Toshiba External Hard Drive Data erasure on Mac

Quick Navigation:

• Importance of Data Erasure
• METHOD 1: Using Disk Utility
• METHOD 2: Using Terminal
• METHOD 3: Using Third-Party Software
• Tips for Secure Data Erasure
• Conclusion

Nowadays, it is very important to delete data safely from your Toshiba portable hard drive before you sell, donate, or throw it away. For Mac users with a Toshiba external hard drive, safely deleting data requires following certain steps to ensure the data is gone and can't be recovered. This guide will look at the different ways and tools you can use to delete data on a Mac.

If you follow these steps, you can be sure your data is deleted safely, keeping your private and sensitive data safe. This guide will help you understand and follow the best ways to safely delete data from your Toshiba portable hard drive on a Mac, no matter how much tech experience you have.

Importance of Data Erasure

Data erasure is critical for several reasons. For example, you may need to wipe data permanently from the Toshiba external hard drive due to the following reason:

🛡️ Security: It prevents people from accessing private information without permission and keeps banking, personal, and business information safe from fraud and identity theft.

📃 Compliance: It ensures that data security laws like GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA are followed, avoiding fines and legal punishments for noncompliance.

👤 Privacy: It protects privacy by deleting private and sensitive information. It also ensures that new owners or other people who aren't supposed to have access to personal information can't access it.

💾 Space Management: It frees up space by removing all unnecessary or out-of-date files. This improves the drive's performance and makes the gadget last longer.

🖥 Device Preparation: It removes all personal information from the gadget so it can be sold, donated, or thrown away. Ensure the new owner gets a clean, brand-new device with no info left on it.

👨‍🔧 Data Lifecycle Management: It properly handles the data lifecycle, from creation to safe disposal, helping businesses keep their digital spaces clean and well-organized.

♻️ Risk Mitigation: It lessens the chance of data leaks and breaches and reduces the damage that data exposure could do to a company's image and finances.

METHOD 1: Using Disk Utility

Disk Utility is a tool with macOS that lets you safely erase and format storage drives. To erase your Toshiba portable hard drive with Disk Utility, do these things:

Step 1: Open Disk Utility:

Go to "Applications" > "Utilities" > "Disk Utility".

Step 2: Select Your Toshiba External Hard Drive:

You can pick your Toshiba portable hard drive from the list of drives on the left. Choose "Erase" from the menu at the top of the Disk Utility window.

Step 3: Choose a Format:

• Apple File System (APFS): This is the choice for new Macs running macOS 10.13 or later.
• Mac OS Extended (Journaled): If you want to use past macOS versions, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Step 4: Security Options:

Click on "Security Options" to pick the level of safe deletion:

• Fastest: This choice does a quick format, removing file references but not safely deleting data.
• Most Secure: This choice deletes the data several times, making it almost impossible to return.

Step 5: Click Erase:

Once you've made your choices, click "Erase" to begin the process. Disk Utility will format and delete your drive based on your chosen choices.

📌 Note: If you choose "Security Options" as "Fastest", it will not wipe the data permanently and the data can be easily recovered by a data recovery software.

METHOD 2: Using Terminal

The Terminal is a built-in tool that allows advanced users to delete files from their Toshiba external hard drive. If you are a advanced user and familiar with command lines, you can try this methods. Here's how to delete info from Terminal:

1. Open Terminal

Go to "Applications" > "Utilities" > "Terminal" to get to the Terminal app.

2. Identify Your Drive

With the diskutil list command, you can see a list of all the linked drives and their names. Use this list to find your Toshiba portable hard drive.

3. Erase the Drive

To delete the drive, use the command diskutil eraseDisk followed by the right options:

diskutil eraseDisk [filesystem] [name] [identifier]

For example:

diskutil eraseDisk APFS "ToshibaDrive" disk2

[name] should be the name of the drive, [identifier] should be the drive's identifier (like disk2), and [filesystem] should be the file system you want to use (like APFS).

4. Secure Erasure

It is a safer way to delete data: use diskutil secureErase command to erase:

diskutil secureErase [level] [identifier]

For example:

diskutil secureErase 2 disk2

Change [level] to the amount of security you want and [identifier] to the drive's name.

💡 Tips: Be careful when operating in Terminal. Check twice and ensure to confirm and choose the right hard drive to wipe data.

METHOD 3: Using Third-Party Software

If you want to more flexible solutions with advanced data erasure algorithms, you can try third-party data erasure tools. These tools often provide more features to meet different data wiping requirements, such as shredding specified files or folder, erase the removed data, and so on.

The third-party tool DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac is one of the best ways to safely delete files from the Toshiba external hard drive on a Mac. With the software, you can shred individual files/folders, wipe the deleted/lost data from a drive without affecting the exiting files, or erase all data from Toshiba external hard drive. With the international data sanitation algorithms, the software can ensure to wipe data permanently from Toshiba drive and avoid data recovery.

To delete data permanently from Toshiba external hard drive with DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac, do the following:

Step 1. Download and Install DoYourData Super Eraser

You can download the app from the official DoYourData Super Eraser website and follow the steps to install it.

Step 2. Open the Software and Connect the Drive

Open DoYourData Super Eraser from the area called "Applications" or start from the launchpad. Make sure that your Mac and Toshiba portable hard drives are linked.

Step 3. Choose the Erase Option

In DoYourData Super Eraser, go to the "Wipe Hard Drive" mode which can erase all data permanently from the a hard drive. Select the Toshiba external hard drive and then click on "Wipe Now" to continue.

Step 4. Configure Erasure Algorithms

You can choose the amount of security that fits your needs. In DoYourData Super Eraser, you can choose multiple overwrites to ensure that data can't be retrieved.

Step 5. Start the Erasure Process

To start, click the "Continue" button. DoYourData Super Eraser will erase the info on your Toshiba external hard drive, so you can't get it back.

Step 6. Verify Erasure

After everything is done, you can use data recovery tool to ensure the drive can't be used to get back any data.

Tips for Secure Data Erasure

To make sure the data wiping process run smoothly and ensure the data will be securely removed from the drive, here are some tips for secure data erasure on Toshiba external hard drive:

• Before you erase your drive, ensure you have copies of any important things you don't want to lose. For example, you can copy the drive to another one for data backup if necessary.
• To erase a disk safely, use trusted tools like Disk Utility, Terminal, or third-party apps like DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac.
• Choose various overwrites to make sure that data can't be recovered, especially if it contains sensitive and privacy information.
• You can use Mac data recovery tools to see if you can return any deleted data. It can ensure whether the data erasing process is gone through successfully.
• Keep track of the method used to erase and the date for compliance and future use.
• Make sure the drive doesn't still have any partitions or secret files.
• If you no longer need the drive, recycle it or get rid of it properly.
• When wiping data, be careful to choose the right files/folder or drive to avoid data loss.

Conclusion

It is important to securely delete data from your Toshiba portable hard drive on a Mac to keep your private data safe, follow data protection rules, and prepare the device for sale or disposal. Following the steps below, you can delete data that can't be recovered using Disk Utility, Terminal, or third-party data wiping tool for Mac.

Following best practices and tips, you can protect your privacy and prevent others from accessing the data without your permission. This will keep your digital information safe and give you peace of mind.