Selling my Mac - Erase without reinstall?

[CalMin]

I bought a new 24in 2.4 Intel. It's awesome. More about that in another thread...

However, now my trusty iMac G5 is listed on eBay while it still has about a year of Applecare remaining. (You can PM me if interested ) .

My question is, I brought the thing to work to reinstall the OS while I work, and then realized I forgot to bring the Leopard DVD. In looking through disk utility I found an option to erase the free space. My question is will this protect me:

1) Create a new fresh account, then log into that new account.
2) From the new account delete ALL the old accounts
3) Use disk utility to erase the free space on the drive with 0's.

A fresh install is better, I know, but since my Leopard DVD is at home, I wondered if this solution might protect my private data.

Thoughts??

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I bought a new 24in 2.4 Intel. It's awesome. More about that in another thread...

However, now my trusty iMac G5 is listed on eBay while it still has about a year of Applecare remaining. (You can PM me if interested ) .

My question is, I brought the thing to work to reinstall the OS while I work, and then realized I forgot to bring the Leopard DVD. In looking through disk utility I found an option to erase the free space. My question is will this protect me:

1) Create a new fresh account, then log into that new account.
2) From the new account delete ALL the old accounts
3) Use disk utility to erase the free space on the drive with 0's.

A fresh install is better, I know, but since my Leopard DVD is at home, I wondered if this solution might protect my private data.

Thoughts??

I like this idea... but there's one catch. You may not be able to delete the administrator account that you created when you first installed Mac OS X (or first got the computer). If it works, it's certainly good enough for selling.

 

[xUKHCx]

It is a plan but there are is one potential problem with it.

Erase free space is notoriously bad, in regards to the way it performs. What it does is create a huge file full of junk. This grows and eventually fills up all the free space on the disk. This causes problems and it generally fails. This results in a state where there is absolutely no free space left on the computer.

There are multiple thread on this exact issue on here, worth looking into before you press the button. It is easy enough to sort out but can be very scary when it happens.

 

[CalMin]

Thanks for the quick responses. I'll give it a shot.

The auction ends on Sunday, so if I get time over the weekend, I'll do the proper reinstall, but I'm just trying to hedge in case I don't. This time of year, it's important to ship promptly. I really want the buyer to get it before Christmas.