preloaded software on pc on ebay....ethics?

[AdamZx3]

I was just wondering what the ethics where on ebay and software companies when you go to sell your computer on ebay. Do you have to wipe your hardrive clean? I noticed a lot of the powermacs on ebay have final cut pro, photoshop, etc... on them but no cd's, and like wise they seem to go for more.

I was thinking of selling my macbook pro to get a used powermac or a new mac pro....should I erase everything?? if it makes a difference I have the CS2 premium suite, suitcase, aperture, and then the standard bundled os-x apps.

 

[Don Simon]

I don't know much about either the legal or ethical factors... but wouldn't it make sense to delete everything just to make sure you haven't left any personal data on there?

 

[The_Traveler]

You are selling a copy of your software.

 

[Jeff Canes]

You need to check the licensing agreement for each to see if it they are transferable, if any are and you sale the computer with some software, I would think you could not legally load them on your new computer

 

[AdamZx3]

ah ok, i'll just do a reformat if I do sell it.

 

[Mike_E]

Good idea! The licenses is only good for one computer so if you were wanting to keep the software and sell a loaded hdd you would be, as stated, be selling copies of the software.

If you have updated any software and have the cd to the old (and the licenses is transferable or is unregistered) you should try and sell that first to maximize your profit. If it doesn't sell then bundle it with the computer.

 

[Johnboy2978]

Just to add a little paranoia, it is quite easy to retrieve a lot of information from a hard drive even after it has been formatted. If you format a hard drive your are essentially just tearing out the index from a book. All of the pages and words are still in the book to be read. You basically just tell windows, "I don't need to remember where all of these "bookmarks" are for this and that and if you need this HD space in the future, you are free to use it". Unless you have written over the data, it can be retrieved pretty easily even with freeware. With all of the fuss over identity theft, it's something to consider. I use software like Money to keep track of my bank accounts and I wouldn't want someone to buy that info along w/ my PC. There are some free programs which will do a DoD (dept of Defense) "Wipe" of your HD in which it writes 0's and 1's several times in each sector of your drive after formatting. Something to consider

 

[craig]

Ebay has no ethics.

 

[Garbz]

Look just go to the manufacturer of your HDD, seagate WD or whatnot's website and grab a "Low-Level format" utility. I don't understand why some people insist writing 0s multiple times has any effect beyond the first one. Don't pay for this software since low-level formatting programs are free.

A standard format just makes the drive as clean. This is easy to recover. A low-level format reverts the drive to the manufacturer original conditions. Basically 0s written to every sector of the drive.

 

[leaving0hio]

You'd be best off with the following:

1. Boot from the recovery set that came with the computer
2. Once you're up, go to the utilities menu -> disk utility
3. Select your hard drive and go to erase.
4. Hit the security options button and select "7 way random write"
5. Hit ok, and erase the drive.
This will give you a full DoD spec wipe. It takes a while to do, but the peace of mind is woth it.
6. Reinstall OS X from the recovery cds and send the cds with the system when you sell it. That will put it in factory condition.

It's another bullet point you can put on your ebay listings, and it's something a seller should provide anyway. If it is still covered under applecare, you can (and should) highlight that as well - applecare is transferrable, it travels with the machine.

Hope that helped a little bit, and I'm sorry if you already knew all this. I don't mean to step on anyone's toes.

 

[AdamZx3]

Thanks, I'll do that "leavingohio" (what a coincidence I wanna leave Ohio too!!) I was wondering if they had a built in low level wipe. And I wish I did have applecare left on it, the fan just starting buzzing a month after warrenty...arrr, should be a cheaper fix...I hope

J/W can you install the os and just shut down when I wants you to register so its the same effect when you purchase it, turn it on and enter user name..etc? I'm assuming you can but didnt check further into it.

Not stepping on my toes...just switched to mac last year and loving it!