Erase Macs for Sale

easdonc
New Contributor II

We are getting ready to retire a large portion of our MacBook fleet and then sell them. Has anyone found a way to allow the user to click a button in Self Service and then wipe the drive entirely? I don't want to reinstall the OS.

What process have others used for wiping 1500+ devices? I'd prefer not to have to touch every single one of them!

7 REPLIES 7

hkabik
Valued Contributor

What version of the os are you on? If at least 10.13 you can use the --eraseinstall trigger from startosinstall.

https://www.jamf.com/blog/reinstall-a-clean-macos-with-one-button/

Dylan_YYC
Contributor III
What version of the os are you on? If at least 10.13 you can use the --eraseinstall trigger from startosinstall. https://www.jamf.com/blog/reinstall-a-clean-macos-with-one-button/

Only works if the computers are all running APFS. If thats the case, you're in luck. Otherwise you might need to do it by hand.

sshort
Valued Contributor

There might be a way to mass-perform this via the API, but there is an MDM command to wipe the computer.

68ad01edd1904b6d96154ccd3aabad6d

hkabik
Valued Contributor

that "wipe computer" MDM command is a bit of a misnomer.

It doesn't just wipe the machine, it applies a 6 digit code lock. Then once unlocked it wipes the machine.

cnorrisAdmin
New Contributor III

Have them boot to a NetInstall Image or a recovery partition. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

Hugonaut
Valued Contributor II

Whenever I offload macs, I use deploystudio still. (CAN'T WAIT TO CONJURE UP A 1K+ T2 OFFLOAD! ..lol) ,

The MUT has all you need! (For This) - I haven't taken the time to deep dive into an alternative API solution.

1st I create a static computer group for the computers that need to be removed from the JPS. Then I create a spreadsheet with all of the computers I need to delete and use the mut to upload it to the JPS. The Mut places them into the static computer group. Then in the JPS Dashboard I select the Static Computer group, I select the 'Assignments Page', I click view in the bottom right, then I select the 'Action' button in the bottom right, then I select the option 'Delete Computers'. Then I confirm I want to delete the computers and wallah, no longer managed and no longer exist in our JPS Database. (Also, must be removed from ASM or ABM, DEP / Prestage, etc...etc...)

Then boot to deploystudio server & Deploystudio runs a shell script for a 3 pass wipe - then installs an OEM Image. I have 3 Off Network Mac Mini Servers that run independently of one another, Each connected to 2 x24 Port Dumb switches - I can knock out about 200 - 250 computers a day. 3 pass wipe usually takes about 3-4 hours. Very Manageable as you simply need to take 10-20 minutes to swap out / boot the machines to deploystudio server once every 3-4 hours.

diskutil secureErase 4 /dev/DISKhere
$ diskutil secureErase Usage: diskutil secureErase [freespace] level MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode Securely erases either a whole disk or a volume's freespace. Level should be one of the following: 0 - Single-pass zeros. 1 - Single-pass random numbers. 2 - US DoD 7-pass secure erase. 3 - Gutmann algorithm 35-pass secure erase. 4 - US DoE 3-pass secure erase. Ownership of the affected disk is required. Note: Level 2, 3, or 4 secure erases can take an extremely long time.
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donmontalvo
Esteemed Contributor III

@easdonc we use a one liner to quickly get a computer wiped and OOB'd to Mojave....requires you to have the Mojave installer PKG'd up, and your DP host PKGs over HTTP...

WARNING THIS WILL WIPE THE COMPUTER!!!

cd /tmp; curl --remote-name --progress-bar http://server.domain.com/CasperShare/Packages/<yourWrappedInstaller>.pkg; sudo installer -pkg /tmp/<yourWrappedInstaller>.pkg -target /; /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall --agreetolicense --eraseinstall --nointeraction && reboot

This can be made into a Self Service policy.

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