HD partitioned into 2 need to fix it

[SR 7]

1) For those that buy a used Mac, what are the steps you take to make it a completely new device? For example, do you do a clean wipe of the Hard Drive or other steps as well?

2) Also, do I need to install El Capitan on a bootable disc such as an external hard drive before I do a couple wipe of my Hard Drive?

3) So the HD has 2 partitions, 1 for boot camp and the other for mac, since I want to wipe the mac as it is just to make sure it is completely fresh and clean without any other previous apps or anything of that nature, do I just do a complete restore or is it a 2 step process for example, remove the partition first THEN do a wipe?

 

[T5BRICK]

1) For those that buy a used Mac, what are the steps you take to make it a completely new device? For example, do you do a clean wipe of the Hard Drive or other steps as well?

If I bought a used Mac I'd restore it. If it was a 2010 or newer model, I'd just use internet recovery.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

2) Also, do I need to install El Capitan on a bootable disc such as an external hard drive before I do a couple wipe of my Hard Drive?

Internet recovery will do everything you need.

3) So the HD has 2 partitions, 1 for boot camp and the other for mac, since I want to wipe the mac as it is just to make sure it is completely fresh and clean without any other previous apps or anything of that nature, do I just do a complete restore or is it a 2 step process for example, remove the partition first THEN do a wipe?

Delete both partitions, create a new one and format. Then install.

 

[SR 7]

If I bought a used Mac I'd restore it. If it was a 2010 or newer model, I'd just use internet recovery.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314



Internet recovery will do everything you need.



Delete both partitions, create a new one and format. Then install.

Its a late 2013.

delete both meaning even the Mac partition? How do I delete that then create a new one if you don't mind, thanks! appreciate it.

by the way, does restore mean clean install? or restore means it wipes the WHOLE HD and starts fresh so if ANYTHING was installed by the previous owner it would be gone.

 

[snaky69]

Its a late 2013.

delete both meaning even the Mac partition? How do I delete that then create a new one if you don't mind, thanks! appreciate it.

by the way, does restore mean clean install? or restore means it wipes the WHOLE HD and starts fresh so if ANYTHING was installed by the previous owner it would be gone.

I suggest you peruse Apple's website and read through help articles regarding disk utility and internet recovery.

From the recovery partition, in disk utility you can merge both partitions, wipe them clean and install a fresh copy of OS X on the computer, essentially setting it up as a new computer.

 

[SR 7]

I did "erase" the boot camp and extended the partition into the mac one but I didn't erase the mac one either, didn't think i needed to...but if I do erase it, won't I lose the computer in an essense since the OS is on that partition?

 

[snaky69]

I did "erase" the boot camp and extended the partition into the mac one but I didn't erase the mac one either, didn't think i needed to...but if I do erase it, won't I lose the computer in an essense since the OS is on that partition?

It doesn't matter. If you had read the link a previous poster gave you (from your answer I guess you have not) the OS is downloaded from the internet. You could technically pop a completely blank, brand new and unformatted SSD and still be able to install the OS. That's the whole point of internet recovery.

You want your computer to be in a blank, as new state, yes? Then you need to format the disk and install from scratch and that's that.

 

[CoastalOR]

I did "erase" the boot camp and extended the partition into the mac one but I didn't erase the mac one either, didn't think i needed to...but if I do erase it, won't I lose the computer in an essense since the OS is on that partition?

Yes, if you erase your Mac partition then all data is gone.
Here are some instructions I found by googling for "remove bootcamp from mac":
https://help.apple.com/bootcamp/assistant/6.0/#/bcmp59c41c31
http://www.macworld.com/article/1156195/delete_boot_camp.html
http://osxdaily.com/2014/05/09/remove-windows-boot-camp-partition-mac/

 

[SR 7]

so i finally got it down and erased the HD and exited the disk utility screen and did a reinstall of the OS. Up and running now so I suppose everything is good to go as far as it being as new as it gets without any data possibly on it.

One observation though, the HD had 3 more gb of data on it prior to me erasing and reinstalling the HD but my question is this; if the computer was restored (which it was from what I can see) prior to me receiving it, wouldn't the space in the HD match what it is now after i did the erase and reinstall?

For ex: under my restore it has lets say 487 gb free with 13 used, would it be the same before I did it? because it was at 484 gb free and 16 used so wondering what there could have been on this device that took up 3 gb because i found nothing when i was looking...

 

[omarsha]

so i finally got it down and erased the HD and exited the disk utility screen and did a reinstall of the OS. Up and running now so I suppose everything is good to go as far as it being as new as it gets without any data possibly on it.

One observation though, the HD had 3 more gb of data on it prior to me erasing and reinstalling the HD but my question is this; if the computer was restored (which it was from what I can see) prior to me receiving it, wouldn't the space in the HD match what it is now after i did the erase and reinstall?

For ex: under my restore it has lets say 487 gb free with 13 used, would it be the same before I did it? because it was at 484 gb free and 16 used so wondering what there could have been on this device that took up 3 gb because i found nothing when i was looking...

I strongly believe when you erase or format hard drive, the old data changed to a state that nobody can use or recover those (depends on how you erase) sometimes 7 pass erase or military grade erase etc. But still old data resides in the hard drive as a special format which holds some space and I believe your lost 3 GB contains those old data.

 

[maflynn]

But still old data resides in the hard drive as a special format which holds some space and I believe your lost 3 GB contains those old data.

Sorry that makes no sense at all. Reformatting doesn't move the old data somewhere .

Reformatting rebuilds the index of where files will be placed, and so technically the old data is still there, until disk operations start over-writing the data. That's why disk recovery programs and services and retrieve data. As time goes on the odds are less and less that it can be done as the data is over-written.

 

[Weaselboy]

so i finally got it down and erased the HD and exited the disk utility screen and did a reinstall of the OS. Up and running now so I suppose everything is good to go as far as it being as new as it gets without any data possibly on it.

One observation though, the HD had 3 more gb of data on it prior to me erasing and reinstalling the HD but my question is this; if the computer was restored (which it was from what I can see) prior to me receiving it, wouldn't the space in the HD match what it is now after i did the erase and reinstall?

For ex: under my restore it has lets say 487 gb free with 13 used, would it be the same before I did it? because it was at 484 gb free and 16 used so wondering what there could have been on this device that took up 3 gb because i found nothing when i was looking...

There are some cache files and also some disk area used for swap space that gets wiped when you erase and reinstall, and that would easily account for the difference.