Unable to erase Mac Hard Drive

I'm assuming you're using Disk Utility within Recovery if it's your main system drive?

Possibly a read-only volume/partition/container, that '69614' error isn't particularly clear on what the exact issue is, and sometimes a second try can work after rebooting back into Recovery. But typically you would select the drive, in your case "Apple SSD * Media", and click Erase which will erase the complete drive.

Alternatively, have a look at the command line 'diskutil' command which you can use within Terminal (again in Recovery), as there are options like 'deleteContainer' which you can use with the '-force' switch to forcibly remove volumes/partitions/containers etc.
I would strongly recommend creating a MacOS USB install drive (need at least a 8 or 16GB drive) that you can boot from beforehand in the event you completely nuke the drive and recovery partitions with 'diskutil'.
 
I'm not sure what the problem is with it - when the mac logs in, after a few seconds everything goes haywire and starts disappearing - you can see the icons on the screen but if you click on apps or utilities you can open something, and then all of the m disappear and the mac freezes with the spinning ball.

In recovery mode I have tried erasing the disk but it doesn't work.
 
If I try just installing Monteray, from recovery mode, it goes so far, gets to 12 minutes remaining and says an error occurred loading the update.
 
Looks like I'll have to bin this computer, just cannot get the bloody thing to erase. This is why I cannot stand Apple Computers, so unintuitive! On Windows it'd be a breeze to diagnose a faulty Hard Drive. Absolutely no idea which genius thought it was a good idea to spam drives with apfs containers and all that ridiculousness!
 
What model of iMac (assuming that from pics) have you got?
And what's the current MacOS version installed? Is it 12 Monterey?

I agree, Mac's can be a royal pain especially when it's drive related as you haven't got physical access to the drive.

smr said:
In recovery mode I have tried erasing the disk but it doesn't work.
Click to expand...
What error(s) did it show when you attempted to erase the entire disk (using Disk Utility in Recovery)?

smr said:
This is what diskutil shows. I just want to be able to format the drive and reinstall the OS. Any ideas ?
Click to expand...
As said, if you can make a MacOS USB installer then do so as it's quite easy to bodge the drive.

But assuming you're using MacOS 10.12/10.13 (Sierra or High Sierra)+ and disk0 (double check with diskutil list beforehand) is your SSD/system drive, then try -
Code: 
sudo diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/disk0
sudo diskutil erasedisk apfs "Drive Name Here" gpt /dev/disk0

Alternatively or MacOS is below 10.12 then -
Code: 
sudo diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/disk0
sudo diskutil erasedisk JHFS+ "Drive Name Here" gpt /dev/disk0

Bodged partition table, look at the gpt command, or an issue with the T1/T2 firmware, can be revived but need another Mac, are other possibilities but i haven't personally experienced those so will require a bit of Googling.
And Apple Stack Exchange and/or the Apple community forum are worth a look as someone may be able to shed some light on the 69614 error.
 
  • Like
Reactions: smr
Are there not any bootable Linux's which the Mac can boot from so you can use GParted or similar?

Not knocking the CLI 'nix tools but nothing wrong with the GUI version. Bootable Linux's have always been my go-to when faced with stubborn drives, or drivers which won't load on PCs and as long as you can get similar for am x86 Mac that would be how I'd try this.
 
visibleman said:
What model of iMac (assuming that from pics) have you got?
And what's the current MacOS version installed? Is it 12 Monterey?

I agree, Mac's can be a royal pain especially when it's drive related as you haven't got physical access to the drive.


What error(s) did it show when you attempted to erase the entire disk (using Disk Utility in Recovery)?


As said, if you can make a MacOS USB installer then do so as it's quite easy to bodge the drive.

But assuming you're using MacOS 10.12/10.13 (Sierra or High Sierra)+ and disk0 (double check with diskutil list beforehand) is your SSD/system drive, then try -
Code: 
sudo diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/disk0
sudo diskutil erasedisk apfs "Drive Name Here" gpt /dev/disk0

Alternatively or MacOS is below 10.12 then -
Code: 
sudo diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/disk0
sudo diskutil erasedisk JHFS+ "Drive Name Here" gpt /dev/disk0

Bodged partition table, look at the gpt command, or an issue with the T1/T2 firmware, can be revived but need another Mac, are other possibilities but i haven't personally experienced those so will require a bit of Googling.
And Apple Stack Exchange and/or the Apple community forum are worth a look as someone may be able to shed some light on the 69614 error.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. There isn't anything on the Hard Drive which needs saving, it's ok to format and install afresh - I did install Mac OS off a USB once, can't remember how I did it though - I think there was a website where you could download various Mac Operating Systems onto a USB and load them, would you happen to know?

It's Monteray, and it's an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
 
Last edited:
smr said:
....would you happen to know?
Click to expand...
If you've got access to another (working) Mac then -
Links for the MacOS Downloads - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683
How to create a USB installer - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201372

On PC it's a bit of a PITA but -
Download MacOS DMG - https://techrechard.com/download-macos-monterey-iso-dmg-and-vmdk/#Download_macOS_Monterey_DMG_file

Alternatively you can try gibMacOS Python script - https://github.com/corpnewt/gibMacOS, https://manjaro.site/how-to-create-macos-usb-installation-disk-from-windows-10/ (has a bit about gibMacOS as well as creating a USB MacOS installer under Windows), https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...to-download-macos-directly-from-apple.295248/

One method of creating MacOS USB under Windows - https://pureinfotech.com/create-macos-bootable-usb-windows/
 
  • Like
Reactions: smr
Thanks, I've got a bootable Monteray USB so I'm just trying to format the drive in recovery mode. When running these commands:

sudo diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/disk0
sudo diskutil erasedisk apfs "Drive Name Here" gpt /dev/disk0

First command successful, second says "You cannot manually format an existing APFS Container disk"
 
smr said:
First command successful, second says "You cannot manually format an existing APFS Container disk"
Click to expand...
Try deleting the containers first (iirc you can't do the entire disk with deleteVolume so you'll have to enumerate through each container with /disk0s1, /disk0s2), eg -
Code: 
sudo diskutil apfs deleteVolume /dev/disk0s1

As always, make sure you list your drives and volumes/partitions/containers (etc) beforehand as they can change from startup to startup.
 
Last edited:
ok so I've used the code
Code: 
sudo diskutil apfs deleteVolume /dev/disk0s1

on all instances of the disks - disk0/0s1 etc. through to disk 3

and

Code: 
diskutil apfs deleteContainer diskX etc.

Then I've tried to erase disk3 and it says You cannot manually format an existing APFS Container disk

 
update - so I've actually got so exasperated I've removed the screen and plugged the SSD into my Windows Computer. I tried deleting the partitions with Easeus partition master but even that wouldn't run without errors so the only thing I can do is Wipe the disk with Easeus which I am doing at the moment.
 
Thanks for the help anyway.

Ordered a new Hard Drive. As I thought it's knackered. Could not get it to format even after wiping it with Easeus.
 
Last edited:
I've installed the new SSD and gone to erase it - the options show Mac OS Extended, ExFat etc. but not APFS, isn't APFS needed for SSDs to run optimised ?
 
it's ok! I plugged the usb in I made the other day and it started disk util in an old format with no apfs option. removed it and did Internet Recovery and it's got APFS available.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom