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Help me prep a MacBook Pro for sale
- Thread starter Traxan
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Go to Disk Utility and Erase All Free Space. This writes zeros over all "free space." When you delete the file, it just changes toe pointer to mark it as deleted so it appears as free space, to be overwritten later. This data can be read by data recovery programs. When you erase all free space, it writes over all the free space so nothing that is not there can be recovered.
But it is better to reinstall OS X anyway. There may be traces still in existence. You can reinstall OS X even if you don't have disks. Boot into recovery, go to disk utility, select the main volume (Macintosh HD usually) and SECURE erase it (all you need is to zero-over). Then go to install. After install it will reboot and complete it. When it gets to the setup screen, press Command+Q to close it. Now it is ready for sale. When New owner opens it and turns it on, it will boot to setup screen, as if it was a new Mac, and they can regiter and configure it the way they want.
But it is better to reinstall OS X anyway. There may be traces still in existence. You can reinstall OS X even if you don't have disks. Boot into recovery, go to disk utility, select the main volume (Macintosh HD usually) and SECURE erase it (all you need is to zero-over). Then go to install. After install it will reboot and complete it. When it gets to the setup screen, press Command+Q to close it. Now it is ready for sale. When New owner opens it and turns it on, it will boot to setup screen, as if it was a new Mac, and they can regiter and configure it the way they want.
If you don't have the install CDs for Office, then you probably can't legally sell it to the next owner.
Yes, I don't run MS Office myself, but I think the thread starter wants to sell his Mac with all the installed software.
Well I have now made a mess. I made a new generic account, Admin, with password for the password. Made it admin, then removed my old account. Reboot, and the Users & Groups app won't let me access Admin. The password is password, I know this, but it won't accept it. Is there any way to get in at this point?