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For Windows power users, we all know that diskpart clean command is pretty handy.
To remove all partitions from the disk and make the disk brand new again, in macOS we can use this command:
Select the target disk, for instance if we want to wipe the external drive /dev/disk4, run the following command:
Tips: If it's showing disk or resource is busy, use the umount /dev/disk0 command to unmount the disk from the system.
Then the drive will be cleaned and if you go to Mac Disk Utility, the drive will become uninitialised, just like a brand new hard drive that never been used before.
To remove all partitions from the disk and make the disk brand new again, in macOS we can use this command:
Bash:
andy-mac:~ andy$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *256.1 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk3 255.9 GB disk0s2
/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 999.9 GB disk1s2
/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +999.9 GB disk2
Physical Store disk1s2
1: APFS Volume Secondary HD 718.5 GB disk2s1
/dev/disk3 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +255.9 GB disk3
Physical Store disk0s2
1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 183.7 GB disk3s1
2: APFS Volume Preboot 60.1 MB disk3s2
3: APFS Volume Recovery 1.0 GB disk3s3
4: APFS Volume VM 14.0 GB disk3s4
/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk4
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk4s1
2: Apple_HFS Seagate Expansion Media 499.8 GB disk4s2
andy-mac:~ andy$
Select the target disk, for instance if we want to wipe the external drive /dev/disk4, run the following command:
Bash:
bash-3.2# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk4 bs=1m count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
1048576 bytes transferred in 0.005399 secs (194217112 bytes/sec)
bash-3.2#
Tips: If it's showing disk or resource is busy, use the umount /dev/disk0 command to unmount the disk from the system.
Then the drive will be cleaned and if you go to Mac Disk Utility, the drive will become uninitialised, just like a brand new hard drive that never been used before.