Restoring before exchanging/selling

[TWO2SEVEN]

I decided that once Best Buy gets the new Mini I am going to exchange mine since I just bought it on the 3rd.

What do I need to do to reset it to factory settings and remove all of my data?

It's a 2011 i5 2.5ghz.

Thank you! 🙂

 

[philipma1957]

I decided that once Best Buy gets the new Mini I am going to exchange mine since I just bought it on the 3rd.

What do I need to do to reset it to factory settings and remove all of my data?

It's a 2011 i5 2.5ghz.

Thank you! 🙂

boot the machine with your finger pressing the letter r. when the choice of boot drives comes up use the online recovery to load the osx onto an external hdd name it different then the internal ( ie Mac 2)

when the osx is on the external hdd boot with it. then use that external hdd to erase the internal then partition the internal hdd. then boot with your finger on the letter r. once again pick the recovery and then load a new osx onto the internal hdd.

 

[TWO2SEVEN]

boot the machine with your finger pressing the letter r. when the choice of boot drives comes up use the online recovery to load the osx onto an external hdd name it different then the internal ( ie Mac 2)

when the osx is on the external hdd boot with it. then use that external hdd to erase the internal then partition the internal hdd. then boot with your finger on the letter r. once again pick the recovery and then load a new osx onto the internal hdd.

Thank you!

Is there a way to do it without a second HDD?

 

[Weaselboy]

Thank you!

Is there a way to do it without a second HDD?

You don't need a second drive.

Hold command-r when booting to go to the recovery partition. Start Disk Utility and erase Macintosh HD. You can use the secure erase feature is you really want to be safe, but it is very slow. Then just reinstall the OS after the erase. Done.

 

[TWO2SEVEN]

You don't need a second drive.

Hold command-r when booting to go to the recovery partition. Start Disk Utility and erase Macintosh HD. You can use the secure erase feature is you really want to be safe, but it is very slow. Then just reinstall the OS after the erase. Done.

Thanks! I appreciate it.

 

[TWO2SEVEN]

I bought MS Office using an online download from my school. Is it possible to transfer it to my new Mini?

Thanks!

 

[Weaselboy]

I bought MS Office using an online download from my school. Is it possible to transfer it to my new Mini?

Thanks!

You will need to redownload it and install it on the new machine and reenter the authorization codes. Even if you copied the apps over, they will see it is a new machine and ask for the codes.

 

[TWO2SEVEN]

You will need to redownload it and install it on the new machine and reenter the authorization codes. Even if you copied the apps over, they will see it is a new machine and ask for the codes.

That's what I figured. Thanks again!