Boot from superdrive using external display

[mrblue]

It finally works but only when I updated to mavericks...lol

Now Im in disk utility, I can erase drive but why is security options greyed out, i want to do a 5 pass but is greyed out...

[pigoo3]

You must have booted into the main HD partition. You cannot do a secure erase on the main partition while booted into it.

You need to boot from the recovery partition...command + r (no plus sign).

- Nick

[mrblue]

Thats exactly what I did, command r, I never tried pressing c or option

[pigoo3]

This is turning into a bit of an emergency, the Mac is all but sold,and,have,a couple of days to reformat drive.

Back on November 27th (about 7 days ago) you mentioned that this computer was sold...and you had a couple days to sort things out. What's up with that?

To be very honest...doing what you want to do is normally a very very straight-forward task. Rarely has someone run into this much trouble doing a secure erase on a computer HD prior to selling.

- Nick

[pigoo3]

By the way...if you think I was kidding...read this thread from earlier today:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/app...ml#post1554486

The OP needs to do exactly what you need to do. Sell their computer & erase the HD before selling. Very simple process:

- Boot into the recovery partition
- Launch Disk Utility
- Erase the HD

Good to go!

- Nick

[mrblue]

I said all but sold meaning the laptop was nearly sold but I wasn't for letting it go to the guy interested until I had the drive wiped...

I don't see why that is relevant.

I have booted into recovery partition, I can erase the drive ok but I cannot click security options to select and 5 or 7 pass erase..

[bobtomay]

I said all but sold meaning the laptop was nearly sold but I wasn't for letting it go to the guy interested until I had the drive wiped...

I don't see why that is relevant.

How about just plain old friendly "curiosity"?

Particularly when you start the thread off with:

This is turning into a bit of an emergency, the Mac is all but sold,and,have,a couple of days to reformat drive.

And it's now 9-10 days later?
It's like a friend asking a question.
We can quit asking questions and quit helping also.
None of us get paid to do this... we're all here trying to help out because we like doing it.

[pigoo3]

I said all but sold meaning the laptop was nearly sold but I wasn't for letting it go to the guy interested until I had the drive wiped...

I don't see why that is relevant.

bobtomay summed things up nicely. I was just curious how things were going with the sale. It sounded from your beginning post like the computer was sold and you only had a couple days to get things in order.

Since the "erase the HD" situation has now taken a week+...I didn't know how that impacted things.

Have a good one,

- Nick

[mrblue]

I appreciate every post that was helpful. I have the macbook sold in principal, obviously I want to get the hard drive wiped before i make the sale.

This is turning into a bit of debacle and I can assure you its unintended on my behalf, I have never had so much bother wiping a hard drive....

And problems continue, i hit the erase button, hard drive is wiped but restarting mac I can't get to the osx install...

Now I have nothing, no operating system to boot to, have pressed command r, no joy, pressed c, pressed option....im getting absolutely nothing.

At best if I wait, I can a grey screen on my external monitor with a mouse arrow which I can move about ok but nothing of any help....

Have bootable dvd of mountain lion, have pressed c while superdrive connected but no luck....im in process of making a usb bootable copy of mavericks....

But things don't appear bright....

Are there any other types of lcd screen thats are compatible with the macbook air display cable socket on the motherboard and I can possible hook up another display temporarily to get it sorted...

[bobtomay]

What happens when you boot up with command + R now?
One of the options is to install OS X.

[mrblue]

I have got it all sorted. Thanks for those who helped me. Admin, can you please delete this thread....

[bobtomay]

We do not delete threads.

How about sharing how you ultimately solved it for the next person with the same issue?
Am sure there will be plenty of others with dead screens wanting to pass along their computers.