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Arganos0

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 24, 2008
55
0
Hey there,

I'm going to sell my macbook. I was wondering if it's possible to wipe my hard disk fully, and make the mac start a clean installation when it's powered on (like when you buy a new mac) for the new user.

I tried to google it, but didn't find anything very helpful.

Kind regards,

Arganos0
 
You should be able to do a clean install from the install disk, then at the point where it asks you to restart instead remove the disk and shut it down. On the next boot it should then run through the next step of the setup where it asks for your details etc... just like when you buy a new Mac.

It's probably worth testing it first as I'm not certain, though as far as I know it should work.

Also of note is that you might want to use disk utility on the install disk to erase (zero out) the hard drive first, so that your old files can't be recovered by the new owner using file recovery software.
 
You should be able to do a clean install from the install disk, then at the point where it asks you to restart instead remove the disk and shut it down. On the next boot it should then run through the next step of the setup where it asks for your details etc... just like when you buy a new Mac.

Yes, but if you want to install iLife and any updates, just delete this file when you are done:

/var/db/.applesetupdone

The next boot will be like new, where it walks through the setup.
 
To get the Welcome animation on next reboot you apparently delete this file, in a terminal:

sudo rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
 
The downside of removing the /var/db/.applesetupdone file later though is that you'll leave the account you used to do the setup/install iLife etc... on the machine. Whether this is actually an issue or not is another matter.
 
The downside of removing the /var/db/.applesetupdone file later though is that you'll leave the account you used to do the setup/install iLife etc... on the machine. Whether this is actually an issue or not is another matter.

Doesn't applesetup create a new admin account? I thought it did.
 
Doesn't applesetup create a new admin account? I thought it did.
Yes I'm pretty sure it does, what I meant was the account you would have used to set up iLife and install updates would still be on the machine. So the new user would end up with two accounts, the one they set up and the one the previous owner set up. Of-course the new user can then go into the account preferences and delete the previous owners account if they wanted.
 
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