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Selling Mac Mini - factory restore?

T

test13

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 12, 2016
4
0
Wellington
Hi,

The company I work for has decided to get rid of the Mac Mini that has been sitting in the server room for 6 years. Because I am the IT person I have been asked to prepare it for sale but I know almost nothing about the mac.

I would like to do a factory restore (which I am pretty sure I could do without your help) but the mac mini shipped with iOS 9 and was upgraded to iOS 10. I don't know where the iOS 10 disk (i there is one) or the licence (again if there is one) is so I am worried that if I do a factory restore I will lose iOS 10 and have to sell the mac mini with the lesser iOS 9.

If I do a factory restore will I lose iOS 10?
Is there a way to recover the iOS 10 licence details?

Thanks
Test13
 
iOS is the operating system on the phones/tablets. :)

If you're running 10.7 or later, you can hold CMD + R on startup to boot into the Recovery OS. Then erase the disk volume through Disk Utility. It's normally called Macintosh HD by default and you'll need to select the bottom of the two partitions (indented), as the top of the two partitions is the entire hard disk and that can't be wiped due to having the recovery OS on it.

Once that's done, close Disk Utility and select Reinstall OS X/macOS. Set it to install on the newly formatted volume. You won't need to worry about a licence key. It's not Windows! There's no activation. The only thing it may do is prompt you to sign in with an Apple ID, that has had the OS already downloaded through it. However this is only for verification purposes and it will not link the OS to it in any way or retain those details.

Then you're good to go!

You can also run through the same instructions above on 10.7+ by booting into Internet Recovery (hold CMD + Alt/Option + R on startup).
 
Last edited:
just download the latest OS X/macOS from the app store. put it on a USB and boot up from it. Secure erase the SSD/HDD in the disk utility and install the OS from the USB.
 
keysofanxiety said:
iOS is the operating system on the phones/tablets. :)

If you're running 10.7 or later, you can hold CMD + R on startup to boot into the Recovery OS. Then erase the disk volume through Disk Utility. It's normally called Macintosh HD by default and you'll need to select the bottom of the two partitions (indented), as the top of the two partitions is the entire hard disk and that can't be wiped due to having the recovery OS on it.

Once that's done, close Disk Utility and select Reinstall OS X/macOS. Set it to install on the newly formatted volume. You won't need to worry about a licence key. It's not Windows! There's no activation. The only thing it may do is prompt you to sign in with an Apple ID, that has had the OS already downloaded through it. However this is only for verification purposes and it will not link the OS to it in any way or retain those details.

Then you're good to go!

You can also run through the same instructions above on 10.7+ by booting into Internet Recovery (hold CMD + Alt/Option + R on startup).
Click to expand...

Thanks CoastalOR.
There is only one partition called Macintosh HD, there does not seem to be a recovery partition. There is also no option to Reinstall OS X/macOS.
[doublepost=1481677421][/doublepost]
CoastalOR said:
Here is Apples instructions on how to prepare for sale of a used Mac.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065
Click to expand...

I tried working through https://support.apple.com/en-nz/HT204904 but I suspect it is for a newer version on the OS than I have.
 
test13 said:
Thanks, I have ordered an OS upgrade disk.
Click to expand...
Hopefully you already thought of this - but was there actually any company data on the internal hard drive of the mini?
If it solely contained the OS and some apps, but all data was resident elsewhere (external enclosures, for example), then you're fine. But, if not, you really should be doing a random fill, multiple times on that drive to make sure none of the company data can be recovered by unscrupulous folks.

A few that you can make bootable CD/DVD's of here: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/wipe-your-hard-disk-before-lending-or-giving-away/

Then just put a fresh load of OSX on it so the new owner is good to go.
 
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