Depending on chipset, Apple (macOS) Computers can be erased and diagnosed in different ways. Here is how to select a proper one.
Instructions
There are currently 3 types of Apple macOS Computer chipsets:
Legacy Mac without T2 security chip
Mac with T2 security chip
Mac with M1/M2/M3/M4 chip (Apple Silicon)
All Macs (MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Pro...) require internet connection for processing (erasure and diagnose).
For erasure only, if it is NOT an M1/M2/M3/M4 chip Mac, you can just use Terminal in Recovery mode + Work macOS application on a properly formatted USB stick. Steps are as follows:
Go to Dashboard, Downloads page, and download latest macOS application:
Format a USB stick ON MACOS INTEL computer, using Disk Utility (open Disk Utility, select the drive by left clicking on the name in the list of available drives, then on button ERASE, give it a name you remember (in this example, it will be "SECURAZE"), and select HFS+, APFS or MacOS Extended (Journaled) as filesystem, with GUID partition map. Once completed, exit the Disk Utility. Open Finder, navigate to the SECURAZE volume, and copy the downloaded file to this formatted USB stick, and double click to unpack if it is in a zipped format. Rename the unzipped folder that you copied to SECURAZE USB stick to "work"
Once done, you can plug in the SECURAZE USB stick in a NON-APPLE SILICON Mac, turn the Mac computer on and press and hold Command + R to start the Recovery mode. Open the Terminal (navigate to the top bar and click on Utilities, find and click on Terminal). IMPORTANT: Terminal commands are case-sensitive. Make sure to use correct uppercase and lowercase form.
The commands are now as follows: cd /Volumes/SECURAZE/work *Enter*
./start.sh *Enter*
Securaze Work will start, and you can perform the erasure.
Legacy Intel Mac without T2 security chip - Diagnose & Erasure
For erasure and diagnose of Macs without T2 security chip (old, legacy Mac Intel computers, that do NOT support macOS Catalina) you can use a bootable drive with Securaze Work ISO. These Macs have limitations to information that can be extracted with Work Linux image, such as battery condition. To create the bootable drive, you need to use a Windows machine, download Securaze Creator Windows on it, and Securaze Work ISO from the Downloads page. Install the Securaze Creator Windows, run it, login with your Securaze user credentials, select the option to create a bootable drive, plug in the USB drive, select it, and finally, select Work ISO. Click on Continue. Wait until the process is complete, take out the USB stick, plug it into the desired Mac, and hold down "Option key" to select the volume with Securaze Work. Detailed steps can be found in the User Manual: Page 9
Intel Mac with T2 security chip - Diagnose & Erasure
For erasure and diagnose of Macs with T2 security chip, you need a bootable drive, with Work OS (Catalina) on it. To create the bootable drive, you need to use an Intel Mac, download Securaze Creator Mac Intel on it, and Securaze Work macOS (Catalina). Install the Securaze Creator Mac Intel, plug in the external SSD into the Mac, select the volume as target, select the Work macOS Catalina .dmg file, and continue until process is completed. Steps are in User Manual: Page 94 Now, this bootable drive is ready to be plugged into Mac Intel computers, where you will select it from the Volume menu, boot, and start Securaze Work.
Warning: Intel Macs with T2 security chip will not allow external boot by default. You need to go through setup wizard, to be able to access Settings on Mac and change this permission (allow external boot), before you can boot Securaze Work macOS (Catalina) bootable drive on the machine. This is purely Apple limitation and it is the only way to perform DIAGNOSE on these machines. In case only erasure is needed, you can fallback to using Recovery mode + Terminal (solution 1 in this article) instead, as it is much faster.
When the Work application starts for the first time, you will receive an error that it cannot be opened due to security reasons. Click on Cancel, do not move the application to the bin. Then, navigate to the Finder -Applications - Security & Privacy. Under “Allow apps downloaded from:” section, you will see “SecurazeWork” was blocked from use because it is not from an identified developer. Click on Open anyway button, then on Open. You will see a message Administrator privileges are required to run the client. Click on OK. Close the Security & Privacy window. Go back to Finder - Applications and double click on Start Securaze Work icon. The application will start and the error will not appear again when using this bootable drive.
Mac with M1/M2/M3/M4 chip (Apple Silicon)
For erasure and diagnose of Macs with M1/M2/M3/M4 chip (Apple Silicon), you will need an Apple Silicon Mac (M1/M2/M3/M4 chip), and an external SSD (we recommend Samsung T7 SSD as a great performer). For this you do NOT need Securaze Creator! Please follow the instructional video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYoIbG7U5EU and / or the steps in User Manual on Page 99 to successfully complete the bootable drive creation. It is CRUCIAL to start the Work app through Terminal every time, and not from the GUI folder, as this will result in failed operations (no admin permissions).
When starting the Work application for the first time, you will receive an error that it cannot be opened due to security reasons. Click on Cancel, do not move it to the bin. Then, navigate to the Finder -Applications - Security & Privacy. Under “Allow apps downloaded from:” section, you will see “SecurazeWork” was blocked from use because it is not from an identified developer. Click on Open anyway button, then on Open. You will see a message Administrator privileges are required to run the client. Click on OK. Close the Security & Privacy window. You will be back in the Terminal screen. Click on arrow up key to repeat the ./full.sh command. Press enter. The application will start and the error will not appear again when using this bootable drive.
