How Can I Verify that All Data is Actually Gone After Wiping My Mac?

macos tips
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If I’ve wiped my hard drive, how can I verify that all my data is actually gone?

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If you wiped your Mac using Disk Utility and erased the internal drive, the simplest way to check is this:

  1. Restart the Mac.
  2. See what happens on boot.
  • If it shows the macOS setup screen (“Hello” screen), the drive is empty.
  • If it boots into your old account, then it wasn’t fully erased.

If you regret erasing your Mac, you can use iBoysoft Mac Recovery Mode to try to restore files on your Mac. Notably, if your Mac is equipped with an SSD, it is almost impossible to use any data recovery software to recover the files.

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You can also boot into macOS Recovery (Command + R on Intel, or hold Power on Apple Silicon), open Disk Utility, and confirm the internal disk shows as a newly formatted volume (APFS or Mac OS Extended) with no personal data.

If you erased the entire disk — not just your user account — your files are no longer accessible through normal means.

For most people, if the Mac starts like it’s brand new, the wipe worked.