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Erase a Disk from Terminal

To erase a Disk from the Command Line...

Get disk identifier, use: diskutil info "DISKNAME" | grep "Device Node"
Then erase disk using: diskutil eraseDisk FILESYSTEM DISKNAME DISKIDENTIFIER

Where FILESYSTEM is JHFS+ (Journalled), HFS+, FAT32
DISKNAME is the name to be given to the disk
DISKIDENTIFIER is the ID returned above (eg /dev/disk6s2)

Erase volume example: diskutil eraseVolume JHFS+ Erased /dev/disk6s2
Erase disk example: diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ Erased disk6

Related Tips

Secure Erase from El Capitan
Secure Erase Options
Secure Erase SSD





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