What if I am not able to click erase?
I am trying to clear my Mac to give to someone else. How do I proceed if I can't actually choose "erase" in the Disk Utility box? It is grayed out and won't let me click on it.
Question marked as
If you try to use Recovery HD, that precludes erasing, because you are asking it to erase itself while it is running.
Try booting to Internet Recovery (whose code is in ROM, then loads the rest off the Internet). try Command-Option-R
OR boot from recovery from another drive, such as a Time machine backup, and use its Utilities.
OR use a USB-stick installer (any version) but do not install, just use its Utilities.