Erasing drive to sell iMac

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Level 1

35 points

Erasing drive to sell iMac

I tried to erase the hard drive since I am selling my iMac. However, I held down the command and R keys and after the restart I was back at the desktop. I pulled up Disk Utilites but my only options seem to be greyed out. The only option is erase free space (which I did) and then when I reisntalled the OS I was back at my own desktop with all of my apps after restart. How do I erase everything and get it back to factory specs for resell? Thank you.

21.5" iMac purchased 12/2013

OS X - 10.8.5

Proc. 2.96GHz, Intel Core i5

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Sep 30, 2013 12:44 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Eustace Mendis

Level 7

25,416 points

Sep 30, 2013 6:29 AM in response to Jazmaraz

21.5" iMac purchased 12/2013

Do you mean Dec 2012?

Hold the option key down as you restart the computer. Select the Recover disk and continue.

When the computer boots, run Disk Utility and have it erase the main drive.

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Answer 2

Sep 30, 2013 6:46 AM in response to Jazmaraz

this article tells how to get mac ready to sell or give away:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5189

this should give you all the information you need! 🙂

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Answer 3

Jazmaraz Author

Level 1

35 points

Sep 30, 2013 10:43 AM in response to Eustace Mendis

Correct; sorry it was 2012.

I did finally find a single indication that I needed to hit Option (rather than Command + R like all of the other references). I am currently erasing the drive which is takinjg forever since I choose the seven swipes. Thanks for your reply.

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Answer 4

Jazmaraz Author

Level 1

35 points

Sep 30, 2013 10:45 AM in response to iheartapple1970

This is the information that I saw numerous times and used but using Command + R did not erase the hard drive and intall to factory settings. The only thing that worked was pressing Option on restart.

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Answer 5

Jazmaraz Author

Level 1

35 points

Sep 30, 2013 10:46 AM in response to Jazmaraz

Purchased 12/2012

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