The last two times I had to dispose of old Macs were relatively easy: one had completely died so it went to the public disposal centre.

The other was not quite dead, but I opened it up and removed the hard disk, before taking it to the public disposal centre.

This time however (I'm going to replace two currently-functioning different spec Macs) it's different. They work, but since I only paid £200 each for them, I really don't think anyone would pay more than ~£50? (side note: this is a terrible shame. They work! Splendidly! They just can't be upgraded any more.)

I can't let them go with all our data. I cannot remove anything from the http://www.mackozer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/imacg4.jpg

The other one, the wind tunnel, yes I could take it apart and get the HD out, but should I bother?

What would you do?

Hitherto, I've stored retired Macs in the loft/attic, then years later put them in the dump. I don't think this is the way to go, this time, somehow. It just seems such a shame for splendidly designed but no longer upgradeable computers.

Thanks for any helpful replies.

Boot from the original install DVD and launch Disk Utility from the Utility menu when the menu bar appears. Then select the hard drive and under options choose the seven times erase — this will take a good while to complete but short of a top notch computer forensic lab nothing on the drive will be recoverable. Then go ahead and install the operating system.

At this point your data is secure and the computers are usable by someone else. As you say they can no longer be upgraded, but there are likely agencies that would be grateful to have them. In our city the Salvation Army will take and resell them to people who cannot afford anything else.

That is an excellent reply, Joe. You understood my question immediately (which is regrettably rare IRL).

I've printed that out, and will follow your instructions when the time comes.

The next owner will have to change the Admin password, but that's their problem.

THANK YOU

> The next owner will have to change the Admin password, but that's their problem.

When you reinstall OS X from your discs, shut each Mac off with its power button when the "Welcome" screen appears, i.e. before you enter any info.

When their new owners turn the Macs on they will boot to the "Welcome" screen, and they can proceed from there, same as getting a brand new Mac.

Good tip, thank you. I'll be selling an old G5 iMac after reinstall from my OS X discs and was wondering how to get around that issue.

I'm glad I started a thread on this, because:

On a messageboard I have now found someone who has a friend who wants one of my retired Macs, and we are communicating by email about this.

At first, he wanted the MDD G4 for the power supply, because - to my increasing astonishment - his present set-up is:

A Performa, ∴ it is 14 years old, minimum; running OS9; has no internet access. The power supply has finally failed (and do you wonder?) ∴ he cannot access his data on his hard disk.

This Performa also has ADB connections (and SCSI), so he'll also want a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to go with my or any replacement computer.

Frankly, I doubt he'll be able to get his data back, unless he has backups which are somehow transferrable to USB/other connectivity these days.

To me, this is a near-unbelievable tale (but which I do believe) of what happens if people don't keep up. Equipment fails and they're sunk.

I have told the emailing friend that this MDD will not be able to run OS9 as he wishes, even if I do also supply a monitor keyboard and mouse, because I do not have the original instal disks or that MDD's version of OS9. They seem not to believe me.

Researching this 'for him' I found a thread on this very board, by me, all about this. In that thread I finally gave up on OS9+MDD. Maybe I should point these two guys at that thread. Maybe I'll just let them live in yeah-yeah-land and ship all the component parts anyway, it'll be off my hands with no guarantees whatsoever.

But why would anyone want to continue on OS9, and without the internet access required to update the Tiger 10.4 base which it'll ship with?

This is usually because it still does everything they need it to. Not everyone needs or even wants the latest features.

(three cheers for OpenTransport!)