Clear Usb Drive Mac
CAUTION: The steps below will completely wipe the data from the USB drive you select. Make sure you choose the correct drive and backup any files on the drive you may need to keep. For example, this USB drive is F:
METHOD 1: Using the cipher command line tool
If you want to erase any other type of storage device: Double-click Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Choose View Show All Devices. In the sidebar, select the storage device you want to erase, then click the Erase button. Click the Scheme pop-up menu, then choose GUID Partition Map. BONUS TIP: Apart from using dd to erase disk in Linux and Mac, you can use it to write an ISO to a drive by specifying the ISO as the input file to create a bootable USB disk with ease. If your USB flash drive, SD card, or another drive isn’t working quite right, “cleaning” the drive and removing its partitions is one possible solution. This can fix problems with a drive that can’t be formatted or one that shows the wrong capacity.
cipher is a built-in command line tool in the Windows operating system that can be used to encrypt or decrypt data on drives.
It can be used to securely erase the FREE SPACE on a USB drive. Note – this is FREE SPACE only – if you want to erase the entire drive you must first format the drive so that it ALL free space.
Mac Usb Drive
The free space is overwritten three times:
- with a series of 0’s
- with a series of 255’s
- with a series of random numbers
- Click on the Windows button at the bottom left of the screen, type “cmd’ and when it appears in the list click on “Command Prompt”
- Enter the following command making sure to replace X with the drive letter you want to erase
METHOD 2: Using the diskpart command line tool
diskpart is a built-in command line tool in the Windows operating system that is normally used to manage drives, partitions and mappings (partitions to letters) .
It can also be used to erase a USB drive by removing all existing partitions and writing a series of o’s.
- Click on the Windows button at the bottom left of the screen, type “cmd’ and when it appears in the list click on “Command Prompt”
- Enter the following command to start diskpart
- The diskpart program will load, once it’s ready you will see “DISKPART>” at the command prompt.
- Now enter
- This will list all drives connected to the computer, each represented by a number (1, 2, 3 etc) – determine which is the USB drive by the amount of space. In this case it is Disk 3 but it may be different for your computer.
- Enter in the following command, making sure to replace # with the number of your drive from above
- The screen will display “Disk # is now the selected disk”. Now enter
- The wiping process will now start and may take several minutes to complete – depending on the size of the drive. When finished you will have an empty USB drive ready to reformat.
OPTIONAL STEPS: Format drive using diskpart
If you want to reformat the drive (assign a partition type and drive letter) you can do this using diskpart by entering the following commands.
NOTE: replace FAT32 with NTFS if you would prefer to use the NTFS. See
Bluestacks 2 free for mac. If you’re not sure which is right for you – check out FAT32 vs NTFS – how to pick the right format for your USB drive.
METHOD 3: Using Eraser (third-party software)
Eraser is a free program that is recommended by the creators of DBAN (a bootable hard drive erasing tool).
- Install and run
- Right-click in the middle area and choose ‘New Task’
- Under ‘Task Type’ choose ‘Run Immediately’
- Click on the ‘Add Data’ button
- Under ‘Target Type’ choose ‘Drive/Partition’
- Then from the list choose the drive you want to erase completely
- Optional: you can also choose the erase algorithm using ‘Erasure method’ – but I would only do this if I knew 100% what and why.
- Click ‘OK’ to save the changes
- The task should now look something like this
- Click ‘OK’ to save the changes
- Eraser will now start wiping the drive – it may take awhile depending on the size of the drive.
These instructions apply only to Mac computers with an Intel processor.
Erasing your Mac permanently deletes all of its files, so make sure that you make a backup of any files that you want to keep. If you're attempting to restore your Mac to factory settings, first learn what to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac.
Start up from macOS Recovery
Turn on your Mac, then immediately press and hold these two keys until you see an Apple logo or other image: Command (⌘) and R. You may then be asked to select a user you know the password for. Select the user, then click Next and enter their administrator password.
Use Disk Utility to erase your disk
Bootable Usb Drive Mac
- From the utilities window in macOS Recovery, select Disk Utility and click Continue.
- Select Macintosh HD in the sidebar of Disk Utility. Don't see Macintosh HD?
- Click the Erase button in the toolbar, then enter the requested details:
- Name: Continue to use Macintosh HD as the name, or enter a different name.
- Format: Continue to use APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled), as recommended by Disk Utility.
- Click Erase Volume Group. If you don't see this button, click Erase instead.
- If Find My is turned on for this Mac, you may be asked to enter your Apple ID to authorize the erase. Forgot your Apple ID?
- After the erase is done, select any other internal volumes that may be listed in the sidebar, then click the delete volume (–) button in the toolbar to delete each volume.
You don't need to delete the Macintosh HD volume you just erased, or any external volumes or disk images. - Quit Disk Utility to return to the utilities window.
- If you want to start up again from the disk you erased, you should now reinstall macOS on that disk.
If you don’t see Macintosh HD in Disk Utility
Your built-in startup disk should be the first item listed in the Disk Utility sidebar. It's named Macintosh HD, unless you changed its name. If you don't see it there, choose Apple menu > Shut Down, then unplug all nonessential devices from your Mac and try again.
If your disk still doesn't appear in Disk Utility, or Disk Utility reports that the erase process failed, your Mac might need service. If you need help, please contact Apple Support.
Learn more
For more information about using Disk Utility, see the Disk Utility User Guide. Crusader kings 2 ironman cheat engine.