Reset my mothers iMac to factory settings issue

Forums › Mac OS › Reset my mothers iMac to factory settings issue

bluedisk

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#261398 25-Nov-2019 16:20

I have recently been tasked with getting rid of my elderly mothers iMac 21" running Mac OSX 10.6.8. I know its not worth anything but I want to make sure there's none of her info left on it before disposing of it.

I have viewed heaps of You Tube videos showing me how absolutely simple it is by pressing the Command + R key on start up to take me to recovery mode/ disk utitly/ erase etc. The trouble is that Command + R doesn't work and takes me straight to the main log in page. What am I missing here? Must have tried for around two hours with slightly different timings on the button presses. Frustrating.

I can get into disk utility the standard way but this will not allow me to erase anything much at all. She had no disks when she got the computer second hand through Senior Net a few years ago.

Whats the best way for me to proceed?

Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all...

Brumfondl

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#2360555 25-Nov-2019 17:09

You need the original install discs to be able to boot into the equivalent of Recovery because the OS is so old. How old is the iMac? You might be able to upgrade macOS to something like 10.9 or higher and then should be able to use Recovery.

bluedisk

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#2360557 25-Nov-2019 17:12

It wont update the OS to anything more recent unfortunately and i dont have any disks either.

I just want to be able to dispose of it safely without risk of her being at risk of identity fraud.

Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all...

Brumfondl

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#2360558 25-Nov-2019 17:14

It won't update because everything past 10.6.8 is an upgrade and therefore available through the App Store, and not software update. Have a look at the following: https://support.apple.com/en-nz/HT206886

bluedisk

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#2360560 25-Nov-2019 17:21

Great thanks i will look further into this.

Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all...

farcus

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#2360561 25-Nov-2019 17:24

you could just install a linux distro and specify during installation that it uses the entire disk

RunningMan

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#2360568 25-Nov-2019 17:47

Once you get it booted from something other than the drive the OS is on, you can run Disk Utility, do a secure erase, then reinstall the OS. If you go to the Apple menu and choose about this Mac, it should tell you what model you have, and it's easy enough to work out what the most recent OS is that it will run (ask here if you're not sure).

If it will run something newer than 10.6.8, then you should be able to download the installer, then make a bootable USB installer, boot the machine from that, erase the drive, and install a new OS.

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alexx

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#2360629 25-Nov-2019 20:24

Perhaps that option wasn't available on your machine. I'm under the impression that the Internet Recovery and OS X Recovery options began with OS X Lion, although some older machines might have supported it via an EFI update.

Wiping the disk using a linux disk might be the best option (the Gparted USB or CD can be booted from my Macbook Pro), if you don't care about restoring/installing a version of macOS.

Or go the OS X El Capitan route mentioned above.
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT206886

#include <standard.disclaimer>

Brumfondl

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#2360640 25-Nov-2019 21:23

alexx:

Perhaps that option wasn't available on your machine. I'm under the impression that the Internet Recovery and OS X Recovery options began with OS X Lion, although some older machines might have supported it via an EFI update.

You are correct that Recovery was introduced with Lion but that is 10.7 and the OP's Mac is running 10.6.8.

Prudle

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#2387828 9-Jan-2020 09:52

I'm going to have to go through this myself soon, similar iMac etc.

I was assuming I can simply create a new administrator account then from within this, delete all other user accounts. I'm hoping no personal documents or data are stored within other folders.

(I wish OSX had the ability to 'reset and detete all data' like ios but it doesn't seem to.

wellygary

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#2387881 9-Jan-2020 10:18

Prudle: I'm going to have to go through this myself soon, similar iMac etc. I was assuming I can simply create a new administrator account then from within this, delete all other user accounts. I'm hoping no personal documents or data are stored within other folders. (I wish OSX had the ability to 'reset and detete all data' like ios but it doesn't seem to.

"sudo rm -rf /" is usually fairly proficient....

Although I am told with the more modern OS versions (10.11+) with SIP it won't delete the core system files