Restore my iMac without a disk

Question

Restore my iMac without a disk

Afternoon (in UK),

I am trying to sell my iMac and have backed up all my information but have misplaced the original disks in moving out.

Is there another way this can be done?

I have tried...

1) Rebooting holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partitiion & use Disk Utility from there to erase & reinstall.

2) Open System Preferences>Accounts, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.

In the same pref pane highlight your old account, click the little minus icon, then use Disk Utility to Secure Erase Free Space.

Neither of the above have worked, from previous posts it seems to have worked for others so I'm hitting a dead end.

Anyone free to assist me?

Thanks in advance,

mparkerdesign

iMac

Posted on Jan 23, 2014 6:54 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 23, 2014 7:37 AM in response to mparkerdesign

What version of OS X do you have at the moment (your point 1 above only works for 10.7 and above), and at what point did the above steps fail?

If your iMac can run the retail version of 10.6.3, that disk can be obtained relatively cheaply ($30 or so) from online retailers.

Matt

Reply

Answer 2

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jan 23, 2014 10:25 AM in response to mparkerdesign

Before you sell or give away your computer, in addition to the steps mentioned in this support article, take these steps:

Run Apple Diagnostics or the Apple Hardware Test. The buyer will do this (or he should), and you don't want to be surprised by the results.
Reset the PRAM and the SMC, which might contain personal information.
If you set a firmware password, remove it by running Firmware Password Utility in Recovery mode.
If you activated FileVault in OS X 10.7 or later, turn it off.
If you use Boot Camp, the partition must be deleted
If you created any other data partitions on the internal drive, remove them in Disk Utility.
Erase the data partition(s) with the option to zero out data. An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.

You can't legally or practically transfer any software downloaded from the Mac App Store to the new owner of the machine, even if it was free. That includes OS X, so if you upgraded to OS X 10.7 or later, you must reinstall an older OS, either from the installation media, if applicable, or by booting into Internet Recovery (option-command-R at the startup chime.) If you installed from physical media, deliver those to the new owner.

If you're selling the machine, or donating it in working order, and it originally shipped with OS X 10.4 or 10.5, then you have the option of installing either from the discs that came with it or from a retail Snow Leopard disc (which you must then transfer with the machine.) The buyer should understand that if he doesn't get the original discs from you, he won't get the bundled iLife applications or the Apple Hardware Test. Replacements for the original discs can be ordered from Apple.

The new owner will have to redownload any software that came from the App Store, including OS X upgrades, under his or her Apple ID. If you ever updated the bundled iLife applications (Garage Band, iMovie, and iPhoto) through the App Store, you can't transfer those either.

Remove the machine from your list of registered products. If it's still covered by an AppleCare Protection Plan, transfer the coverage to the new owner by following the instructions in the AppleCare Terms and Conditions (under the heading "Transfer of Plan.")

Reply