erasing mac mini before selling

I followed the advice I got from an answer elsewhere. I went to disk utility and was able to erase the back up HD for the mini, but when I to do try the same with the Macintosh HD and the Macintosh HD-data I'm told "you can't unmount the volume your home folder is on". How do I proceed? IT says there is 218.53 GB used.

Also, how do I turn off communication between the mini and my new computer? When I tried to get my name out of the Apple ID section in System preferences I discovered it changed my name on both computers and my phone. I'd prefer not to have to go there that process again.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Mac mini, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 4, 2020 12:34 PM

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2 replies

Dec 4, 2020 7:25 PM in response to Kenneth Bublitz

If the drives are actual hard drives as opposed to an SSD, then I highly recommend you either first enable Filevault (and let it complete) before erasing the drive as mentioned in @den.thed's link. Or you can forego enabling Filevault and just write zeroes to the entire hard drive. If you are using Apple SSDs, then you can simply erase the drives as described in the link @den.thed provided (due to how SSDs with TRIM enabled work).

Unfortunately Apple's instructions assume Filevault is being used or you are using an Apple branded SSD with TRIM enabled.

den.thed

Level 10

93,124 points

Dec 4, 2020 2:43 PM in response to Kenneth Bublitz

Please follow all of the steps, at > https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065

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erasing mac mini before selling