selling iMac, what do I need to do?

[rkhagood]

I'm going to sell my old iMac to a cousin, but I'm not sure of the steps to erase old memory and passwords. Is there a program that will help me reset the computer, but still leave it in good condition for the next user?

 

[Paulywauly]

Pop in your restore disc and erase the hard disc using disc utility. Then do a fresh install for your cousin

 

[mlts22]

Pop in your restore disc and erase the hard disc using disc utility. Then do a fresh install for your cousin

There is a 35-pass Gutmann algorithm wipe. I'd run that and let the Mac sit for a day or so. The reason is not just to make sure there is no data present on the drive, but any hard disk sectors were not used, and would have likely failed would have been found and relocated before any real data is put on the machine.