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I have been trying to wipe my external hard drive (WD My Passport 2626 Media 2TB) using my MacOS Catalina 10.15.2.

I have tried each command multiple times, shut my mac off between, changed USB port...

  • Terminal

    diskutil secureErase 1 *disk2*
  error:    -69759: securely erasing data to prevent recovery failed
  underlying error: 16

    diskutil zeroDisk force *disk2*
  error:    -69759: securely erasing data to prevent recovery failed
  underlying error: 16 

    diskutil randomDisk 2 *disk2*
  error:    -69759: securely erasing data to prevent recovery failed
  underlying error: 16

  • Disk Utility

    • Erase Disk > Security Option > Two-pass secure erase

      securely erasing data to prevent recovery failed. : (-69759) operation failed...

    • Erase Disk > Security Option > Fastest (non-secure)

      unable to write to the last block of the device. : (-69760) operation failed

About the hard drive:

WD My Passport 2626 Media 2TB 

Volume type:       Uninitialized
Writable:          No
Is case-sensitive: No
Volume capacity:   2 000 356 289 472 

Available space (Purgeable + Free): 0

Purgeable space:   0
Free Space:        0
Used Space.:       2 000 356 289 472  
Owners enabled:    No
Is encrypted:      No
Can be verified:   No
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  • I don't know squat about Mac, but if you don't get an answer you could always try using a GParted Live CD or USB - gparted.org/livecd.php
    – user1138
    Commented Jan 8, 2020 at 12:56
  • How long does it take before diskutil commands return with the error message? If it takes some time may be the HDD has defect sectors that can't be overwritten and therefore wiping fails...
    – Robert
    Commented Jan 8, 2020 at 13:30

1 Answer 1

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1

Check you SMART parameters running smartmontools. https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/Download Redirect the output of the smartctl command to a file with a command like smartctl -a /dev/sdb > smart.txt before trying to delete your hard drive in a different way and post smart.txt here.

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