Preparing Mac for resale

I have purchased a new Mac Mini and I want to sell the old one. I will migrate the documents I want to bring over and delete all personal documents on the old Mac. It is running OS 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) because I use MS Office 2004 and it requires Rosetta to run. Subsequent versions of Mac OS do not support Rosetta so I plan to resell it with OS 10.6.8 and MS Office and other applications.
After I delete personal documents (including photos, emails, etc.) on the old Mac, is there a way to safely erase the remaining free space? Also is there a program that I can run tom tell me which applications require Rosetta so that I don't bring them over? Any other advice on carrying out this transfer would be appreciated. I have learned that the quickest way to transfer files is via an Ethernet connection between the two machines with the old Mac started as the source disk.

I was just testing a Mac Mini that I bought from eBay and which needed to be returned. The drive was in such bad shape that a one pass zero or secure erase of any kind would never have made it. Instead, since I had no personally identifiable information on that machine, I just deleted the user I had been testing with from Users & Groups (Accounts in Snow Leopard). It came installed with Yosemite, so not sure if this option is available in Snow, but I deleted that user with the option secure delete. It happened almost instantly, so not sure what secure delete for an account actually does, since it would have needed a bit of time at least to write zeros to that account, even with hardly anything there. Plus, although I have Snow, I have never needed to use that option in Snow, if it's even available there.
So a long winded reply to say that I just don't know how secure a "secure" delete of a user account is. I wasn't that bothered because, as I already said, I hadn't put any personally identifiable information on that machine. I did however want to be sure it securely deleted my wireless router password in Keychain. Didn't want to leave that lying around to be recovered, even on a drive that was about to die completely. So I hope it nuked that securely, which shouldn't have taken much time.
Maybe someone else here will know just what a secure delete of an account actually involves. If it does some kind of overwriting with zeros or random zeros and ones, or what the "secure" in secure delete really means. Actually, it's called “Erase home folder securely.”
Apple doesn't provide much more information than this:
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH10754?locale=en_US
Here, someone is saying it does a 35 pass overwrite.(Makes me wonder then, if when I did it, it really did that). I hope that drive dies completely and very soon.
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/30639/issue-with-deleting-user-account

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          2, Remove any Open Firmware passwords or Firmware passwords.
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Step One - Back up your data:
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       B. Clone to an external drive using using Carbon Copy Cloner.
          1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
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Step Two - Prepare the machine for the new buyer:
          1. De-authorize the computer in iTunes! De-authorize both iTunes and Audible accounts.
          2, Remove any Open Firmware passwords or Firmware passwords.
          3. Turn the brightness full up and volume nearly so.
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Step Three - Install a fresh OS:
     A. Snow Leopard and earlier versions of OS X
          1. Insert the original OS X install CD/DVD that came with your computer.
          2. Restart the computer while holding down the C key to boot from the CD/DVD.
          3. Select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu; repartition and reformat the internal hard drive.
              Optionally, click on the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass.
          4. Install OS X.
          5. Upon completion DO NOT restart the computer.
          6. Shutdown the computer.
     B. Lion and Mountain Lion (if pre-installed on the computer at purchase*)
         Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because
                   it is three times faster than wireless.
          1. Restart the computer while holding down the COMMAND and R keys until the Mac OS X
              Utilities window appears.
          2. Select Disk Utility from the Mac OS X Utilities window and click on the Continue button.
          3. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the left side list. Click
              on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
          4. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on the Security button
              and set the Zero Data option to one-pass.
          5. Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
          6. Quit DU and return to the Mac OS X Utilities window.
          7. Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
          8. Upon completion shutdown the computer.
*If your computer came with Lion or Mountain Lion pre-installed then you are entitled to transfer your license once. If you purchased Lion or Mountain Lion from the App Store then you cannot transfer your license to another party. In the case of the latter you should install the original version of OS X that came with your computer. You need to repartition the hard drive as well as reformat it; this will assure that the Recovery HD partition is removed. See Step Three above. You may verify these requirements by reviewing your OS X Software License.

Error on imovie11: Unable to prepare project for publishing.

Error on imovie11: Unable to prepare project for publishing.
I badly need someone that is an extreme expert on Mac Pro and imovie11 and very good at troubleshooting. I have a critical project to get out and have serious problem. Mac store solutions did not work. Need a Pro that I can hire to come to my office in Raleigh NC.
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Martin Brossman 919 847 4757
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Rocker-65 is correct, large, long and complex projects can have problems resulting in a Error-108. Sometimes cutting a Project up into pieces or just cutting into 2 can help. Easiest way to accomplish the cutting is to create a Duplicate Project. Then just cut Project 1 in half, saving the first part. Duplicate Project gets cut in half and contains the second part.
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I keep getting this message from Imovie: Unable to prepare project for publishing. The project could not be prepared for publishing because an error occurred. (Error in user parameter list)

I keep getting this message from Imovie:
Unable to prepare project for publishing. The project could not be prepared for publishing because an error occurred. (Error in user parameter list)

Bartirn,
I called Apple under my Mac support contract. They were completely unfamiliar with the error you and I were encountering. Updating to 10.8.5 didn't help.
I'm stopping my TimeCapsule while I perform these tasks, but I don't know yet if I have a consistent work-around.
B

This pops up when exporting in iMovie "Unable to prepare project for publishing: The project could not be prepared for publishing because an error occurred. (ParamErr: error in user parameter list)" I have turned off my Time Machine in terminal.

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Hi
Error -50 paramErr Error in user parameter list
Can there be any external hard disks - if so How is/are it/they formatted ? Must be Mac OS Extended (hfs) if used for Video.
UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange - works for most but not for VIDEO.
What this means in Your situation is above me.
• free space on internal boot hard disk? How much ?
Video codec
• streamingDV, AIC etc. (not .avi, .mp4, .m4v, .wmv etc as they are containers not codecs)
Pictures
• in what format ? .jpg, .bmp, .tif, else ?
Audio
• from where/what format ? iTunes, .avi, .mp3, .aiff, else ?
The "com.apple.iMovie.plist" file
Many users has not observed that there are TWO libraries.
• Library - at root level
• Library - in user/account folder - THIS IS THE ONE to look into
from Luke Burns
I fixed the problem.. but it was very, very strange. I had a very long section for credits and set the line spacing to 1.0.. for some reason this caused it. I removed it, and it worked fine. I put it back, and I couldn't preview or play the video.
I don't know why that could cause that big of a problem, but it did..
Klaus1
You need more free space on your hard drive.
jonorparkerjon
After phone support from apple I ended up creating a new project and adding all 117 clips back in individually till I found out what clips flagged and would not allow me to export. I had 3 I deleted and replaced and everything works now 1hr after tedious work....
Where do Your material come from
• Camera
• External hard disk
• USB-memory
And all are connected so that iMovie can find it ?
Yours Bengt W

I try to export my Imovie and I always get the error code"Unable to prepare project for publishing...File already open with write permission" it even does it when I am just trying to export to my external hard drive to save the file

I try to export my Imovie and I always get the error code"Unable to prepare project for publishing...File already open with write permission" it even does it when I am just trying to export to my external hard drive to save the file

Thanks!!! I had same error (with -49) and the mac had an external hard drive attached.. and it was doing a backup. Stopped, disconnected and the project exported!

While trying to burn a DVD off IMovie 09 I get the following message while trying to prepare: Unable to prepare project for publishing because an error occurred (-2125)

While trying to burn a DVD off IMovie 09 I get the following message: Unable to prepare project for publishing because an error occurred (-2125) Happened several times even after deleting and starting over.

Hi
Error -49 opWrErr File already open with write permission
Trash the preference files while application is NOT Running.
from Karsten Schlüter
Some users notice on exporting larger projects from within iMovie that this operation is aborted with an 'error -49'
This issue occours only on MacOs machines using 10.7x
try switching-off the Local Mobile Backup
in Terminal copy/paste
sudo tmutil disablelocal
Re-launch Mac
Yours Bengt W

Unable to prepare project for publishing (error -2125); how do I fix this?

Trying to export movie (about 200+ gb: 3hr.s+, using external hard drive) to a thumb drive (32 gb); I get the msg. unable to prepare project for publishing. An error occurred. (-2125)
What to do?

The thumb drive is probably formatted as FAT32 (most USB flash drives are formatted as FAT32). There is a 4GB file size limit with any drives formatted as FAT32. Try reformatting the thumb drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using the Mac app Disk Utility (it comes with the OS and should be in the Utilities folder).
Also, are you sure that the 32GB drive is enough space for your exported movie? Try exporting it to your internal drive, or an external portable drive formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then copy it to the thumb drive, provided that the exported file will fit on it.
Otherwise, you will need to follow Karsten's advice to duplicate the project one or more times, then delete portions from each duplicate so that you end up with a number of separate projects, each with their individual content. Then export each project separately.
To duplicate a project, while in Project Library view (where all your projects are listed), select File > Duplicate Project. Alternatively, right-click (or Control-click) on the project in the Library and select Duplicate Project from the pop-up menu.
If you need assistance with reformatting the thumb drive, please ask.
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