Disk Utility 12.x: Secure Erase Options dialog

This article has been archived and is no longer updated by Apple.
Secure Erase Options dialog

When securely erasing a disk or partition, Disk Utility doesn’t just write over the information used to access the files. It also writes over the erased files’ data, so it can never be recovered with with a disk recovery application.

With the slider, choose how many times to write over the data. Writing over the data 3 times meets the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) standard for securely erasing magnetic media. Writing over the data 7 times meets the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) 5220-22-M standard.

Last Modified: Sep 3, 2015
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