How to disappear completely

[appleperson1]

Hello,

I have a Macbook Pro with Mavericks on it. I am selling it and want to make sure there is no trace of me or my data on it whatsoever. I erased the hard drive and reinstalled Mavericks in accordance with the directions on the apple website.

I then had to use my apple id to install Mavericks, so I figure that is in there somewhere.

I also had a quick look on the freshly installed Mavericks and it was looking for my bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and showed their names (my name) on the screen.

Both of these are concerning as I really don't want any trace of me on there. Can someone tell me what more I can do to wipe the thing clean?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[jenzjen]

Did you make a Mavericks UBS install key? I booted off the USB key so I could use Disk Utility to completely erase the HD before clean installing Mavericks.

 

[Weaselboy]

Is this a 2011+ machine? If so, do the following.

Do a command-option-r reboot and that will get you into Internet recovery. Once there start Disk Utility and select the drive name at the very top (like Seagate 1TB or whatever) and erase the whole disk as Mac OS Extended. Then quit Disk Util and click reinstall OS. That will get you back to the OS version that came with the machine and you will not be asked for an AppleID to install.

Once the install is done do a PRAM reset following this. That will clear any Bluetooth or wifi settings that were in the machine.

 

[appleperson1]

Amazing. THat's really helpful - thank you. Just one clarification - this is a 2009 machine. Do those '11+ instructions still apply?

 

[Nermal]

No. On a 2009 you'll need to run createinstallmedia to make a USB installer, and boot from that.

 

[Weaselboy]

Amazing. THat's really helpful - thank you. Just one clarification - this is a 2009 machine. Do those '11+ instructions still apply?

The PRAM reset does, but not the rest. That Internet recovery process is built into the firmware on newer Macs, so your 2009 won't have it. If you want to get back to the OEM OS, you will need to install it from the grey installer DVD that came with it.

Or you could make a USB installer of Mavericks and just install that way. Technically, this violates Apple's license agreement for the OS, but given the fact Mavs is free, I don't think the Apple Police will be particularly concerned about it.

 

[appleperson1]

Brilliant. Thanks again.

 

[appleperson1]

OK - new complication

So I attempted to follow the instructions given, but unfortunately when I went into disk utility and tried to erase the disk it said it couldn't unmount.

So then I erased the one within it called 'Macintosh HD', and tried again to erase the main disk, which again said it couldn't unmount.

Then I thought I better try the USB installer thing, but i've now realised I need to reinstall Mavericks as there's no OS installed now.

SO then I tried to reinstall Mavericks, but it is saying the volume is locked or something. So... I really don't know where to go from here. I can't deal with the unmounting thing per what i've found on forums, as I can't log in to the OS to begin with.

COmpletely lost. Any ideas greatly appreciated.

 

[Nermal]

It sounds like you followed the instructions for a 2011 machine instead of the 2009 ones. I'm not sure how to recover from that aside from using a working computer to create the USB stick (unless you have the original grey install DVDs).

 

[Weaselboy]

So I attempted to follow the instructions given, but unfortunately when I went into disk utility and tried to erase the disk it said it couldn't unmount.

So then I erased the one within it called 'Macintosh HD', and tried again to erase the main disk, which again said it couldn't unmount.

Then I thought I better try the USB installer thing, but i've now realised I need to reinstall Mavericks as there's no OS installed now.

SO then I tried to reinstall Mavericks, but it is saying the volume is locked or something. So... I really don't know where to go from here. I can't deal with the unmounting thing per what i've found on forums, as I can't log in to the OS to begin with.

COmpletely lost. Any ideas greatly appreciated.

You won't be able to erase the entire disk because you are still booted to the recovery partition on that same disk. The earlier instructions are for either a newer machine that supports Internet Recovery or for booting from a USB key.

Can you still command-r boot to the recovery partition? Try that then start Disk Util and look in the file menu and I believe the is a selection there to unlock the disk. Try that then erase the Macintosh HD partition and reinstall.

Then after that you can make your USB key and start over. When you boot from the USB key you should be able to erase the entire disk and reinstall with no AppleID.

 

[NewbieCanada]

How to disappear completely

Get an executive job at Blackberry.