


When you run First Aid, it scans the entire disk for errors and lets you know if there are any it can’t repair. Run First Aid to Repair Your Drive Before Erasing Itĭisk Utility has a First Aid feature that fixes all kinds of issues related to your drives: slow performance, corrupt files, or unexpected behavior. Take note that when you erase a device, it erases all the Volumes contained within it as well. Select the parent folder for the drive you want to reformat or erase, then click the Erase button again. You should see the device names for each of your drives appear in the sidebar. Open Disk Utility and select View > Show All Devices from the menu bar. A Volume is the partition or section of a drive you store data in. Show All Devices and Erase the Parent Driveīy default, Disk Utility only shows the Volumes on your connected drives, rather than the drives themselves. Use the steps below to fix it and let us know in the comments which one worked for you. You’re probably reading this article because the Erase button was grayed out when you tried to erase or reformat a drive using Disk Utility. What if the Erase Button in Disk Utility is grayed Out? Wait for Disk Utility to erase or reformat your drive, then click Done.ĭisk Utility shows each process it completes in the window.Choose a new name and format for your drive, then click Erase.ĭecide what to name your drive after erasing it.Click the Erase button at the top of the window.ĭisk Utility presents several tools at the top of the window.In the sidebar, select the drive you want to erase or reformat.

Spotlight is the quickest way to open Disk Utility.

If your MacBook’s Disk Utility won’t let you erase drives, follow the steps below to fix it. This might happen for a variety of reasons, all of which keep you from erasing or reformatting the drives connected to your Mac. You can’t reformat a drive in macOS Disk Utility when the Erase button is grayed out.
