Multiple customers approach our service counter weekly, requesting that their Mac be “completely wiped.” Normally, this means they would like their hard drive erased of all its content, and the appropriate operating system re-installed. I’m glad to perform this procedure or give the customer instructions on how to do it, but in many cases, it’s not necessary.
The majority of customers are requesting this service because they are planning on giving their Mac to a family member or friend, and for the most part, don’t want to share their personal data with the recipient. This is perfectly understandable, but in this specific situation, a clean install of the existing operating system is not required. Creating a new user account, and deleting your old account, will serve the purpose of removing any of your personal user data and most certainly save you some time.
Creating a new user account is done in “Accounts” located in “System Preferences.” Make sure the new account is an Administrator if you will be deleting your old account, as there always needs to be at least one administrative account at all times. Once the new account is created, you can log into it, and delete your old user account. When deleting a user account, you will receive a confirmation window. This window asks if you are sure you would like to delete the user account, and gives you three choices for erasing the data. The last option, “Delete the Home folder”, will successfully remove all user data from the account that’s being deleted.
Please note: While this does delete existing user data, it does not remove any installed applications. If the Mac was being sold to a stranger, you may not want to hand over any installed applications, and if the operating system is being problematic (e.g. slowness or certain applications not functioning properly), you could benefit from a re-install of the system software.