My Mac won't turn on but I'd like to sell it for spare parts. How can I make sure there's no personal information stored on the hard drive for the buyer to retrieve?
MacBook – Selling the broken Macbook. How to make sure there’s no personal information on the hard drive
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Related Solutions
If you are really concerned with the next owner recovering your files, which can be done even if you emptied the Trash, then you should format the drive:
Open Disk utility, select the drive, select the erase tab and click on security options, then choose one othe following:
I don't know why the sale doesn't include a wipe and reinstall, but I don't see why it shouldn't as a mac always comes with a licensed OS, you just format the drive and reinstall MacOS and you're done.
You can't erase the drive you are currently booted to. You have to boot from an external drive with Mac OS X installed, or boot from the Install DVD.
- While in the Finder, go to the "Finder" menu and select "Preferences".
- From the "General" tab, place a check next to "Hard disks" -- this will make your hard drive visible on the Desktop.
- From the "Sidebar" tab under "Devices" again place a check next to "Hard disks" -- this will put your hard drive in the sidebar of any finder window, and should also add it to "Open", "Save", and "Save As..." dialog sheets (as well as others)
If you are an administrator on the computer you should have no trouble adding files and folders to the root directory (/)
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Best Answer
Depending on what model it is, if it has an Optical drive then you can insert the install disc that came with the machine and boot to the disc where you can use Disk utility to erase the drive.