Questions regarding, selling an iMac.

[Mikey86uk]

Hi Guys.

My parents want to sell there 21.5" 2011 iMac as they don't use it anymore.

Main questions are, is it ok to sell it with the latest version of MacOS or does it need to go back to the OS that it shipped with, which in this case is OSX Lion?

Reason I ask is, im not sure if you download the latest OS from the Mac App Store as to whether its still linked to your Apple ID or not?

And we cant seem to find the original install discs so if that was the case it would be a little difficult.

2. Whats the best way to wipe the HDD and leaving it ready for the new owner?

3. How much would be a respectable asking price (£) for this model.

Specs:

2.5Ghz Quad Core Intel i5
500GB HDD
8GB RAM
Magic Keyboard And Mouse
Original Box
Good condition

Thanks for any help received.

 

[Lunder89]

macOS no longer ties to your Apple ID, so you can sell it with the latest version of macOS.
There is a few extra tips here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065

I don't know what tool to use to completely erase the HD, nor do I have a suggestion for the price. But check the prices of similar models on sale, then you have a good guide line.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

If the 500GB drive is hopefully an SSD, maybe $350.00. If a slow old platter, much less say about $225.00.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd sell it with either El Capitan or Low Sierra installed (NOT High Sierra).
This will give the buyer an up-to-date OS that should work with most everything.

So...
Get a USB flashdrive 8gb or 16gb.
Get the FREE "boot buddy" utility (google it), or "diskmaker X".
Get a copy of either the El Cap or Low Sierra installer app
Use BB or Diskmaker to create a BOOTABLE USB flashdrive installer.

Then...
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE, boot up the iMac using the OS and account that's on it now, and DE-enroll it from the iTunes store, app store, etc. Remove all prior "online ownership", otherwise the new owner could have problems.

Next...
Boot from the USB flashdrive installer
Close the installer. Then open Disk Utility and ERASE the internal drive to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition map.
Now, quit DU and re-open the installer.
Install a clean copy of the OS onto the internal drive. This will take some time and the Mac may reboot at least once.
When done, you will be presented with the initial setup screen (just as you see with a new Mac).

If the Mac has already been sold, you can just pull the plug out of the wall and hand it over to the new buyer, and let them set it up to their liking from there.

 

[ThatSandWyrm]

Not sure if this works on all earlier Macs, but when I sold my late-2015 27" iMac, all I did (after de-authorizing iTunes and all my cloud accounts) was reboot while holding Alt-R to enter recovery mode. I then entered my WiFi password to let the iMac boot from Apple's servers, and I had my choice of operating systems to reinstall with (I reformatted the SSD first). With a fast internet connection, you can have the whole thing ready for sale in half an hour or so. When the buyer turns it on, they'll asked to setup an account as if they'd just bought it at the Apple store.
[doublepost=1522215091][/doublepost]As for price, have a look on eBay to see what the going rate seems to be. I advertised my iMac on a neighborhood website for a little less than the going eBay price, and had it sold in less than two days.

 

[Lunder89]

@ThatSandWyrm When you reformat a SSD drive, you won't have to worry about anyone attempting to restore any files that has previously been on the drive, since SSD makes this almost impossible. But with regular HDDs it is possible to restore files, if they havn't been overwritten by something else.

And I think that might be what the OP is worried about.

 

[Mikey86uk]

My bad, forgot to mention its not an SSD just a standard 500GB disk drive.

I’ve Signed out of icloud,iTunes and messages.

Rebooted holding shift-option-command-R which first brought up a spinning globe and has now taken me to disk Utility.

From the little logo on install macOS it seems to be wanting to install Lion. Is it to late for me to see if I can install a newer version without the need for an Apple ID?

Sorry for the confusion, haven’t sold a computer before so just wanting to make sure I don’t miss anything.

 

[ThatSandWyrm]

My bad, forgot to mention its not an SSD just a standard 500GB disk drive.

I’ve Signed out of icloud,iTunes and messages.

Rebooted holding shift-option-command-R which first brought up a spinning globe and has now taken me to disk Utility.

From the little logo on install macOS it seems to be wanting to install Lion. Is it to late for me to see if I can install a newer version without the need for an Apple ID?

Sorry for the confusion, haven’t sold a computer before so just wanting to make sure I don’t miss anything.

I thought I remembered there being a selection of OS's, with the default being whatever the Mac shipped with. But I haven't gone through the process enough to be sure.
If Lion is the only option, just sell it that way and let the customer do the upgrade. Otherwise you'll have to make a user account to upgrade it later. Which is messy.

 

[Lunder89]

If you have an 8 GB USB drive laying around you can create a recovery USB drive with macOS High Sierra.
You need to use Disk Utility to format the drive with a GUID partition table, and name it "Untitled" (without the ")

Then use this command in the app called "Terminal":
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app

When it prompts for a password, just enter the password to unlock the account and hit enter. It won't show any dots or stars on screen, but it does register the keystrokes.
Give it about 20-30 minutes, and you have an installer drive with macOS High Sierra. You can boot from that, just by holding the ALT key when turning on the iMac.

 

[Mikey86uk]

Thanks for all your help guys.

What I ended up doing was booting into recovery mode and the Mac downloaded the closest release to the one the iMac shipped with, which in this case was Mountain Lion.

I then went into disk utility and erased the pervious partition so there wasn't a MacOS installed and I then did "Erase free space" and selected the secure option. Then left it to install Mountain Lion and when I came back I have the welcome screen.

So im assuming I don't need to go any further and its ready to sale?

@Lunder89

Thanks for the info on how to create a recovery USB Drive, im going to do that for my own 2015 27" iMac for future MacOS releases as I always like to do a clean install and that seems like the easiest way to do it.

 

[Lunder89]

Thanks for all your help guys.

What I ended up doing was booting into recovery mode and the Mac downloaded the closest release to the one the iMac shipped with, which in this case was Mountain Lion.

I then went into disk utility and erased the pervious partition so there wasn't a MacOS installed and I then did "Erase free space" and selected the secure option. Then left it to install Mountain Lion and when I came back I have the welcome screen.

So im assuming I don't need to go any further and its ready to sale?

@Lunder89

Thanks for the info on how to create a recovery USB Drive, im going to do that for my own 2015 27" iMac for future MacOS releases as I always like to do a clean install and that seems like the easiest way to do it.

Nice find, the Secure free space deletion. I forgot that it was once a part of the Disk Utility.
Happy to help