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How to prepare (old) Mac for selling/donating?

I have a 13-year-old Macbook with Lion 10.7.5 that I want to give away or sell. I've removed all my files, but now need to totally wipe the memory.


I've seen various threads on doing this, but most are for newer Macs or super technical. I also don't have any OS install disk.

What next steps should I take?

MacBook

Posted on Aug 17, 2020 11:08 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 17, 2020 11:36 AM

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac


Factory Reset Your Pre-Lion Mac


Follow these instructions until you get to Step 6 of Factory reset of your Mac - Apple Support. At Step 5 you will need a Snow Leopard DVD or the installer disc that came with the computer.


  1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disk or the Disk 1 that came with your computer.  Insert the disk into the optical drive and restart the computer. After the chime press and hold down the  "C" key.  Release the key when you see a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
  2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities' menu. After Disk Utility loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (out-dented entry - mfgr.'s ID and drive size.)  Click on the Partition tab in the Disk Utility main window.  Set the number of partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended (Journaled), then click on the Apply button.
  3. When the formatting has finished quit Disk Utility.  Proceed with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
  4. If you are planning to sell or give your computer away, then do the following: After you reformat your hard drive and reinstall OS X, the computer restarts to a Welcome screen and asks you to choose a country or region. If you want to leave the Mac in an out-of-box state, don't continue with the setup of the system. Instead, press Command-Q to shut down the Mac. When the new owner turns on the Mac, the Setup Assistant will guide them through the setup process.


3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 17, 2020 11:36 AM in response to Smelvis

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac


Factory Reset Your Pre-Lion Mac


Follow these instructions until you get to Step 6 of Factory reset of your Mac - Apple Support. At Step 5 you will need a Snow Leopard DVD or the installer disc that came with the computer.


  1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disk or the Disk 1 that came with your computer.  Insert the disk into the optical drive and restart the computer. After the chime press and hold down the  "C" key.  Release the key when you see a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
  2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities' menu. After Disk Utility loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (out-dented entry - mfgr.'s ID and drive size.)  Click on the Partition tab in the Disk Utility main window.  Set the number of partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended (Journaled), then click on the Apply button.
  3. When the formatting has finished quit Disk Utility.  Proceed with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
  4. If you are planning to sell or give your computer away, then do the following: After you reformat your hard drive and reinstall OS X, the computer restarts to a Welcome screen and asks you to choose a country or region. If you want to leave the Mac in an out-of-box state, don't continue with the setup of the system. Instead, press Command-Q to shut down the Mac. When the new owner turns on the Mac, the Setup Assistant will guide them through the setup process.


How to prepare (old) Mac for selling/donating?

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