Erasing My Macbook

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Grant49

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I recently got a new MacBook and am looking to sell my old Macbook 13 inch White (2007).
Obviously there is lots of user data etc. still on it and I would like to do a complete 'refresh' of the machine.

The problem is that I don't have the original discs with me atm. What will happen if I do an 'erase' on the home disc?

What is the best way of going about this?

Thanks all :)
 
Use your new disks to load a new install on the old mbp (in the process you get to wipe everything)
 
The OSX install DVD has Disc Utility on. Boot off the install DVD, start up the disc utility, select your drive, on the right hand side, select "erase" and click on the "security options" button. Here you can choose to simply zero out everything on the drive, do a 7-pass erase, or do a 35-pass erase. Choose the one appropriate for your level of paranoia... :)

Be aware that these options take a long time.
 
[)roi(];5180753 said:
Use your new disks to load a new install on the old mbp (in the process you get to wipe everything)
Click to expand...
Some of the install disks are model specific iirc so you might not be able to use them.
 
Just use disk utility, it's built into the Snow Leopard install disks.
 
Create a new user in System Preferences called Admin or whoever's name is getting the old Macbook (must be an Admin user), log into that user, go to System Preferences again, delete your user account, if it asks you to save the old user account info say no, NB, any application that you've installed will stay on the Mac and the new user will be able to use it, all your personal information will be wiped off the mac(unless you've gone and saved files somewhere other than your home directory.).
 
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thanks for the help.

About the Disk Utility option; that is what I thought of doing straight away but was suggested not to and rather go from the disk. Is there a difference? It might be a stupid q, but will it redo the machine including all OS contents? I.e not wipe EVERYTHING off?

@StbA I think your advice is best for what I want to do, as I have iWork 09 and Office 2008, which would be a bonus to include in the package.
 
Grant49 said:
@StbA I think your advice is best for what I want to do, as I have iWork 09 and Office 2008, which would be a bonus to include in the package.
Click to expand...
Which you're not planning on using on your new machine?

Unless you take precautions most of the data you 'delete' when you remove the user account will probably be recoverable. ;)

Qn - Are you going to make a plan to provide the disks with the laptop?
 
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StbA said:
Create a new user in System Preferences called Admin or whoever's name is getting the old Macbook (must be an Admin user), log into that user, go to System Preferences again, delete your user account, if it asks you to save the old user account info say no, NB, any application that you've installed will stay on the Mac and the new user will be able to use it, all your personal information will be wiped off the mac(unless you've gone and saved files somewhere other than your home directory.).
Click to expand...

Best answer, unless really paranoid. This will keep all the apps intact, especially iLife which will be on the restore disk.
You can also erase the free space in disk utility once you removed your account and other data. Same options on zero'ing the data apply, 1 pass, 7 passes etc.
 
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bwana said:
Which you're not planning on using on your new machine?

Unless you take precautions most of the data you 'delete' when you remove the user account will probably be recoverable. ;)

Qn - Are you going to make a plan to provide the disks with the laptop?
Click to expand...

I got iLife 11 with the new one, and moved over the others (iWork 09 and MSOffice) - am I allowed to tell you iWork was downloaded?, should I delete it when selling or would people be happy?
 
If you advertise it as "software x and software y included" but software x turns out to be your personal copy of which you don't include the license, and software y turns out to be pirated, the buyer may be a cheapskate who was going to pirate it anyway, or the buyer may be someone who expected the software to be legit. Either ways, it's false advertising. Selling pirate software is also not exactly legal.
 
You can leave Office on - once started on a new profile, it will ask the buyer for license key. Just make sure your ad goes something like "MS Office installed, license NOT included."
 
The fasted way to do a secure erase on a hard drive is to use the hard drives own internal ATA secure erase command/function. It's more secure than external block erase utilitities that cost $$$ and way faster. Secure Erase utility was previously sponsored by the NSA & endorsed by the NIST. It will erase DCO & HPA disk areas as well as remapped sectors.

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

The same functionality can be gained from using the MHDD diagnostics utility.

If you need more security then you need to physically destroy the disk by melting it down or something.
 
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Sorry for late reply. I asked for R4500 on gumtree and FB marketplace (saw most were around R5000 for similar specs). This because it had a slight crack in the plastic casing. Got offered R4000 cash and took it.
 
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