Problem with drive format

[AlexGraphicD]

I am using a shared iMac temporarily until I buy my own sometime in the near future and I when I do buy a new one I wanna wipe the drive and erase all of my personal files and passwords.

Right now I am using it under a second admin account cause there is already another admin with his own password.

The problem is that I tried to format the drive once and when the disk utility popped up after the reboot, it asked for a password which only the original owner has.

I have two questions.
1) Is there a way to bypass the password of the original owner to format the drive?

2) Do I need to wipe the drive to erase my personal data or it is enough if I delete my admin account from the preferences panel?

I just don't feel comfortable with my folders being present on the computer even if no one can access them due to being locked.

*Edit: I can't even update from the Appstore

 

[\-V-/]

Your post is a little unclear ... when you tried to format it ... did you do it from the restore partition or from an external drive?

 

[AlexGraphicD]

Restore Partition I think. Rebooted and pressed cmd+R if I remember correctly.
And when the disk utility popped up it said that I cannot format the drive cause I am not the original owner or something like that.

*Edit: I can't even update from the Appstore

 

[DeltaMac]

"Shared iMac"
Does that mean that someone else ALSO uses the same iMac?
What does the OTHER user think about your idea to erase everything?

If you simply delete your account, then the passwords, etc, that you may be concerned about will disappear with your account.
You would have to do that while logged in to the other admin account.
If the owner is OK with you erasing the hard drive, then why not let him do it, particularly if he is hesitant about giving you the real password.

If the owner doesn't care, then you might want to post, word for word, the message you get when you try to erase (?)
You could easily bypass that by booting to Internet Recovery.
Restart while holding Option-Command-R. You will see a rotating globe, instead of the Apple boot icon. That indicates that you boot to Apple's servers. You can erase your hard drive completely (including the Recovery System), and then you can reinstall with the system that the iMac originally shipped with. That will be the OS X version that the Internet Recovery will offer for download and install.

 

[AlexGraphicD]

"Shared iMac"
Does that mean that someone else ALSO uses the same iMac?
What does the OTHER user think about your idea to erase everything?

If you simply delete your account, then the passwords, etc, that you may be concerned about will disappear with your account.
You would have to do that while logged in to the other admin account.
If the owner is OK with you erasing the hard drive, then why not let him do it, particularly if he is hesitant about giving you the real password.

If the owner doesn't care, then you might want to post, word for word, the message you get when you try to erase (?)
You could easily bypass that by booting to Internet Recovery.
Restart while holding Option-Command-R. You will see a rotating globe, instead of the Apple boot icon. That indicates that you boot to Apple's servers. You can erase your hard drive completely (including the Recovery System), and then you can reinstall with the system that the iMac originally shipped with. That will be the OS X version that the Internet Recovery will offer for download and install.

Yes there is another admin that uses it also but he has everything backed up on an external drive, so he doesn't mind if I wipe the whole drive.
He isn't the original owner of the computer though, the iMac was given to him by the person who purchased it originally and neither me nor the other admin can make updates via the App Store or format the drive as I stated.

So if I simply delete my user account there won't be any traces of my personal files?
Actually I can reinstall yosemite via USB.

 

[\-V-/]

If you install it from an external drive it'll wipe out everything.

 

[DeltaMac]

Yes there is another admin that uses it also but he has everything backed up on an external drive, so he doesn't mind if I wipe the whole drive.
He isn't the original owner of the computer though, the iMac was given to him by the person who purchased it originally and neither me nor the other admin can make updates via the App Store or format the drive as I stated.

So if I simply delete my user account there won't be any traces of my personal files?
Actually I can reinstall yosemite via USB.

That sounds like a good plan. If you boot to the Yosemite installer, then you will also be able to completely erase the hard drive, reinstall and setup everything as a new user.
And, now you know the major reason to erase the hard drive as a first step when you buy a used Mac, and you don't have access to original owner. The install will have you set up with your own AppleID (or, even better since you don't own the iMac, let the other user do the setup with HIS AppleID.

 

[\-V-/]

That sounds like a good plan. If you boot to the Yosemite installer, then you will also be able to completely erase the hard drive, reinstall and setup everything as a new user.
And, now you know the major reason to erase the hard drive as a first step when you buy a used Mac, and you don't have access to original owner. The install will have you set up with your own AppleID (or, even better since you don't own the iMac, let the other user do the setup with HIS AppleID.

Yes, this is good practice ... for both selling and buying a used Mac.

 

[Fishrrman]

Boot from an external drive.
Re-initialize the internal drive.
Re-install the OS and restore your accounts from backups, or "rebuild from scratch".