[Mac Monk]

Hi All

Since buying the new 27" iMac, I am now selling my old one to my accountant for his children (obviously knows a good deal when he see's one).

My problem is that I want to completely clean the HD but not by rebooting from the disk that came with it as I don't want to lose all the software updates over the past three years, or any of the purchased software that I have put onto the system.

Also how do I get this computer deregistered from my name so that any dubious downloads after this system leaves my control does not reflect back to me?

I keenly await your professional assistance. TIA.

[LCGuy]

I'm not sure how you'd go about taking your name off it, but a surefire way to get rid of all your files is to go into Disk Utility (in Applications -> Utilities), click on your hard drive, click Erase, and click the "Erase Free Space" button. You can do either a single pass wipe, a 7 pass wipe, or a 35 pass wipe. The more passes you do, the harder it is for anyone to recover data, but at the same time, the longer it will take.

[glacierdave]

How much effort do you want to go to?

If you follow through chunks of the procedure outlined here:

Sysprep for Mac OS X tis my dot com

You'll end up with a system that would meet your criteria above - although some alterations might be needed depending on your system and what you want to leave behind on it.

[Mac Monk]

Originally Posted by LCGuy

I'm not sure how you'd go about taking your name off it, but a surefire way to get rid of all your files is to go into Disk Utility (in Applications -> Utilities), click on your hard drive, click Erase, and click the "Erase Free Space" button. You can do either a single pass wipe, a 7 pass wipe, or a 35 pass wipe. The more passes you do, the harder it is for anyone to recover data, but at the same time, the longer it will take.

My understanding of this is that it writes over only the deleted files and free space with zero's. This will be useful once I have deleted all the files with the exception of programs/software that I wish to keep. Thanks again.

[midnight_e]

Never actually done this, but it seemed a good question to think about.

Create a new account with admin access, call it admin, or use new owners name. For password use admin, new owner can change this later.
Log into this account and delete your original account.

Change computer name following these instructions.

Then in Disk Utility erase free space.

I'd get confirmation of this from someone else before preceding.

Edit
Changing the computer name following those instructions only changes the name as seen on a local network, the original name stays, just tested it.
Suspect though that the computer name can be changed using terminal, but that's beyond me.

Also, thought that you will have to change Keychain password too. May be important as to order in which these things are done.