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I need your help [to prepare MacBook for sale]

H

hallo7878

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 3, 2016
7
0
Hello Apple friends,

i want to sell my Macbook Air 2014 El Capitan.

Can somebody help me and tell me which steps I should take regarding deleting and clean installing the mac.

Maybe I'm a little bit paranoid, but I dont want that the buyer recovers files and that he gets access to personal information/photos and so on. Is there a way to delete all files and make it impossible to recover them by the buyer?

I would be really happy, if someone could tell me how to delete my mac enterily. :)

ps: sorry for my bad english :)
 
  1. Before you begin, make sure your Mac is connected to the Internet.
  2. Restart your Mac. Immediately hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys after you hear the startup sound to start up in OS X Recovery.
  3. When the Recovery window appears, select Disk Utility then click Continue.
  4. Select the indented volume name of your startup disk from the left side of the Disk Utility window, then click the Erase tab.
  5. If you want to securely erase the drive, click Security Options. Select an erase method, then click OK.
  6. From the Format pop-up menu, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Type a name for your disk, then click Erase.
  7. After the drive is erased, close the Disk Utility window.
  8. If you’re not connected to the Internet, choose a network from the Wi-Fi menu.
  9. Select the option to Reinstall OS X.
  10. Click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions to reinstall OS X.
 
Thank you very much.
I cant click security options?

I think that this option isnt possible with El Capitan anymore, so im asking if theres another way to completely delete the mac to make it unrecoverable.
Thank you again for your help :)
 
For the truly suspicious....
Before you begin - You can enable FileVault to encrypt the hard drive.
Boot to Internet Recovery (Restart holding Option-Command-R. Release the keys when you see the spinning globe icon.)
Then, erase the encrypted volume, using Disk Utility.
It will not be possible to recover any kind of data from that encrypted/erased volume.
Then, reinstall OS X on the blank volume.
Don't set up the new user, just shut it off when the OS X install is complete.
The new owner gets the privilege of setting up their "new" Mac.
 
hallo7878 said:
@DeltaMac thank you very very much.
After this there's no way recovering anything?
...
Click to expand...

No, even if you get friendly with any of the 3-letter-name organizations.
Of course, you would not leave the drive erased, but would install OS X on the erased drive. Even if it were possible to retrieve anything it was scrambled, then erased - writing new data to the drive (reinstalling OS X) makes that remote possibility even less likely.
If you do that (encrypt, then erase, then reinstall OS X), you should then feel 100% confident that you have your files and apps under your control, and, at least for the drive in that MacBook, your data is forever gone.
 
Thanks, now i feel better selling my macbook. :)
[doublepost=1457032185][/doublepost]One last question:
Is there a difference between the Command (⌘) and R restart and the internet recovery?
 
On a standard installation, Command-R will boot your Mac to the recovery partition, which is a hidden partition on your hard drive.
Internet recovery, which is usually Option-Command-R, boots your Mac to Apple's remote servers (and does not boot to your local storage at all).
Of course, that also means that Internet recovery requires an internet connection for booting.

If the hard drive (or SSD) is not working properly, or no system is installed (a new replacement drive would not have any system installed), then Command-R will then attempt to connect to the remote servers. (Internet recovery)

You can easily see the difference when you first boot.
The local Recovery System will show the normal Apple icon at first boot
Internet recovery boot shows a spinning globe, meaning that you booting to Apple's remote servers.

Does that make sense to you?
 
I'm also interested in selling my MacBook (Pro), so I'm glad to have found this.

On a related note, is there a way to know what kind of reasonable value you can expect from a particular Mac?

I have a mid-2012 MBP 13", 2.5 Ghz, 4GB ram, upgraded to 1TB hybrid-SSD. Little minor wear but otherwise I'd say in very good condition.
 
ks987 said:
I'm also interested in selling my MacBook (Pro), so I'm glad to have found this.

On a related note, is there a way to know what kind of reasonable value you can expect from a particular Mac?

I have a mid-2012 MBP 13", 2.5 Ghz, 4GB ram, upgraded to 1TB hybrid-SSD. Little minor wear but otherwise I'd say in very good condition.
Click to expand...
I think the best way is to look at recently completed sales of that model on eBay.
 
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