How do I erase a Macbook Air to resell it.

Click here and follow the instructions. If the computer originally shipped with Mac OS X 10.6.8 or earlier, when you reach step 5, connect its original thumbdrive, restart with the C or Option key held down, use the Disk Utility to erase the internal drive, and install a fresh OS.

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What to do before selling or giving away your Mac - Apple Support

If your computer did not come with Lion or later, then after you reach Step 5 of the above do the following:

Clean Install of Snow Leopard

Be sure to make a backup first because the following procedure will erase

the drive and everything on it.

1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came

with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.

After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see

a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.

2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue

button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.

After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive

size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of

partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button

and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended

(Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.

3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed

with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.

4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup

Assistant. After you finish Setup Assistant will complete the installation after which

you will be running a fresh install of OS X. You can now begin the update process

by opening Software Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your

installation current.

5. If you are planning to sell or give your computer away, then do the following:

After you reformat your hard drive and reinstall OS X, the computer restarts to a

Welcome screen and asks you to choose a country or region. If you want to leave

the Mac in an out-of-box state, don't continue with the setup of your system. Instead,

press Command-Q to shut down the Mac. When the new owner turns on the Mac,

the Setup Assistant will guide them through the setup process.

Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Before you sell or give away your computer, in addition to the steps listed 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.

8. 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.")

Also note:

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.

Replacements for the original media can be ordered from Apple.

If the machine shipped with OS X 10.4 or 10.5, then you may be able to install on it from a retail Snow Leopard disc (which you must then transfer to the buyer.) To run Snow Leopard, the machine needs at least 1 GB of memory. The buyer should understand that if he doesn't get the original media from you, he won't get the bundled iLife applications or the Apple Hardware Test.

The new owner will have to redownload any software that came from the App Store, if applicable, 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.

Restart with the Option, Command, and R keys held down. Install the OS from there.

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Why turn off FileVault? Why not just leave FileVault on before running a secure erase of the disk?

I have tried this routine to erase of Restart holding R key with Command, and with both command and options key, but cannot get to a menu that allows erase_-the erase key is shaded and doesn't"t respond to command. Have tried various combinations of this approach. Other guidance says this should open showing both hard drive and installer drive. I get only the existing hard drive showing. Any thoughts?