Problem iwth initial iMac setup in El Capitan

BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2009
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It has been 4.5 years since I did an initial iMac setup. At the time, OS X Lion (10.7.0) didn't require an app store sign-in to perform the initial, but last week on an in-store received refurbished mid-2015 iMac with El Capitan I was guided by the store monkey to log into the app store during initial setup.

As a result, the created user account in El Capitan is named after the real name on the AppleID account and the password is the AppleID password. I do not want this as this would be a grave secuirty risk in my opinion. So yesterday I rebooted and held down the Command+R to reinstall El Capitan but that made no difference as the reinstalled OS X still maintained the same user account.

Should I have used Disk utilities during the start of the reinstall to wipe the hard drive and create a new partition? I also noticed that the reinstallation routine 'verified' right-to-have of sorts between the hardware and the OS X I was trying to reinstall. I'm guessing it had a bound serial (on the CPU?) to the operating system.

If I cannot get this iMac to factory condition I will return it, but that still bothers me that I have no way to remove my personal information (re: AppleID credentials).
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
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Create a new user account (admin) and delete the other, AppleID associated user account.

And I just set up a clean install of El Cap on my Mac Pro, there is an option to skip making your AppleID your user account. Basically when it asks you to enter your AppleID, don't. It will throw up a thing "you sure?", but should't stop you.

Yes, the system will ping Apple's servers to make sure your AppleID has the OS associated with their account (meaning you 'bought' it at some point, or it came on a 'new' mac). Not sure why, it's all free, but whatever.
 

BarkingGhostar

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Nov 20, 2009
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Command+R>Disk Utilities, Delete & Create new Partition>Reinstall>done. Worked for me. Now to try CarbonCopy Cloner to a USB3 SSD and see how the boot experience it.
 

BarkingGhostar

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Nov 20, 2009
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OK, the clone worked and I was able to boot from it. Quite impressed with the experience both from booting the SSD+USB3 and while in the El Capitan environment.