The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.

You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.

We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.

napa244 Author

Level 1

17 points

erase disk

My MacBook Pro won't erase. I followed the instructions from Apple support. The message is "couldn't open device -69877'

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 10, 2020 4:41 PM

Similar questions

3 replies

Feb 10, 2020 7:41 PM in response to napa244

Make sure to boot the computer using Recovery Mode, Internet Recovery Mode, or from a bootable macOS USB installer.

Then launch Disk Utility and click on "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive appears in the left pane of Disk Utility. Depending on the version of macOS you are installing you will want to select and erase the physical drive as:

For Mojave or Catalina:

GUID partition and APFS (top option)

For High Sierra or earlier:

GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled)

napa244 Author

Level 1

17 points

Feb 11, 2020 8:57 AM in response to HWTech

Thanks, with your information and just typing "ssd" for the new disk name, it worked!

Feb 11, 2020 9:19 AM in response to napa244

You're welcome.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

erase disk