How do I erase personal information?

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I am returning a iMac that I bought last weak from Best Buy, and I have ordered the NEW iMac from Apple...I want to erase all personal information before I return it...how do I do that?

Thanks,

Heath
 

chscag

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Probably the safest way is to boot the iMac with the install DVD, select Disk Utility from the top menu, and secure erase the hard drive. After that's finished, format the hard drive using HFS+ and reinstall OS X and applications.

Regards.
 

vansmith

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If you're relly paranoid, you could use DU to zero over your disk. This writes zeros all over the disk, making recovery much harder. In fact, there is an option to zero the HD enough that it meets military standards. This is probably overkill and it will take a long time. Even zeroing the drive once will take a while if it's large.
 
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Thanks, I dont believe I will zero the disk, I just want to get rid of stored personal information, like auto-fill stuff; and what is the key chain thingy?
 

chscag

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Thanks, I dont believe I will zero the disk, I just want to get rid of stored personal information, like auto-fill stuff; and what is the key chain thingy?

Drag to trash and use secure Trash empty. Finder -> Preferences -> Advanced. Place check in box that states "Empty Trash securely"

Regards.
 

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