Zeroing your hard drive

[jp_bl_68]

I'm considering selling my macbook but before I do so I'd like to ensure that no sensitive information can be retrieved from my hard drive. I gather "zeroing" the drive is the best way to do this. From what I understand it's simply a case of: insert the Mac OS X DVD, hold down the "c" key then follow the on screen instructions. Is that right?

I'm using an aluminium unibody macbook, 2GHz C2D, 4GB DDR3 with a 250GB 5400RPM HDD with about 130GB free space. Any idea how long this might take to zero and whether it's something I could leave running over night?

Also, my computer came with Leopard installed, I've since bought Snow Leopard. Can I zero from either disc and will the OS automatically be reinstalled upon completion?

 

[sambot]

not sure how long it takes. but once clean, yes you can just install either os back onto it.

 

[cheef]

I think zeroing will take 7 times longer than a standard format. Worth doing if you're moving the MacBook on.

It should do that size disk overnight no problem.