Mac hardware
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Prepare an internal drive for recycling
Q Howshould a friend dispose of his old iMac, to ensure that there’s no data available from it when it goes for recycling?
by ROY MILLINGTON
A Beforehe starts cleaning its internal storage, there’s a list of essential tasks to work through once that Mac has been thoroughly backed up and its contents preserved reliably. Apple silicon Macs and those with T2 chips can do those quickly and cleanly using the Erase All Content and Settings feature in System Settings > General > Transfer or Reset, but they have to be performed manually on older models.
First disable Find My Mac and Activation Lock, and deauthorise it for iTunes. Next sign out of iCloud and iMessage. Disable any firmware password, reset the NVRAM, unpair all Bluetooth devices, and finally remove that Mac from the list of hardware in the Apple ID pane on the owner’s other Mac, or its equivalent in a device’s Settings. Those steps are detailed at bit.ly/mac393tradein.