I cannot earse my computer for trade in

ladycheshire5 wrote:

I'm doing a trade-in with my old MacBook. I read that I need to erase the hard drive and I have followed the steps outlined by the process, and looked up on the internet how to do it also, both ways get me to disk utility and when I select the only disk available the option to "erase" is not given. The button is "greyed out" and cannot be selected. Can I just send the device with out erasing? Can I trust apple to erase? i can't get support to work for on-line chat or email with apple right now.

What steps, what process?

You do not say what exact Mac /model /year /size /retina /touchbar is this

or

what exact macOS you are currently running?

Is the machine bootable?

Did you Boot into Recovery and use the Disk Utility.app there.

Disk Utility>View>Show all Devices—you want erase/format the parent drive.

Recovery http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

.

I have followed the steps outlined by the process

What steps and process?

And, did yours originally come with install disks? We really need to know what year/model because the methods of preparing it for sale or trade in differ depending on the age/year of the device.

ladycheshire5 wrote:

I didn’t know I needed to include such details. It should be basic, i have gone thought the steps you outlined in your response. The drive that is avail through disk utility isn’t allowing an erase option. Apple says they tell you how to do this for trade in if your device. They say basically what you have said, I’ve read the same info on the internet and when I am in disk utility the only avail drive under all available is the MacBook HD that looks like it’s connected to with/to my external Toshiba drive but that is not connected. Nothing else is listed and when I select that the “erase” option isn’t accessible. Apple support is so frustrating.

Details are important—only because much of what happens here is reading between the lines—I apologize if this insults your sensibilities.

I am still unclear if the mac is bootable?

If it is not, it tells me the Drive may have failed—if that is the case it is a strong possiblity you will not be able to mount the drive to do anything at all.

You can remove the drive if it is a continued concern.

or

trust the good graces of Apple that the drive will be handled with a high ethical standard in the recycling.

If you're going into the Apple Store anyway to trade-in then ask them to erase it for you. I assume you have a good backup of your data?