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Drive Eraser 6.1.2 and above.


Brief introduction to Apple machines:

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  • The Mac EFI firmware is not able to boot from PXE natively (i.e. network booting is not possible).
  • Blancco Drive Eraser can be booted on Macs using a bootable USB-stick (see the FAQ article about Booting on machines with UEFI for more information).
  • On some Macs, booting from a USB-stick will not work, instead boot from a Blancco Drive Eraser ISO image burnt on a CD.
  • If USB boot does not work properly and there is no optical drive available for CD booting, connect an external USB connectable optical drive to the system and try booting from it.
  • Before booting Blancco Drive Eraser, remove any external peripheral that is not required in the erasure process, in particular remove any connected Thunderbolt interface/adapter (they do not react properly to the Blancco Drive Eraser freeze lock removal process and ultimately can provoke the failure of the erasure).
  • Change Secure Boot to "No Security"
  • Change External Boot to "Allow booting from external media"


Handling some specific Apple models:

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titleDrive Eraser 7.x

Drive Eraser 7.x

With Drive Eraser 7.x Customized booting with a special parameters are recommended on all kind of Macbook models.

Recommended nooting booting parameters: archisobasedir=arch archisolabel=BLANCCO copytoram cow_spacesize=2G vmalloc=400M memtest=00 flr=disabled noapic nomodeset intremap=nosid

Customized booting option can be configured to a Drive Eraser .7x image with Drive Eraser Configuration tool.

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UI Tab
titleDrive Eraser 6.x

Drive Eraser 6.x

Since 6.1.2, Blancco Drive Eraser has improved its support for newer Apple machines. Nevertheless, some models require the software to be booted with special booting parameters 1,2:

  • As a general recommendation, use preferably the booting option “FLR during startup”. If you use another booting option, make sure that the “splash” parameter is removed (if present).
    • Models successfully tested with this configuration: MacBookAir7,1 , MacBookAir7,2 , MacBookPro11,1 , MacBookPro11,4 , MacBookPro11,3
  • On some models, you need to add the "nomodeset" parameter (if missing).
    • Models successfully tested with this configuration: MacBookPro13,3
  • On some models, you need to add the "noapic" parameter.
    • Models successfully tested with this configuration: MacBook8,1 , iMac17,1 , MacPro6,1 , MacBookPro1,2
  • On some models, if you have troubles with the keyboard, touchpad or TouchBar, try adding the "intremap=nosid" parameter.
    • Models successfully tested with this configuration: MacBookPro13,3 , MacBook9,1
  • Keep in mind that some models need a combination of parameters.
    • As an example the iMac17,1 needs adding “noapic” and removing both “splash” and “nomodeset” (if present).

1: Adding/removing the default booting parameters can be automated if the software image is configured with Blancco Drive Eraser Configuration Tool 2.2 or higher. This can also be carried out manually, as explained below:

  1. Boot the machine, select the booting option (e.g. "FLR during startup"), press "e" to edit the option.
  2. With arrow keys, move the cursor down to the line starting with: "linux /arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz img_dev=..."
  3. Move the cursor after “$isofile” and add/remove the boot parameter(s) without quotes.
  4. Press Ctrl + "X" or F10 to continue booting.

2: Please note that newer Blancco Drive Eraser releases (post 6.1.2) may not require any special booting parameter to boot on these machines. Please test and fine-tune the booting parameters of any new Blancco Drive Eraser release before moving it to a Production environment.