Resetting/Wiping the Mac Boot Camp partition from a Mac

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Resetting/Wiping the Mac Boot Camp partition from a Mac

I have a late-2011 MacBook Pro (10.7.5) that has a Windows 7 BootCamp partition.

I would like to sell it, so I thought first I should reset/wipe the Mac Boot Camp partition and then the Win7 Boot Camp partition, so that the buyer can still use it as is but without me worrying about my data.

All the tutorials I can find are either about removing the Win partition or resetting a Mac to factory settings.

Could someone please provide me with some instructions to reset/wipe each partition separately before selling it?

Posted on Jul 20, 2019 12:14 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 20, 2019 12:21 PM in response to JoshMiri

Once you complete both steps, you can sell/give away your Mac.

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 24, 2019 9:21 AM in response to JoshMiri

Boot into Internet Recovery - About macOS Recovery - Apple Support.
In Utilities -> Terminal, you can run a Secure Erase using the diskutil command.
Once erased, you can quit Terminal, and start the installation of macOS and turn off the computer.
The new owner should be able to re-install macOS using the Recovery console.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 20, 2019 1:06 PM in response to JoshMiri

JoshMiri wrote:

So, there is no way to keep the current configuration and reset each partition separately?

You can always erase each partition individually, using Disk Utility, but that is not secure enough if you plan to give the Mac away. Secure Erase will just make it secure, but such an erase does preserve any 'configuration'.

Can you explain what you mean by configuration? Partitions?

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 20, 2019 1:34 PM in response to JoshMiri

Since the Mac will have BC Assistant when macOS is installed, I suggest you allow the new owner the ability to choose the size of the partition they want, if they choose to use BCA.

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Answer 5

JoshMiri Author

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9 points

Jul 20, 2019 1:15 PM in response to Loner T

By "configuration" I mean the current partitions; i.e. one Mac and one Win7 so that I can give away the laptop as having Mac/Win7 BootCamp (exactly as it is now) instead of reverting to only/pure Mac and then resetting it...

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Answer 6

JoshMiri Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 24, 2019 6:40 AM in response to Loner T

Hi again!

I removed the Win7 partition but now wondering about the erasing Mac, because my Disk Utility menu options are different to the ones shown in the helpful links you sent me...

I no longer have the recovery key or any CD/DVD that came with my Mac, so I cannot re-install the OS after erasing. Should I still go ahead and do a secure erase?

I can only see one erase option that says Format: Max OS Extended (Journaled) and I wanna do a secure erase.

If I go ahead like this, will it still restart and be a functioning Mac with an operating system, or do I need an installation disk or download?

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