deletingmacos
I will be returning my work machine to my employer soon and I would like to leave little or no personal trace on the machine.
I am not able to create a new user, delete my user, access the administration account, or reinstall the OS, but otherwise I do have full administration rights to my user name.
What options do I have for removing as much personal data as possible?
If you are really concerned with the next owner recovering your files, which can be done even if you emptied the Trash, then you should format the drive:
Open Disk utility, select the drive, select the erase tab and click on security options, then choose one othe following:
I don't know why the sale doesn't include a wipe and reinstall, but I don't see why it shouldn't as a mac always comes with a licensed OS, you just format the drive and reinstall MacOS and you're done.
You can't erase the drive you are currently booted to. You have to boot from an external drive with Mac OS X installed, or boot from the Install DVD.
Administrators don't have ready access to files in other users home directories. Browsing your files would require extraordinary (though admittedly not technically complex) measures and malicious intent.
I'm betting that most Apple store repair techs are a little too busy, and a little too fond of their jobs, to waste a lot of time unlocking and browsing through personal files. There's an old mail server admin adage about being able to read everyone's mail—and not caring. As a consultant I'm "inside" client computers all the time—seeing as little as I possibly can—and I have to tell you, most people's stuff is pretty boring.
I do protect truly confidential data, financial information, CC info, personal photos, inside secure containers such as encrypted disk images, Password Wallet, etc. (In my case this is all in addition to the Filevault 2 protected startup disk.) Having protected the good stuff, I don't lose a lot of sleep about bored repair techs, or interlopers who gain access to my computer, viewing the rest. Your own practice must suit your own position of comfort on the security<>usability continuum, but with a little thought you can get there using the tools the system provides.
Best Answer
I would remove all files from the the obvious:
Then inside your Library Folder you could send everything inside the following folders to the trash:
Once you've sent all relevant files to the trash. Secure Empty Trash from the Finder menu.
Finally, you can over-write any left-over file data on the hard drive by doing the following:
Create a large file that takes up all remaining disk space. Let's say that it's called '~/bigfile'. You can do the following using the Terminal.app or X11.app to consume all remaining free space on your hard drive:
yes "Foo Bar Baz" > ~/bigfileSecure-erase the file:
srm -m ~/bigfileThis in effect simulates the Disk Utility's "Erase Free Space" feature without needing admin access. More on this method can be found here.
Finally, you might want to cover your tracks a bit by deleting your shell history. Assuming that you are using the default Bash shell, you can delete your ~/.bash_history file.