Most users use Disk Utility to erase a disk or hard drive. Best apps for new macbook pro. But some Mac users might need to erase them from the command line on Mac OS. To do that, the only thing you need is a bit of precise syntax to make sure that you are erasing the proper disk.
It's in the lower-right corner of the dialog box. The wipe process will begin. The time to erase your disk will vary based on disk size and the amount of data that was stored on your hard drive.
Physically Destroying Your Hard Drive. When disposing of an old computer, there is really only one way to securely erase the information on the hard drive: destroying the magnetic disk (also called a platter) inside. To begin, locate where your hard drive is within your computer. To wipe a hard drive means to completely erase the drive of all its information. Deleting everything does not wipe a hard drive and formatting does not usually wipe a hard drive. You'll need to take an extra step to wipe the hard drive so the data cannot be easily reconstructed later. If you decide to securely erase your Mac's hard drive(s), you will first have to back up your information. To do this, you should use the Time Machine app because it makes it very easy to keep a. When you clone your hard drive, not only are you copying all its application and user files, but you’re also copying the entire operating system, essentially creating a perfect copy of your Mac that you can access at any time. This is a good way of ensuring that you won’t lose anything when you wipe your Mac’s hard drive.
Here I'll show you how you can erase and format a disk using the command line.
Working with Terminal
Start off by running the following command in the command line: Diskutil list
This is going to list all the mounted drives on your Mac.
Once you have found the proper drive to erase, just copy its identifier so you can use it for the next command. Then pick a name and a system format type. This is the syntax we need: Diskutil eraseDisk FILESYSTEM DISKNAME DISKIDENTIFIER
How To Wipe Macbook Hard Drive Clean
Let’s say the disk I want to erase has “/dev/disk5s2” as its identifier and I’m going to use Mac OS Extended Journaled (JHFS+) as the system format type and name it “Empty”. The syntax is going to look like this: Diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ Empty /dev/disk5s2
It’s important to keep in mind that if you run the eraseDisk command, the target disk is going to lose all its data, so make sure you are erasing the proper disk.
How To Wipe A Macbook Hard Drive Clean
If you need different system format types, here are a few references you could use instead of JHFS+: