02-24-2010, 06:07 PM

Hello to you all,

I'm about to sell my Macbook Pro but would like to totally clear all of my customisations and personal bits and bobs that I've accumulated from my machine. I also have no discs which will obviously affect the resale value.

My question(s) are, if I reinstall a OS X will this delete all of my personal data as in internet history, logs, user accounts, passwords, pics, files, add-on applications, etc?

I'm not sure which OS X I currently have but does anybody have any recommendations as to which one I could purchase? Are they all generally compatible with my mac?

From what I've seen they aren't too expensive to purchase and I'm sure potential buyers would be prepared to pay a little more for a Mac with discs and a clean install?

Any help, suggestions or comments much appreciated.

Jo.

02-24-2010, 09:06 PM

Welcome to Mac Forums Jo.
We need the specs of your MBP to be able to answer what you need.
If you go into Apple, about this Mac, it will tell you which version you are running and your machine specs.
Deleting all that stuff is quite simple, but a clean install is always a better option for resale, as are having the discs to go with the machine.
Post back with your specs etc.

02-25-2010, 05:47 PM

Hello and thanks for the friendly response!

...the spec is as follows:

MAC OS X
Version 10.6.2
Processor 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

02-25-2010, 07:19 PM

Nice.... You're in luck.
All you need is the Snow Leopard retail disc which you can get from Apple for approx $30
Also, if you ring Apple, you may be able to get the replacement grey discs (Leopard) that came with your machine at a relatively low price, but it is not essential. These grey disks contain iLife and the trial version of iWork as well, which are not on the Snow Leopard disc, and will be lost after the clean install.

02-25-2010, 09:09 PM

Including the Snow Leopard disc would be acceptable to some buyers, but if you want maximum value, you'll want to get the original system discs, which contain diagnostics, the OS and the iLife suite. We've had multiple members report being able to get them from Apple's parts department for about $20.

02-28-2010, 04:53 PM

^^ Many thanks for the advice guys!

03-09-2010, 06:35 AM

Morning all,

My Snow Leopard arrived a few days ago and I did an installation last night which took around an hour.

I thought I'd have a new system but I can still see old user accounts - is there any way to do a completely clean installation?

03-09-2010, 06:40 AM

Originally Posted by JamJo

Morning all,

My Snow Leopard arrived a few days ago and I did an installation last night which took around an hour.

I thought I'd have a new system but I can still see old user accounts - is there any way to do a completely clean installation?

Yes.

You should have (but didn't know to) select from the menubar once the Snow Leopard retail disc is booted up and choose "Disk Utility," which would allow you to completely erase the disk before proceeding with the install.

I recommend that you ZERO OUT the drive. This will take a while, but it's faster than the high-security passes (which take DAYS) and will get the job done of making it nearly impossible to recover any data.

When that's done you can then proceed to a fresh install.

It should be mentioned again that by doing this you are ROBBING the buyer of programs that would have come on your Mac originally, especially iLife which is a pretty important part of the whole Mac experience. You need to make sure the buyer is aware that they are NOT getting all the programs they would had you kept the original system discs that came with the machine, and will need to buy iLife themselves.

03-09-2010, 06:42 AM

To get to that above metioned menu bar you'll need to select the language first

03-09-2010, 08:09 AM

[QUOTE=chas_m;1014498]I recommend that you ZERO OUT the driveQUOTE]

Just double checking, do I Zero out the whole drive or just the partition?

03-09-2010, 09:16 AM

There should not be anything but the one partition. If that's not the case, erase the entire drive removing all partitions.

03-12-2010, 06:14 AM

I've found these options and selected the drive, clicked on the erase tab.

The only option is to erase deleted data but not to erase the whole drive. I can see the option I want but it is greyed out. (I've checked I am logged on as the Admin not as a guest).

Is there something I should have clicked prior to getting to this point?

03-12-2010, 06:40 AM

Select the drive, not the "drive name."

03-12-2010, 06:41 AM

You need to boot from the install disc (hold C down as soon as you hear the chime), and then proceed to chas_m's post above at 09:40 PM 03-09-2010.

03-12-2010, 08:39 AM

Found what I did wrong - I went directly to the Go menu and utilities instead of booting from the disc then choosing utilities.

Zero out is in progress! Thanks.