On Sat, 3 May 2025, Brian Knittel via cctalk wrote:
Passing on a request: anyone know of a way to erase user data off a Mac SE hard
disk that will leave the disk and Mac OS intact? The machine works and could go
to a new home but has privileged medical data on it so just deleting files
isn’t sufficient — the free space has to be overwritten. Are there any
utilities available on floppy disk that could do it? Plan B is taking a
sledgehammer to the drive, but seems a waste to go right to euthanasia if
there’s another option.
Start by erasing everything on the disk that you want to get rid of.
THEN, before doing anything else, fill up the disk completely, with large
files and small ones.
If you don't have files to do that with, open your word processor, and
type "404 " a few thousand times; you can cut and paste to get more, with
less manual typing.
Then, erase those, and fill it up again, with different files.
hexadecimal E5 is a good filler.
If you want, do that a few more times.
THEN "defrag" the disk.
Fill it once more, then erase the filler.
All of the space previously used by the "sensitive" files will have been
overwritten.
