I am trying to reformat a laptop I do not want anymore, I did the command R think, I am in disk utility but when I want to erase the Hitachi disk it asks for a name and fails to erase. I also can't reinstall OS X. It is a Macbook pro I bought in 2009, thanks in advance!
You can't cause it is the startup drive (remember the Recovery Partition is a part of the drive). If your Mac supports it, you can start in Internet Recovery Mode: Option-Command-R prior to the chime, with it connected to the speediest Internet link you can muster. Boots off Apple's servers far, far away, so a lot of PATIENCE is needed. Or if the Mac came with installation media (CD/DVD), stick it in, reboot with the Option key held down and choose the optical media from the list. As per these recommendations, the Mac should be reinstalled with the default OS X for the model, 10.5 Leopard for a 2009 Mac, which came in a DVD.
Hi,
I'm not clear on exactly what is happening when. Have you followed the steps listed here exactly? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065
Is the drive encrypted? If so, it might be asking for a passcode to unlock it.
I believe your Mac is too old for Internet Recovery to be supported, so you will have to boot from an install disk to erase your disk.
Good luck!
Internal disk won't erase in disk utility
