Safely selling imac for parts

[sk8chris]

Hi everyone

I am looking to sell my 2008 intel imac for spares after the logicboard died and would really appreciate some advice on how to do this safely.

I have no way of wiping or restoring the machine it only boots up to a noisy grey screen then solid blue. It would not boot in safe mode or from the disc which is now stuck in the machine refusing to eject.

I have removed the hard drive already but I am wondering is there any other sensitive information that gets stored in other areas like the RAM? I am mainly concerned about internet data I.e passwords, browsing history, bookmarks because I have used this machine for online banking, shopping ect and there are other things like my background was me and my girlfriend on holiday and even though the harddrive with photos was removed i was told the RAM stores display info and I don't like the idea of someone getting our photos.

I don't want to sound paranoid but you can't be to careful these days I guess.

Any help would be great

Thanks

 

[Weaselboy]

You are in good shape. If you pulled the hard drive, any personal data etc was on there. There is nothing stored in RAM or firmware.

 

[benwiggy]

RAM does not store information if there is no power to it.

I don't want to sound paranoid but you can't be to careful these days I guess.

Yes, you can be too careful. You need only be as careful as is necessary. Doing anything after that is being too careful.

"You can't be too careful" is often said to justify doing things which have no factual purpose or benefit.

"You could pass the RAM through a very high magnetic field."
"Will that help?"
"No, not really."

 

[ChrisA]

.
I don't want to sound paranoid but you can't be to careful these days I guess..

In your case the hard drive store ALL the information. Newer computer with "fusion" drives have FLASH that can also hold information. But you don't have that.

 

[phoenixsan]

I second.....

all the previous posters. Not to worry if you physically removed the original HDD. It can be used with an enclosure in another computer, if wanted. Or stored safely if the info on it is too sensitive.