Select a security option and click on OK and then on Erase to start the erase and format process.

Erase Process Has Failed Mac OS X

I recently needed to format an external 5TB Seagate Backup Desk Media USB hard drive.So, I decided to use the Disk Utility application, which is included in Mac OS X.

Erase Process Has Failed How To Erase And

This post describes the how to erase and format a USB Drive on Mac OS X and also addresses a particular error scenario I encountered.

As a result, the device will appear as an icon on the desktop as shown below.

Here, I have connected a Seagate 5TB external USB hard drive, which I want to erase and format.

If the device can not be mounted, it may be currently formatted using a file system format that is not supported by Mac OS X or the drive can not be read for some other reason.

In this case, you can continue by launching the Mac OS X Disk Utility application.

In the Disk Utility application, select the hard drive that you want to erase and format.

Please note that all data on that drive will be permanently deleted once you start the erase and format process.

When clicking on Show Details, an error, saying that there is not enough space on the device, or similar, may be shown.

MediaKit reports not enough space on device for requested operation.

Use the list view icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Disk Utility application and switch the view to Show All Devices.

The external USB storage device should now be listed by its name, select it and click on Erase to continue.A new dialog will appear.

Leave the Scheme to GUID Partition Map, unless you specifically need a different one or want to make the drive bootable.

By default, the drive will be erased using the fasted, most unsecure method.

The data can be recovered quite easily using disk recovery applications.

If you plan to sell this drive or need to permanently delete sensitive data, make sure to use a more secure erase method.

A disk recovery application may be able to recover the files.

It erases the information used to access your files and writes over the data two times.

It writes 2 passes of random data followed by a single pass of known data over the entire disk.

It erases the information used to access your files and writes over the data 3 times.

It erases the information used to access your files and writes over the data 7 times.