Is there any way to completely erase the hard drive on the MacBook Pro?
Sometimes you just need to clear the decks and start from scratch. If you're giving away an old Mac or just want a do-over, fire up Disk Utility. Zapping an entire disk is simple to do. From Applications > Utilities, open the Disk Utility application. Click on a mounted drive in the left-hand column, and select the Erase tab. But be careful when erasing disks. It probably goes without saying, but erasing a disk will remove everything on it. If you want to erase the disk that contains your current operating system, you'll have to boot from another volume first, like an external drive or the Install Disc that came with your Mac.
When formatting a drive for use with a Mac, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
But Disk Utility's powers to delete go much deeper than that. If you just want to erase the free space on a disk, there's a handy button for that. Clicking on Security Options before you erase offers several options for more secure file-deletion. You can choose to actually overwrite data, which makes it harder to bring back with file-recovery software. For most purposes, a single-pass erase will keep most people from discovering your secret cache of Jersey Shore episodes. You can opt for a thee-pass erase that will write and erase your disk three times for more security. And if you're storing state secrets on that machine (or the top-secret recipe for Coca-Cola), Disk Utility offers a seven-pass erase that meets Department of Defense standards for obliterating your data. But that additional security takes a lot longer. If you really need to do a seven-pass erase, get comfortable because it's going to take a while.
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