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Reformating a Mac for donation

Page history last edited by Alison King 15 years, 1 month ago

I have a G4 I want to give away and need to delete files and remove all personal information before I do.  Here are how-to responses from alumni:

 

Hi Allison

These might help:

http://www.download.com/1770-20_4-0.html?tag=mncol%3Bsort&query=erase+comput

er&searchtype=downloads&filter=platform%3DMac&filterName=platform%3DMac&rpp=

10&sort=totaldl4+asc

Jessica

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I've done this before - I donated computers to a school (macs). I recommend reformatting the hard drive and reinstallng the system software. It'll wipe everything off that way.....

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You'll need to reformat the drive. To do so, you'll need to find the "install" disks, or get a copy from a friend, and then run the computer from the disc while you wipe the hard drive...

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/661678.html

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=250141

Hope that helps..

AKo

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http://www.udel.edu/pnpi/tools/erase/mac/erasefiles.html

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/permanenteraser.

html

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Years ago the was something called disk wipe or secure erase. You may also be able to do secure erase trash and set up a new user.

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Hi Alison,

The easiest way to do this is to reformat the drive with a security wipe, then reinstall the system.

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If you have the system disk (use the most recent one you have...fall back to the original CDs only as a last resort, as they're much older software at this point), you can do this all from the CD. Just load the CD and reboot holding "C". This will boot into the installer. From here, you can run disk utility (there's usually a "Utilities" menu of some sort in the installer). Run Disk Utility, and choose "Erase Disk". From there, you'll get some security options...you want "Zero all data", which simply writes "0000000000" across everything. Needless to say, this will make your data unrecoverable. (There are super-secure multiple wipe options, but these are overkill).

After that, quit Disk Utility and run the OSX installer to get a fresh copy of the system on there. Have the kid create a new user, run software update to get the latest OS tweaks, and you're good to go!

If you don't want to reinstall the system, delete your user and any applications you don't want to pass along and then use Disk Utility to Erase Free Space. See here for details: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=diskutility/10.5/en/duh1010.html

Let me know if I glossed over anything important...

Good luck,

-Chris

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http://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa?q=reformat%20hard%20disk&dateRange=last90days&rankBy=10001&threadID=1888192

Good luck

-    Peter Macdonald

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Thanks for the help!

 

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