Formatting hard drive on Mac Mini

Hi, I just bought a mac book and i'm selling my mac mini to a friend. now, i know i can format my hard drive though disk utilities, but when i erase my hard drive, what happens the next time i turn on my computer? i'm thinking it will be just like when i first got the mac, it will ask me for the OS X installation disk, and away i go. basically, i'm trying to hand this computer over in the same state it was when i pulled it out of the box. any help/clarification would be great.
cheers

Erasing your drive with Disk Utility will delete everything on your hard drive, but then it won't have any OS. I have never had an OS-less disk, but I doubt Open Firmware (or EFI, if it's an Intel Mini) will ask for your OS X Install disc(s). You will probably see an error message or something.
What you should do is follow Mario's suggestion and re-install Mac OS X, doing an Erase & Install. That will erase everything on your hard drive & install a fresh copy of Mac OS X. When your friend turns his new Mini on, he will see the "Welcome" screen and will be guided through the original setup process ...

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You can't legally sell or give away that computer with Yosemite installed.
Before you sell or give away your computer, in addition to the steps listed in this support article, take these steps:
1. Run Apple Diagnostics or the Apple Hardware Test. The buyer will do this (or he should), and you don't want to be surprised by the results.
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You can't legally or practically transfer any software downloaded from the Mac App Store to the new owner of the machine, even if it was free. That includes OS X, so if you upgraded to OS X 10.7 or later, you must reinstall an older OS, either from the installation media, if applicable, or by starting up in Internet Recovery mode (option-command-R at the startup chime.) If you installed from physical media, deliver those to the new owner.
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