Hi All

I have an G4 iMac which i can't take with me when i move to W.A. next month i thought i might hand it over to one of my family maybe my sister, maybe mum&dad.

So my question is how do i go about giving them a 'clean' machine.

There is nothing on the iMac that i need all files, photos & music was transfered over when i purchased my MacBook.

Is it just a matter of turning off FileVault and using Disk Utility to erase the Hard Drive and then ReInstalling Tiger?

Any Tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Spot on mate. Might also want to give it a clean too, so it looks nicer

Thanks Anthony, but if i giving them the gift of a Mac they can clean the bugger themselves

All you need to do is a clean install of tiger. You can erase the hard drive from the installer.

Note if you turn it off before you enter registration details/account details etc.. after the OS X installation, whoever turns it on next will get to watch the 'pretty' video again which might make a nice touch :P.

You might want to update the machine to 10.4.11 and supply them with a disc containing the updates. I installed tiger on a G3 500 iMac the other day. It was a 10.4.0 disc and the updates from memory totaled 450 Mb. Choose "Install and keep package" in Software Update. You'll need to run Software update till it says your computer is up to date.

If you have a problem with your download quota PM me.

Makes me wonder, is there a way to re-activate that Welcome / Registration app on startup? Like, apply all the updates, make sure it works, then set the Welcome to start next time the machine's turned on?

*maybe* boot into single-user mode… and delete everything in the "users" folder… so there are no users setup, I haven't tested this… but it would be interesting if that would result in the welcome thing coming up on next boot.

You can either do that or put a Tiger disc in and just do a clean install, without having to tinker around with Disk Utility

There is a way to do it, I just can't remember how you have to delete a file in Terminal.

Found it, it's a bit longer than I remembered...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....280&tstart=495

When I gave my powerbook to my mum I did the whole clean installation, then walked her through the whole process of registering her user id etc. In the end they need to feel like it's their computer so that you get less phone calls when things don't work for them Also good to know their password so that you can look at the computer when you need to.

For me, just passing them a machine has ended in the machine being left inside the bag because they don't know how to use it.

Hi - so for future reference where does it save your updates to? The desktop? Your home folder?

They'll end up in the top level (ie the non-user specific one where nearly all applications are found) library folder under Packages with Tiger 10.4 and under. This folder will be open after Software Update has finished installing.

With Leopard 10.5 they'll be in your downloads folder in your User folder- I think.