If I sell My iMac...

[Squire]

Hello.

The superdrive on my 1 GHz 17" iMac is fried. Instead of getting it fixed, I'm seriously considering throwing it on this country's version of eBay (noting the defect, of course). My question is this: What steps should I take in safeguarding my privacy and backing everything up before the machine meets its new owner? Is there any sort of "Before You Sell" protocol to follow? I don't want to mess up my iPod or iPhoto library during the process. (It could be a month or so after the sale before I get another Mac.)

I have a .Mac account (which includes Backup), a 120 GB external HD, and a hit-or-miss superdrive.

I hope this doesn't seem like such a stupid question. (It's my first Mac sale.) I'd appreciate any help here or links to helpful articles.

Thanks,

Squire

 

[dotdotdot]

Make a disc image of your HD and store it on the external drive.

Then uninstall/reinstall (clean/fresh install) of OSX and the computer will not be yours anymore.

I think all data is in the disc image.

 

[Applespider]

Make a bootable copy of your HD on the external drive using Carbon Clone Copier or SuperDuper! Make sure that you test it by booting from the external drive and running a few apps etc. This will keep all your Apps and your iTunes library etc. Deauthorise your current computer for iTunes - and then do clean install of the OS using the original discs. The user will get it in 'as new' format but will have to perform any OS updates etc him/herself.

If your external drive has a firewire port, then when you get your new Mac, you can use the setup assistant to pull all your info into the correct place on your new Mac. If not, you'll be able to drag the appropriate files over once you finish setting up your new Mac. Don't 'restore' your boot copy to your new Mac - it will have different firmware etc

 

[Mechcozmo]

Make a bootable copy of your HD on the external drive using Carbon Clone Copier or SuperDuper! Make sure that you test it by booting from the external drive and running a few apps etc. This will keep all your Apps and your iTunes library etc. Deauthorise your current computer for iTunes - and then do clean install of the OS using the original discs. The user will get it in 'as new' format but will have to perform any OS updates etc him/herself.

If your external drive has a firewire port, then when you get your new Mac, you can use the setup assistant to pull all your info into the correct place on your new Mac. If not, you'll be able to drag the appropriate files over once you finish setting up your new Mac. Don't 'restore' your boot copy to your new Mac - it will have different firmware etc

I agree.

Write 0s over the hard disk too. That's done in the Installer Menu->Disk Utility and then the Erase Tab, Options. DO NOT HAVE THE FIREWIRE DISK CONNECTED WHEN YOU DO THIS. You aren't supposed to when running the installer anyways, and you don't want to accidentally erase it, do you?

 

[Squire]

Make a bootable copy of your HD on the external drive using Carbon Clone Copier or SuperDuper! Make sure that you test it by booting from the external drive and running a few apps etc. This will keep all your Apps and your iTunes library etc. Deauthorise your current computer for iTunes...

Okay. I think I can manage that. Thanks for the advice.

...and then do clean install of the OS using the original discs. The user will get it in 'as new' format but will have to perform any OS updates etc him/herself.

This might be a problem. As I stated, my optical drive is busted. Will I absolutely have to use the discs again? (Besides, I left them in Canada last month. I could borrow Panther discs from a coworker but, again, my machine might not be able to read them anyway.)

Squire

 

[macbaseball]

I'm not sure if this would work, but i'll throw it out there. Why don't you just pick up a cheap external cd-rom and connect it via USB or Firewire. Then when your done with the new OS, just put it up on your countries equivalent of ebay. I was looking at the clearance section of Lacie and they have a CD reader and burner, refurbished for 49.99(US). If you bought one of those and then turned around and sold it for 20.00 or 30.00 (US) then it wouldn't cost you very much in the end, and you might even make that money back in the auction b/c there was a new OS and programs.

Also this just came to me. You could buy a decent combo drive, and then install the new OS. Then when your done with it jsut throw it in the auction, as an alternative for the broken drive.

I've never had any experience with these external drives, but it makes sense.

 

[Bear]

...
This might be a problem. As I stated, my optical drive is busted. Will I absolutely have to use the discs again? (Besides, I left them in Canada last month. I could borrow Panther discs from a coworker but, again, my machine might not be able to read them anyway.)

Squire

If you use CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) to make a bootable copy of your harddrive on the external disk, you should boot from the external disk and then use Disk utility to fromat/erase the internal hard drive. No need for you to involve your optical drive at all.

Oh, and I suggest you use the SuperDrive on your next machine to make backups of your data and stuff. What would you have done if your harddrive had died instead of the opticall drive?

 

[Squire]

If you use CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) to make a bootable copy of your harddrive on the external disk, you should boot from the external disk and then use Disk utility to fromat/erase the internal hard drive. No need for you to involve your optical drive at all.

Last night, I successfully booted from the external hard drive. (System prefs>Startup disk) Will formatting/erasing my internal hard drive erase everything including OS X or just files I've added?

Oh, and I suggest you use the SuperDrive on your next machine to make backups of your data and stuff. What would you have done if your harddrive had died instead of the opticall drive?

You're right. I should have been a little more regular with my backups. However, I do make periodic backups of my most important files to my iPod. In other words, I wouldn't be up the creek. This exercise is just to ensure my transition from one machine to (I hope) the next will be seamless. And thanks to you fine folks here at MacRumors, it's looking like that will be the case. I sincerely appreciate the help.

Squire