Cleaning iMac before giving it away.

Our new sleek IMac's are here and the store transfered all the data. I plan on giving our old computers to family members however on mine there is some information that must stay confidential. What would you recommend I do. I have the original discs that came with it.
Thanks

If you have the original disks that came with the machine, wiping it clean is easy. Boot with the original install disk and use "Disk Utility" from the top menu "Utilities" to wipe the drive clean. Re-format the drive and then install OS X.

If you opt to follow chscag's advice, DO NOT set up an account when you reinstall OS X. When the machine reboots following the OS X reinstall, just let it play the opening animation and then when it asks for a language, let it sit there for a few minutes and then power down by holding the power button for four seconds.

If the original disks are not available what is another option, if there is one.

Update: is it called CPU Drop-in DVD?

klutchdust said:

If the original disks are not available what is another option, if there is one.

Click to expand...

YIKES. Almost 11 months later...and this project still isn't completed. Things aren't moving very quickly!

Anyways. The lowest cost method (assuming the computer you need to "wipe" is an Intel Mac)...would be to purchase a $19.99 Snow Leopard disk to boot from...and do the hard drive wipe.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.)

- Nick

Download GParted ISO from GParted -- A free application for graphically managing disk device partitions and use that to create a bootable disc and use that to wipe the hard drive.

Snow Leopard OS X.6 as suggested and not GParted for Windows.

YIKES. Almost 11 months later...and this project still isn't completed. Things aren't moving very quickly!

Hey, Im retired . More fun stuff to do like camp in the desert, surf fishing, drag racing . Cheers!