iMac back to factory settings/reset

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leah14 Author

Level 1

1 points

iMac back to factory settings/reset

I am selling my iMac and I was wondering if there was any way to reset it for the new user.

iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Mar 27, 2007 4:30 PM

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Answer 1

MGW

Level 7

27,041 points

Mar 27, 2007 4:37 PM in response to leah14

Welcome to Discussions - go to Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility and select Erase - it will zero out the drive so that all data is overwritten with zeros.

Miriam

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Answer 2

leah14 Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 27, 2007 4:44 PM in response to MGW

I had installed the new OS. Would I have to reinstall it afterward?

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Answer 3

MGW

Level 7

27,041 points

Mar 27, 2007 4:47 PM in response to leah14

Yes,

Miriam

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Answer 4

leah14 Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 27, 2007 7:16 PM in response to leah14

Thanks!

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Answer 5

MGW

Level 7

27,041 points

Mar 27, 2007 7:17 PM in response to leah14

You're welcome,

Miriam

P.S., if you'd like, go ahead and click the "Helpful" or "Solved" buttons on any of the posts / replies above if you feel they were helpful or adequately answered your question.

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Answer 6

Mar 27, 2007 8:21 PM in response to MGW

You will need to boot from your install disk or from a remote disk if you want to zero the drive. You can't zero the drive you are booted from, just erase free space.

You will also need to click the Security Options button in the Erase section to choose to zero it. (Avoid the multiple pass options unless you have a good reason to choose them-they can take a very long time to complete.)

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