I am selling my daughter's MacBook Air 2010 and need to wipe it clean, de-identify it, or whatever needs to be done. I have another MS Office license I can reload on it afterwards, but I no longer have the any of the start up software/usb/manual etc. How do I do this, and will the operating system be lost?
The following has instructions: What to do before selling or giving away your Mac
Got it, looks like something I can do, but how do I erase the hard drive? And how do I know which Operating system, mavericks, mountain lion or lion? Sorry to be such a non-techie...
Operating system is snow leopard...
Step 5 in the instructions What to do before selling or giving away your Mac is to reformat your hard drive. That erases it.
If you currently have Snow Leopard you may be able to upgrade it to Mavericks at no charge when you reinstall the operating system. The following has information: https://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/
Before you sell or give away your computer, in addition to the steps mentioned in this support article, take these steps:
1. 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.
2. Reset the PRAM and the SMC, which might contain personal information.
3. If you set a firmware password, remove it by running Firmware Password Utility in Recovery mode.
4. If you activated FileVault in OS X 10.7 or later, turn it off.
5. If you use Boot Camp, the partition must be deleted.
6. If you created any other data partitions on the internal drive, remove them in Disk Utility.
7. If the machine has an internal hard drive, erase the one remaining data partition 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 starting up in Internet Recovery mode (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 to the buyer.) 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. The buyer will have to purchase them.
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.")
Just got home to do this. My daughter, thinking she was helping, tried to do this before I got home. For some reason, she changed the password and didn't write it down "it was a bunch of numbers". I tried command r, but it just keeps going back to the log in screen. I am supposed to ship this tomorrow, and not only is it NOT wiped clean, I can't even get into it to begin to do that. She is tearing her room apart to find the disc or usb that came with it, but that was 2 years ago...I am not hopeful. And ideas? I could sure use some good news here.
No CD??
Reset 10.5 Leopard & 10.6 Snow Leopard password
1. Power on or restart your Mac.
2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
3. This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
4. Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
5. Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plistand press Enter.
6. Type ls /Users and press Enter. This lists all of the usernames on the computer – helpful if you don’t know or remember what these are.
7. Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password and replace “username” with one of the users displayed in the previous step. Replace “password” with a new password of your choice. Press Enter.
8. Type reboot and press Enter.
wipe macbook air 2010 to sell.
