I've tried to conduct a secure erase with disk utility. I highlight the drive but erase options are not available.

I tried to conduct a secure erase with disk utility. I highlight the drive but there's no place to click "erase."

If you have an SSD, then the best thing you can do it enable System Preferences -> Security -> FileVault, so that any deleted files are just an encrypted jumble of bits to anyone that does not have the encryption key.
And even if you do erase the SSD, it does not work the way you think, and retired SSD zones may have your data, and never see an erase.
This is way keeping the SSD encrypted means retired zones are just encrypted jumble of bits.
If you do NOT have an SSD, is it possible you are trying to erase your boot disk while you are actually using your boot disk? Disk Utility will not allow you to do that either.

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I'm trying to backup a my harddrive with disk utility but I'm getting an error Unable to create Backup.dmg" (input/output error). Is there any other way to save my data? I believe my hard drive is failing or corrupt file. I can't boot up. Grey screen

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http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

Erasing with Disk Utility

I thought I cleared out my external using erase in disk utility, but it says there there are 111.5GB available of an 111.6GB drive, but it's a 120GB drive. What happened to the other 9 GB? Should I erase the free space? Why can't I find what's taking up the other 9?

Hi theJBexperience;
The computer counts in binary which includes 1024 bytes per kilobyte rather then 1000 hence the disk always appears smaller then what it is listed as for size. Plus on top of that there is some overhead that must be created when you format the disk. I don't think you have anything to worry about here.
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I have forgotten my security and taken the advice to send to an email but that option is not available

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Doing a 7 or 35 pass erase with Disk Utility?

Hi,
Awhile ago my hard drive got rewritten over by WindowXP and a month and a half later I found out that residue was left behind with weird looking things in my Core Services folder.
So I want to do a secure erase. Should I do a 7 pass or 35 pass option?
Also when I put my TIger disk in the my DVD slot for the erase am I choosing the main part where it says 149.10 GB ST13086.... or the indented part where it says Macintosh HD?
If I select the main part 149.10 GB ST 130608 it says untitled for the name, do I leave it like that if I choose this option?
S.

sig,
So I can choose Macintosh HD and then security option and then do the 7 pass erase (not worried about the FBI, just want my Windows stuff completely gone)? Do I need to erase the free space first?
Message was edited by: spiralgirl

Tried to reformat Time Capsule with Disk Utility and now no Drive

So, not reading manuals finally bit me in the behind. I was too impatient waiting for all my back up files to erase so I could free up space, so I got the great idea.......I'll just reformat the disk with Mac Disk Utility, NOT the Airport Utility. Now my Airport says drive needs repair, however, there is no option in the airport utility for disks anymore.
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If your AirPort Time Capsule still doesn’t respond, do a similar reset to the Gen1-4.
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HT204347 Unable to Re-install mountain Lion after erasing with disk utility! help

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Unable to find HDD after erase with disk utility

Background id I had installed the Lion OS but then got into trouble with the "flashing question mark " at start up.
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Quitting Disk Utility in middle of an operation erasing a 2TB hard drive

Hello,
I have bought a 2TB external hard drive for backing up my files. I noticed when i plugged it in on my iMac that the files can be copied off the device but nothing can be altered and put on. So after a lot of research I heard that I should make a single pass erase on Disk Utility to reformat the hard drive to be used in both systems. So I did.
The problem is that I saw it would take about 10 hours for this to happen and it has been many hours more. I saw on some other sites that some people had problems where it took days. If I quit in the middle of a erase operation it warns me that quitting in the middle may render the drive non-operational. I don't want to lose it as I spent a considerable amount on it.
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Hello azrael2010
Welcome to Apple Support Communities
A single or multiple pass erase +(writing 0's)+ is not necessary before reformatting a new drive, it is meant to write over and secure data from recovery.
To reformat a drive from NTSF to MS-DOS/FAT-32 all one needs to do is:
1. Select the External HDs first icon in the Disk Utility list of drives
2. Select the Partition tab
3. Select the number of desired partitions under Volume Scheme:
4. Select Options...
5. Select Master Boot Record and click OK (+setting the Partition scheme)+
6. Select MS-DOS (FAT) +(setting the format)+
7. Select the Apply button +(which should quick erase and format the drive in a few minutes)+
Also see > http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/partitioningtiger.html
Personally I have stopped a Secure Erase on many occasions and always opted for the quick erase when formatting a new drive from MS-DOS/FAT-32 to GUID Partition Table/Mac OS Extended and never had a problem...
Also note MS-DOS/FAT-32 has a single file size limitation of 4GB.
See >http://www.macworld.com/article/51972/2006/07/ww_drives.html
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Unable to erase external hard drive with Disk Utility

Macbook Pro (mid 2010) running 10.9
Hello
Recently, my Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1 TB external hard drive has not been showing up on my desktop or in finder. The light is on when connected, and in the Disk Utility it appears.
1. It was naturally created with a partition on it (all of the 1TB allocated to it) and it appears in the Disk Utility as well; however, it is grayed out.
2. I clicked the actual drive in DU and it was verified as being ok. I clicked on the partition next to verify and it said "Error disk needs repaired"
3. So I clicked repair, "Disk Utility cannot repair the disk..restore as many as your backed-up files...etc."
4. No problem (the data on the hard drive is used for my Time Machine back ups and my current internal hard drive is working fine with all the data intact)
5. Ok, so I click the erase tab on the entire external hard drive...erase..."Disk cannot be unmounted"
6. Ok, I try to erase the invidual partition..."Could not open disk"
It seems every time I try to erase this drive completely im hitting blocks. I even tried this method from the OS X Recovery menu (Command+R on startup). I would greatly appreciate any help to just get this whole thing external hard drive erased and start anew. How else would I go about this?
(pictures for reference)
Thank you all

If this is your only backup device, you need to start a new backup on another drive immediately. Don't erase (or try to erase) your only backup.
After you have the other backup, boot into Recovery and try again to erase the volume. You will have to unlock it before you can do anything with it, because it's encrypted.
If you still can't erase it, the drive has failed.

USB erased on Disk Utility; no longer working...

Hi, I noticed my USB was getting full after deleting tv episodes (deleting old to replace with new) so I erased the disk in Disc Utility.
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I've tried to conduct a secure erase with disk utility. I highlight the drive but erase options are not available.

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