Help an iNoob out???

[maxinflixion]

I was at my Aunt's house this weekend and she handed me two computers. She wanted me to get one up and running for the grandkids. The deal was, get one working, keep the other.

One was an old eMachine that I got up and running within 10 minutes of having it in the house.

The other is a 17 inch iMac g4 (1ghz w/ 512mb RAM). My cousin had shipped this back from NYC when she upgraded. In shipping (or packing?), the speaker plug had broken off in the jack. The system still seems to work fine w/o a speaker though.

I have 2 questios:

1) Does anyone know an easy(ish) way to remove the remnants of the speaker plug from the jack? Taking the system apart doesn't really help because the jack is encased in the boxy metal piece (note my technical knowledge is strong ).

2) How does one set an OSX machine back to factory settings? I have a feeling she's going to want the kids to have the Windows machine, so I will be finding a proper home for this one, and I want to be sure any personal data gets wiped. A friend has an OSX cd for me to use in the case of it being that in depth but I'd liek to avoid that if possible.

Thanks in advance for any guidance. It's funny. I started out as an Apple guy w/ my //e and first couple of Mac's. Now if it's an XP or Linux problem, I am GOOD. OSX is foreign to me.

 

[illgiveumorality]

Your best bet to restoring it to "defaults" would have to be wiping it with an install CD. This way you can use disk utility to 35 pass erase the drive, or whatever it supports, and start all over.

As for the speaker jack, I don't really know. I would get a tiny drill bit or screw to pull the excess crap out.

What's your definition of a proper home?

 

[maxinflixion]

Yeah, I have come to the realization that a full wipe of the drive will be best. It seems like Apple's serial number/registration for OSX is a little different, so since I have the computer's serial I should be good?

A proper home would be one that decides to pay the proper price

Of course, a freshly installed OS may make me want to give it to the kids so they can have Mac AND PC.

Provided there's room.

 

[Methodical]

OS X has no serial number controls. Any retail copy, or a copy that was included with that computer will install. Copies the shipped with other macs won't work though. So you can't use a Mac Pro's restore disk.