[johnMG]

I may be selling my PowerBook and would like to remove all traces of my username/password from the system (but leaving OS X in tact for the purchaser).

Any pointers?

[Mr. Blur]

wipe the drive, reinstall from the disks.

[JellyBeen]

Originally posted by Mr. Blur:
wipe the drive, reinstall from the disks.

1 hour at the most, PC's ahhhhh 2days?

[effgee]

Originally posted by johnMG:
I may be selling my PowerBook and would like to remove all traces of my username/password from the system (but leaving OS X in tact for the purchaser).

If you have any sensitive data on your drive (e.g., credit card #'s, online banking, taxes, etc.) make sure you wipe the drive and check the "zero all data" option in Disk Utility. Simply erasing the drive will not delete these files - it only creates a new (empty) catalog file, designating the space previously occipied by your files as "free". A malicious personc could still recover these files with a tool like Data Rescue.



for more info on this topic, check out this article - it's PC-centric but the same thing applies to Macs, just different tools to fix it.

[yukon]

To be honest, it would be nice to know how to remove personal information from the system without a reinstall.

Cookies, caches, swapfiles, that "sendregistration" alias.....I'm not certain myself, I keep seeing applications "sense" what my name is though I don't remember where I gave it, and with the invention of the first spyware for OS X (limewire, thanks OSS ;-), I think it's a concern.

[ryaxnb]

Originally posted by yukon:
To be honest, it would be nice to know how to remove personal information from the system without a reinstall.

Cookies, caches, swapfiles, that "sendregistration" alias.....I'm not certain myself, I keep seeing applications "sense" what my name is though I don't remember where I gave it, and with the invention of the first spyware for OS X (limewire, thanks OSS ;-), I think it's a concern.

Well, if you're running Panther, you could simply delete the user accounts. You should get a folder or a disk image in Mac HD:Userseleted Users. Empty the Trash, drag the old home folder[s] to the trash, and choose Finder > Secure Empty Trash.

[johnMG]

Thanks for all the replies folks.

Well, if you're running Panther, you could simply delete the user accounts.

Yes, I'm running Panther. ... Ahh, yes. Here we are: Applications --> Utilities --> NetInfo Manager. Select the username and click Delete.

You should get a folder or a disk image in Mac HD:Users:Deleted Users. Empty the Trash, drag the old home folder[s] to the trash, and choose Finder > Secure Empty Trash.

Thanks again! :)

[neutrino23]

In Panther you could turn on file vault then delete the user account. Even though your home directory would remain on the disk it would be encrypted so no one could read it. The question is what private information about you exists outside your home directory? I'm thinking not much.

[bmedina]

Originally posted by johnMG:
Thanks for all the replies folks.

Well, if you're running Panther, you could simply delete the user accounts.

Yes, I'm running Panther. ... Ahh, yes. Here we are: Applications --> Utilities --> NetInfo Manager. Select the username and click Delete.

You should get a folder or a disk image in Mac HD:Userseleted Users. Empty the Trash, drag the old home folder[s] to the trash, and choose Finder > Secure Empty Trash.

Thanks again!

Don't do it in Netinfo. Do it in System Preferences.

[mmurray]

Originally posted by neutrino23:
In Panther you could turn on file vault then delete the user account. Even though your home directory would remain on the disk it would be encrypted so no one could read it. The question is what private information about you exists outside your home directory? I'm thinking not much.

Network and Location settings are outside the User directory I think. Probably
telephone numbers for dialup and maybe passwords. Or maybe the passwords go into
the Keyring.


Michael

[badidea]

Originally posted by yukon:
To be honest, it would be nice to know how to remove personal information from the system without a reinstall.

Cookies, caches, swapfiles, that "sendregistration" alias.....I'm not certain myself, I keep seeing applications "sense" what my name is though I don't remember where I gave it, and with the invention of the first spyware for OS X (limewire, thanks OSS ;-), I think it's a concern.

You don't have an entry in your adress book with your name in it, do you?
(never let your computer know who you are - your screen doesn't have eyes!)

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by badidea:
You don't have an entry in your adress book with your name in it, do you?
(never let your computer know who you are - your screen doesn't have eyes!)

1) Erase all of your important documents with a program that dumps data over the location on the hard drive. )Something like Shredder should do [check versiontracker.com)

2) A low level reformat of the HD (Zero all data)

3) Install a clean version of OS X

4) Put the guys/gals name on the computer

5) Update to the newest version of the OS and applications.

-or

1) Remove old HD

2) Place new HD in it's place (somewhat expensive, but guarantees that your information is secure) [and it's relatively cheap these days]

Why all this fuss. Because someone could retrieve the info from your HD if you don't. I'm not saying that they will, but the person that they sell it to may. That's where I get nervous. Having my SSN and tax information (along with some other personal information) would get an identity fraud criminal very far.

[nforcer]

I would save everything you need on an external HD (Documents, Movies, Library, etc.) and do a zero-all data reformat, and then reinstall OS X and whatever apps it came with for you. I think the NSA recommends overwriting data 7 times. I'm not sure if a zero-all data reformat does it 7 times when you select it, though.

[MountainMac]

In Panther Disk Utility there's an "8 Way Random Write Format" option when erasing. That's what I did with my PB HDD (20GB) and it took about 24 hours. There's more discussion in this topic. I would think that zeroing all data would be the bare minimum of the extent I would go to to protect against identity theft.

[bimmerphile]

Originally posted by MountainMac:
In Panther Disk Utility there's an "8 Way Random Write Format" option when erasing. That's what I did with my PB HDD (20GB) and it took about 24 hours. There's more discussion in this topic. I would think that zeroing all data would be the bare minimum of the extent I would go to to protect against identity theft.

Took me 8 days to do 400GB on my dual 1.25 G4....


...ouch.

[badidea]

Kris Olson, where exactly do you live?
Not that I want to steal your data...but your hardware...hmmm!?!