Selling Mini - Best Way to Protect Confidential Info

[Drgonzo2k2]

Hey All,

New on forum here, so first let me say that I've enjoyed coming here for the past month or so. You guys have been able to answer all of my questions about the mini without me ever having to ask them! I bought a new Mac Mini about 2 weeks ago, and have been loving it ever since. Unfortunately, due to some unforseen medical bills, I now have to sell it. I've been using it as my main computer for the past couple of weeks now, and I'm worried about the future owner being able to recover personal information. I've used it to access things like my bank account, credit cards, etc. What would be the best way to prepare this Mini for its new owner? Can I just use the software discs that came with it to return it to a factory default state, or do I need a utility to format the drive several times and then re-install OSX? Any help here would be appreciated.

Also, I'll be putting this up on Ebay tomorrow evening. Since I've found this board so useful, I'll offer it up here first if anyone is interested. It's the Mac Mini that is currently selling at apple.com for $499 (1.25 Ghz, 512 RAM, 40 Gig HD, etc.), and I've been using it for about 10 days. My buy it now price will be $395 + $10 shipping. If anyone here thinks that's a fair deal, please just post here with some way to contact you, and I'll be in touch. I'll check back before I put it up on Ebay.

Best Wishes,
Dr. Gonzo

[curt]

I would erase the drive and do a clean install. Boot to your Tiger or Panther CD. You can do this by hold down the C key on start up. Once you're booted from the CD go into Utilities > Disk Utility > and select the drive. Then go to Erase > Security Options. You can select Zero out data, 7 Pass Erase or 35 Pass Erase. I think Zero out data is good enough. It just depends on how paranoid you are. Then erase the disk and reinstall OS X.
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[Bandit Bill]

I live in Canada so I would just stay sick and bring my mini to the hospital.

Sounds like a great deal for someone. At least you have you priorities straight.

Get well and hopefully you'll be back soon.

[picaman]

You can also reset the Mac Mini so that the new user gets that out-of-the-box setup experience. Valuable additional info in the comments.



Jamie