErase freespace (HDD Only)

If you want to wipe only the free space on a drive (after deleting files manually), use:

diskutil secureErase freespace 0 /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD

This overwrites all unallocated space on the volume with zeros while leaving existing files intact. Useful for clearing residual data from deleted files on an HDD.

Why Not Use Terminal for SSDs?

Apple's own diskutil documentation states that secure erase operations "are not safe on SSDs" because "modern devices have wear-leveling, block-sparing, and possibly-persistent cache hardware, which cannot be completely erased by these commands." For Mac SSDs, cryptographic erasure through Method 1 or a standard erase in Disk Utility (Method 2) on T2/Apple Silicon Macs is the correct approach.

Wiping External Drives on Mac

External drives — whether USB flash drives, external HDDs, or portable SSDs — can be wiped directly from Disk Utility without entering Recovery mode.

External HDDs

  1. Open Disk Utility from Applications > Utilities.
  2. Select the external drive in the sidebar. Click View > Show All Devices to see the physical disk.
  3. Click Erase.
  4. Click Security Options and choose your preferred overwrite level. A single pass is sufficient.
  5. Choose your format (ExFAT for cross-platform compatibility, APFS or Mac OS Extended for Mac-only use) and click Erase.

External SSDs

For external SSDs, the Security Options slider will not appear in Disk Utility. Your options are:

  • Standard erase in Disk Utility: Performs a quick format. Data may be recoverable on the flash memory chips. Acceptable for low-risk scenarios.
  • Use a third-party tool: Software like BitRaser Drive Eraser can send ATA Secure Erase or NVMe Sanitize commands to external SSDs, which trigger the drive's firmware-level erase function. This is the most thorough option for external SSDs.
  • Encrypt, then erase: Enable encryption on the external SSD (right-click the volume in Finder > Encrypt), let the encryption complete, then erase the drive in Disk Utility. The data becomes unreadable without the encryption key. Our complete guide to wiping a hard drive covers this technique in more detail.

For a full rundown of erasure tools, see our best data erasure software roundup.

Recommended Tools

While macOS includes solid built-in erasure options, third-party tools provide additional features like certified erasure reports, support for external SSDs, and compliance with specific data sanitization standards.

BitRaser Drive Eraser

BitRaser Drive Eraser is a professional-grade tool that creates a bootable USB drive capable of wiping any Mac (Intel-based) or PC. It supports 24+ international erasure standards including NIST 800-88 and IEEE 2883, generates tamper-proof certificates of erasure, and can handle SSDs with proper firmware-level commands. Pricing starts at $39 per drive. Best for users who need a verifiable audit trail for compliance purposes.

KillDisk

KillDisk offers both free and paid versions. The free version performs a single-pass zero-fill erase — sufficient for most personal use cases. The professional version adds certificate generation, multiple erasure standards, and batch processing. KillDisk boots from a USB drive and works independently of the operating system, making it suitable for wiping any Mac's internal drive.

Parted Magic

Parted Magic is a bootable Linux environment that includes a suite of disk management tools. It can issue ATA Secure Erase and NVMe Sanitize commands directly to drives — the correct approach for SSD sanitization. It costs $15 for a single download. A strong option for technically inclined users who want granular control over the erasure process.

For Intel-based Macs, these tools work by booting from USB media. Apple Silicon Macs have a more restricted boot process that limits third-party boot environments, so the built-in macOS methods (Erase All Content and Settings or Disk Utility from Recovery) remain the primary options for M1/M2/M3/M4 machines.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Forgetting to sign out of iCloud and Find My Mac. If you erase without signing out, Activation Lock may remain active, preventing the next owner from setting up the Mac. Erase All Content and Settings handles this automatically, but Disk Utility does not.
  • Selecting the volume instead of the physical disk in Disk Utility. Always enable "Show All Devices" and select the top-level disk. Erasing just a volume may leave other partitions or recovery data intact.
  • Assuming a standard format erases data on an HDD. A quick format only removes the directory structure. The underlying data remains on the platters and is easily recoverable with free software.
  • Trying to overwrite an SSD for security. Software-based overwriting cannot reach all storage areas on an SSD. If your Mac has a T2 chip or Apple Silicon, the built-in erase methods perform cryptographic erasure, which is more effective. Read our guide to secure erasing SSDs for the full picture.
  • Not verifying the target disk in Terminal. Running diskutil secureErase on the wrong disk number will destroy data on the wrong drive with no way to undo it. Always double-check with diskutil list first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Erase All Content and Settings securely wipe a Mac?

Yes. On Macs with Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) or an Intel Mac with a T2 security chip, Erase All Content and Settings performs a cryptographic erase. It destroys the encryption keys that protect your data, rendering all contents on the internal SSD unreadable. This is a fast and highly effective sanitization method recognized by NIST SP 800-88 as a valid purge technique.

Can I securely erase an SSD on a Mac using Disk Utility?

Disk Utility no longer offers the Security Options slider for SSDs — only for HDDs. Traditional overwriting is unreliable on SSDs due to wear leveling, over-provisioning, and garbage collection. For internal Mac SSDs, the correct approach is cryptographic erasure through Erase All Content and Settings or the standard Disk Utility erase, which triggers a crypto erase on T2 and Apple Silicon Macs.

How long does it take to wipe a Mac hard drive?

Erase All Content and Settings on a modern Mac with an SSD completes in under five minutes because it performs a cryptographic erase rather than overwriting data. Erasing through Disk Utility in Recovery also takes just a few minutes for SSDs. Older Macs with spinning HDDs take significantly longer — a single-pass secure erase of a 1 TB HDD typically requires 2-4 hours.

What is the difference between erasing a Mac and formatting it?

Formatting creates a new file system structure but does not necessarily overwrite the underlying data. On HDDs, formatted data is often recoverable with standard recovery software. Erasing with Erase All Content and Settings or performing a secure erase goes further — it either overwrites all data (HDD) or destroys the encryption keys (SSD with T2/Apple Silicon), making data recovery infeasible.

How do I wipe a Mac that will not boot?

Boot into macOS Recovery. On Apple Silicon Macs, press and hold the power button until you see the startup options screen, then select Options. On Intel Macs, hold Command-R during startup. Once in Recovery, open Disk Utility, select your startup disk, and click Erase. If Disk Utility cannot repair or erase the drive, the storage may have a hardware failure.

Should I wipe my Mac before selling it?

Yes, always wipe your Mac before selling, donating, or recycling it. Sign out of iCloud, iMessage, and Find My Mac first, then use Erase All Content and Settings (macOS Monterey or later with T2/Apple Silicon) or Disk Utility from Recovery. This removes all personal data, Apple ID associations, and activation lock from the machine. Our guide to wiping a hard drive before selling covers additional steps for preparing any computer for sale.

Does the diskutil secureErase command work on Mac SSDs?

The diskutil secureErase command is designed for HDDs. Running it on an SSD will attempt to overwrite sectors, but it cannot reach data stored in over-provisioned space, wear-leveled blocks, or spare areas. Apple explicitly notes this limitation. For Mac SSDs, rely on cryptographic erasure through Erase All Content and Settings or a standard erase in Disk Utility on T2/Apple Silicon Macs.

What format should I choose when erasing a Mac drive?

For Macs running macOS High Sierra or later, choose APFS (Apple File System). For older Macs or mechanical hard drives, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you are preparing the drive for use with both Mac and Windows, choose ExFAT. For a drive that will only be used with macOS, APFS provides the best performance and security features.

Will erasing my Mac remove the operating system?

Erase All Content and Settings removes all user data and settings but preserves the currently installed macOS version. Erasing through Disk Utility in Recovery removes everything, including the operating system. After a Disk Utility erase, you need to reinstall macOS from Recovery, a bootable installer, or internet recovery.

Can data be recovered from a Mac after a cryptographic erase?

Data recovery after a cryptographic erase is considered infeasible. When the encryption keys are destroyed, the data on the SSD remains physically present but is encrypted with AES-256 (on T2 and Apple Silicon Macs). Without the keys, the data is indistinguishable from random noise. NIST SP 800-88 recognizes cryptographic erasure as a valid purge method for this reason.

The Bottom Line

Modern Macs with Apple Silicon or a T2 chip make secure erasure simple — Erase All Content and Settings performs a cryptographic erase that is fast, thorough, and recognized by NIST. Older Macs with HDDs should use Disk Utility's secure erase from Recovery. Always sign out of iCloud before wiping, and remember that SSD overwriting is not a substitute for cryptographic erasure. For step-by-step coverage of other platforms, see our complete guide to wiping a hard drive.

Last updated: February 2026. We regularly review and update our guides to ensure accuracy.

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