I can't erase my iMac

[Smiles4Miles]

I am not able to wipe my iMac to sell it. Don't worry, the money I get from this is going towards my own custom pc. ☺ I never wanted a mac in the first place, but now I want to sell it but it won't let me wipe. It's not letting me press the erase button. So you know I'm on OS  X Leopard. (I think. Not 100% sure on that.)

[Electronics Wizardy]

Are you booted from the drive? You can wipe a drive your booted from.

 

Boot into a installer, then wipe and reinstall.

[Smiles4Miles]

46 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Are you booted from the drive? You can wipe a drive your booted from.

 

Boot into a installer, then wipe and reinstall.

I don't get what you mean by that, sorry

[Electronics Wizardy]

10 minutes ago, Smiles4Miles said:

I don't get what you mean by that, sorry

What drive is your imac booted from? You can't erase the drive you booted from.

 

Pics?

[Smiles4Miles]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What drive is your imac booted from? You can't erase the drive you booted from.

 

Pics?

I only have one hard drive

[Electronics Wizardy]

17 minutes ago, Smiles4Miles said:

I only have one hard drive

Do you have an install disk or usb drive? Id make one then you can wipe and reinstall.

[Smiles4Miles]

14 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Do you have an install disk or usb drive? Id make one then you can wipe and reinstall.

I have usb's all over my house

[Smiles4Miles]

44 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Do you have an install disk or usb drive? Id make one then you can wipe and reinstall.

Do I transfer all my files to the usb then that's how I wipe and reinstall?

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 hours ago, Smiles4Miles said:

Do I transfer all my files to the usb then that's how I wipe and reinstall?

copy off all your files first, they will all bedelete from hte imac.

 

Then hold option when booting. Do you see an recovery option? If not make a bootable osx installer.

[Husky]

Download macOS High Sierra from the App Store then plug a USB drive in. Open Disk Utility and erase the USB drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID Partition Table and name My volume (warning this will delete everything on the drive.) . Then go to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 and follow the instructions for High Sierra.

 

Once it's done, keep the USB plugged in and restart the Mac while holding down the option key. Select Install macOS High Sierra to boot from. Once it boots, open Disk Utility and erase your internal drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then close Disk Utility and click Install macOS. Go through the steps 

[DrMacintosh]

These suggestions are too complex for what you want to do. 

 

Simply boot the machine holding down Cmd+R to boot into recovery mode. Once in, launch Disk Utility and format the partition your OS is installed on. 

[Smiles4Miles]

I have fully erased and sold. Thanks to your help. Electronics wizardy.