Disk Utility - Secure Erase is not working in terminal

I'm trying to securely erase my disk by using diskutil in terminal in the recovery mode (restart --> hold down command+R --> terminal)

I first use diskutil list to find the disk name, which is disk0:

Then I use diskutil secureErase 0 disk0 to erase the disk:

However, the error "Couldn't open disk" happened. I tried to go to the UI version of Disk Utility, unmount the disk and erase again, but the same problem happens.

How can I solve this issue?

MacBook

Posted on Oct 1, 2019 8:35 AM

Top-ranking reply

dwb

Level 7

33,316 points

Posted on Oct 1, 2019 9:59 AM

Secure Erase isn't available to SSDs because they work quite differently from hard drives. The recommended way to scramble data on a computer with an SSD is to use FileVault (file encryption). You can erase the drive and even if the next user is able to resurrect the data it will be garbage without the encyption key.

View in context

Disk Utility - Secure Erase is not working in terminal

Similar questions