Home Forums Hardware Mac Desktops & Notebooks deleting External HD

OS 10.12.6

I am trying to delete an external HD completely. I put the HD on the desktop and dragged everything into the trash but it will not remove the system integrity protection.

There is still 18 gb in the trash. What is the correct procedure to remove everything?


jaybass

While booted from your internal hard drive, launch Disk Utility. Select the external drive (the physical drive, not any subsequent partitions) and click the Erase tab. That will give you options for formatting, so choose one and then click Erase.

After posting my problem, I tried to erase the back-up HD using disk utility. It failed. I then ( using super duper) tried to back-up my internal HD to the back-up HD. After over 3 hours using smart update, it failed but when I went to file, check info, it said: Capacity

499.62gb, available space ZERO bytes. The 18 gb no longer existed. Can I now assume that the back-up HD is now safe to use? Whilst in D/U, capacity showed 499.62 and used 499.61... a slight difference. I sent the report to shirt pocket.


jaybass

If erasing the drive failed in Disk Utility, something's wrong. Did it say why it failed?

It's normal to see small differences in capacity, because different apps measure capacity slightly differently.

It didn't say why it failed. A red bar ran across the super duper window. The report that appeared seemed quite extensive which I didn't read mainly because I would'n't have understood it. Shirt pocket said they would answer shortly.

If they explain why, I will post the result.

jaybass

tacit was questioning why Disk Utility failed.

When it fails, it gives you a disclosure arrow (usually in the lower left corner of its window) that you can click on the learn the details of why it failed.

Sounds like SuperDuper! may have failed because DU failed, so there's not enough space on your drive to complete the clone.

I didn't look for any indication as to why it failed. I do now know the reason. Just before the back-up, my son gave me half a dozen movies which I put on my desk top. Never thought nothing more but those movies put my HD over the capacity of the back-up HD by (4) gb. So you are right about there being insufficient space.

jaybass