I have an old imac that I am trying to erase the hard drive so I can donate it.
In disk utility this option is greyed out.
I can't find the original start up disks so am wondering what are other options to try?
Its running OS X 10.8.5
Thanks!
iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), null
What to do before you sell or give away your Mac - Apple Support
Note: Step 6 in this article will not work for pre-2012 Macs. Instead you will need to insert the compatible Mac OS X install DVD, and then, restart with either the <C> or <option> key held down. Then use the Disk Utility to erase the internal drive, and finally, install a fresh copy of the OS. If your Mac is a pre-2012 model and you don't have the original Install DVD, you may be out of luck.
What to do before you sell or give away your Mac - Apple Support
Note: Step 6 in this article will not work for pre-2012 Macs. Instead you will need to insert the compatible Mac OS X install DVD, and then, restart with either the <C> or <option> key held down. Then use the Disk Utility to erase the internal drive, and finally, install a fresh copy of the OS. If your Mac is a pre-2012 model and you don't have the original Install DVD, you may be out of luck.
In order to format the internal drive you have to boot from the Recovery Partition, do so by holding down Command + R on startup then open Disk Utility and format the HD. Remember this will wipe everything off it completely so ensure you have good backups of everything you want to preserve. .
Thank you... fingers crossed I can find it.
Thanks- I'll give that a try!!
How long would it take? It’s been spinning for about 30 mins now?
What has been spinning for 30 minutes??
Thank you- I have managed to erase and reformat the hard drive however when I go to reinstall OS X snow leopard I am getting a message that Mac OS X cannot start up from this disk
Disk Utility options greyed out
