How to prep a Mac for sale with no OSX disc

Tazzfalcon

Tazzfalcon

Tazzfalcon

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Hi all,

I don't think this is contravening forum rules as I'M NOT soliciting a sale.

My GF has a 24" imac (I think it's 2 generations old) and has just bought a shiny new macbook pro. She may want to sell the big ol imac but doesn't know the best way to prepare if for sale. She doesn't have the original disks as these were lost in a move (Leopard I think)

I know if you want to sell a used PC the obvious thing to do is format and completely wipe the hard drive then reinstall windows. How can you do this without the discs for a Mac though?

Any help appreciated. Thanks.
 
Did she buy Lion for it from the App Store?

Easiest method really is to buy Lion from the App Store on the MBP, image it to a USB stick, boot and install off that.
 
I read posts again and again about people "losing their install disks". Is this a euphemism for saying I never really had a legit disk in the first place? How can people lose things like this? Personally I don't think I've ever lost anything of value like this in my entire life, I'm genuinely puzzled.
 
Don't need discs if you have the internet, most modern macs will download a fresh copy of lion when reinstalling from the recovery partition.
 
CrispyXUK said:
Don't need discs if you have the internet, most modern macs will download a fresh copy of lion when reinstalling from the recovery partition.
Click to expand...

This is true, though I do still have my SL disks. I can't let go of them, bit like a comfort blanket even though I have Lion. Mind you I still have install disks for W95 W98 XP Vista and W7. :eek:
 
The other option is to clean up the existing installation. Clean up the Applications folder then create a new admin user account for the purchaser and using this delete the existing users. Finally use Disk Utility to securely wipe the free space on the disk with multiple passes if required.

Should take care of most of the personal data.
 
Faustus said:
I read posts again and again about people "losing their install disks". Is this a euphemism for saying I never really had a legit disk in the first place? How can people lose things like this? Personally I don't think I've ever lost anything of value like this in my entire life, I'm genuinely puzzled.
Click to expand...

We clearly aren't all as perfect as you Faustus. The disc was kept in the original box which was binned by a well meaning relative during a move/clear out period as they thought it was empty.
 
Faustus said:
I read posts again and again about people "losing their install disks". Is this a euphemism for saying I never really had a legit disk in the first place? How can people lose things like this? Personally I don't think I've ever lost anything of value like this in my entire life, I'm genuinely puzzled.
Click to expand...

I work under the pretense that every Mac came with reinstallation discs, and as such you're entitled to install whatever version of the OS that came with the machine, on to the machine. Regardless of having your specific reinstallation discs or not

Leopard is dated these days, and Lion is cheap as anything. Although, you need an App Store capable machine to get it.

As Concorde says, I'd download Lion, open the Installer.app and copy out the InstallESD.dmg. Follow the online instructions to write that to a USB drive and you're good to go.
 
If you want to have the "out of the box experience" you can use this:

Boot into single user mode (hold cmd + shift + s)

Then when it loads you can type out the following, hitting return after each line:

sbin/fsck -fy

sbin/mount -uw /

mount -uw /

rm -R /library/preferences/

rm -R /users/test/

rm var/db/dslocal/nodes/default/users/USERNAME.plist - ofc replace USERNAME with your current username.

rm var/db/.applesetupdone

exit

------

This basically removes the account and preferences for the associated user that you type, then when the Mac restarts you get the usual out of the box experience where you have to enter the details etc.... as well.
 
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