Q: Questions about reformatting my hard drive while keeping Mavericks.
I'm currently running Mavericks on a mid-2009 Macbook Pro. I need to ugrade, but need to sell my Macbok before doing so. I have the original Leopard install disc, but I believe the Snow Leopard disc I purchased way back when is back in my home country, packed away in a box. I'm an expat living in a country with no official Apple presence and where it would take weeks at minimum to receive a package through the mail.
Someone wants to buy my Macbook, but they want and need for it to have Mavericks as the OS. The main music program they use is only supported through Mavericks and another main program he uses is not supported by anything less than Mavericks - so Mavericks is the sweet spot. My big problem is that this person wants to buy now because he is only here short term for work and will be returning home to the other side of the country. Any new Snow Leopard discs wouldn't get to me on time and since this person never had Mavericks, only El Capitan would be available as a download to him. Snow Leopard is too little, El Capitan is too much, Mavericks is just right.
I've read up on the articles on what needs to be done when selling a Mac. I have transferred everything I want to bring with me to my next computer onto an external drive. I will be deauthorizing the computer using iTunes. The same for my Lightroom/Photoshop cc subscription, iBooks, Kindle, etc.. I purchased iWorks new with the computer and have been a user of Aperture before switching to Lightroom. I understand those are licensed to me and non-transferable, but I would like to be able to sell the Macbook with Mavericks as the operating system.
Is there any way I can do this without having my Snow Leopard discs? Can I create a second partition on the hard drive and download Mavericks from the App Store? Under purchases there's a button that says Download and when pressed gives me this message:
OS X v10.9.5 is already installed on this computer. Use the Updates page to install the 10.9 update or if you would like to download the full OS X installer click Continue.
I thought I might be able to place Mavericks on a second partition and then reformat the first, original partition so as to write over all my information, leaving nothing but the second partition loaded with Mavericks. If this is a possibility, the new owner could resize the partitions. At the "Welcome to Mac" screen, I could put in an alias and the buyer could create an additional user account. Since Sierra won't work with 2009 Macs and since there is only Yosemite and El Capitan (neither or which the buyer wants or could even use) the buyer not being able to upgrade the OS isn't an issue at all.
Would any of this work? As long as I write over the original partition, de-authorize where needed, and don't use my name when registering, am I safe as far as having my info and any connection to me deleted?
MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)
Posted on Jul 24, 2016 11:39 PM