In taking on the MacBook Air, I needed to shift the older black MacBook from late 2008. A solid performer, but it was heavy and could not be expanded any further without considerable expense. And with SSDs and Intel Core i5 or i7 processors now widely available, it was starting look long in the tooth. Ordinarily, that was all fine, but when Apple says that many features of Mountain Lion will not make the cut for a machine which is less than 4 years old, you know it's time to reach for the resale door.
Of course, the laptop was always carefully looked after to maximise future resale value. It actually sold for 55% less than I paid for it, which in itself if amazing given the rate of technology change in general. In preparing for its sale, there were 2 things I wanted to ensure:
In the past, based on Leopard or Snow Leopard, this would be easier to do with the install and wipe options on the OSX DVDs. In this case of Lion, not so as there is no longer any install media supplied. A quick search around identified a range of articles to achieve the goals in mind. I used this one since it had the fewest number of Terminal steps to follow.
Voila - all worked nicely. Thanks to Mark for his checks and observations on the Terminal commands.
The upshot is that while the data on the hard drive has not truly been securely trashed to full disposal standards, the terminal commands pretty much delete the admin user data while avoiding having to do a full reinstall of Lion. Of course, there is a chance that the data could be recovered through the likes of DiskWarrior, but I would say that a) new MacBook user would be unlikely to do that, b) I have the buyers address anyway ;-) and, c) if the buyer lost it to an expert user, then perhaps there's a data loss issue. A risk I'm willing to accept.
Of course, the laptop was always carefully looked after to maximise future resale value. It actually sold for 55% less than I paid for it, which in itself if amazing given the rate of technology change in general. In preparing for its sale, there were 2 things I wanted to ensure:
- It handed down to the next Mac user still imputing quality by providing them a brand new Mac experience
- My data and applications were wiped in the process
In the past, based on Leopard or Snow Leopard, this would be easier to do with the install and wipe options on the OSX DVDs. In this case of Lion, not so as there is no longer any install media supplied. A quick search around identified a range of articles to achieve the goals in mind. I used this one since it had the fewest number of Terminal steps to follow.
Voila - all worked nicely. Thanks to Mark for his checks and observations on the Terminal commands.
The upshot is that while the data on the hard drive has not truly been securely trashed to full disposal standards, the terminal commands pretty much delete the admin user data while avoiding having to do a full reinstall of Lion. Of course, there is a chance that the data could be recovered through the likes of DiskWarrior, but I would say that a) new MacBook user would be unlikely to do that, b) I have the buyers address anyway ;-) and, c) if the buyer lost it to an expert user, then perhaps there's a data loss issue. A risk I'm willing to accept.
No comments:
Post a Comment