How do I re-enable an internal HDD for formatting and data deletion on iMac?

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How do I re-enable an internal HDD for formatting and data deletion on iMac?

Hi, I did this procedure successfully on my iMac late 2014 as the HDD was too slow and subsequently I booted from a fast external SSD and all was well until now when I want to trade in the old iMac but cannot access the 'removed' internal HDD in order to format it and delete my data. Does anyone know what needs to be typed into terminal in order to reverse what I have previously done? Thanks in advance!

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iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 9, 2025 6:26 PM

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HWTech

Level 9

68,426 points

Mar 10, 2025 1:28 PM in response to ctisme18

You should not need any Terminal commands. Just access Disk Utility and click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drives appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. Assuming the internal Hard Drive has not failed completely, then you should be able to see it in Disk Utility so you can erase the physical drive (Intel Macs only).

Here is an Apple article for reinstalling macOS using Recovery/Internet Recovery Mode:

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

Personally I would recommend creating a bootable macOS 11.x Big Sur USB installer using the instructions in the following Apple article since some people have issues with Internet Recovery Mode:

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

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How do I re-enable an internal HDD for formatting and data deletion on iMac?

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