Press 'Enter.' Input your administrator credentials and confirm the action, if prompted. Highlight the code and press 'Command-C' to copy the edited code to the clipboard.Ĭlick on the Terminal prompt and press 'Command-V' to paste the code. If you want to reformat, replace 'eraseDisk' with 'reformat' and delete the 'JHFS+' and 'diskname' parts of the command.

Replace 'diskidentifier' with the Disk Identifier name retrieved from Disk Utility. Change 'diskname' to the new name for the disk, or type '%noformat%' to leave the name blank. Change 'JHFS+' to 'HFS+' if you want a volume that is not journaled. having to resort to doing everything via the command line interface.

Type 'diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ diskname diskidentifier' into the TextEdit document.Įdit the 'diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ diskname diskidentifier' code in TextEdit.Ĭhange 'eraseDisk' to 'secureErase' if you want to securely erase the disk. Every good Mac tech should have a bootable external hard disk that has a full copy. Click 'Go' and double-click 'TextEdit' to open the TextEdit application. Creating and Using a Terminal Format CommandĬlick 'Go,' select 'Go to Folder.' and type '/Applications/TextEdit' into the text field.

Mac terminal commands external drive