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I am trying to erase the hard drive. After clicking on Mac HD in Disk Utility the Erase button does not function.

I am trying to erase the hard drive on a pre 2009 iMac. After clicking on Mac HD in Disk Utility the erase button does not function.

iMac 27″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Jan 19, 2021 1:03 PM

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Posted on Jan 19, 2021 1:14 PM

What are you going to do with the 2009 iMac?

(reuse, sell, give away, recycle)


You can not erase the hard drive that you are started up from. You need to startup from the original Install Disc 1 that came with the 2009 iMac or a bootable OS X on an external drive in order to erase the Macintosh HD.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 19, 2021 1:14 PM in response to DW2013

What are you going to do with the 2009 iMac?

(reuse, sell, give away, recycle)


You can not erase the hard drive that you are started up from. You need to startup from the original Install Disc 1 that came with the 2009 iMac or a bootable OS X on an external drive in order to erase the Macintosh HD.

I am trying to erase the hard drive. After clicking on Mac HD in Disk Utility the Erase button does not function.

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