I’m trying to erase the hard drive on my very old Mac laptop (15 yrs) and I keep getting this error. Can anyone help me out?
@see_the_sus Is the utility trying to work in the same volume it's trying to clear? What percentage of the volume is in use? If the utility needs a lot of free space to create a temp file, that might be an issue. There could also be a permissions issue if the utility is trying to create the file in a directory with insufficient permissions. You might try running it with sudo or the like . . . .
I'm sorry but I haven't a clue. I know the basics about the innards of computers and that's about it. I just want to erase it and take it to recycling
@see_the_sus https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-format-a-mac.373999/ for a few ideas. Someone mentions the available free space on the drive. Also, if your OS is actually using the drive you're trying to get it to erase . . . that could easily be a problem. If I even want to do a file-system fix on the machines I usually use, the machine has to reboot and proceed in a low-level mode for it too work. That's a on a Windows machine, but a Mac might have similar considerations.
Unfortunately, I accidentally unplugged it and now it won't start up at all. Well, it's giving me the lovely ?. I tried to do the NVRAM reset startup trick and all I get from that is the spinning wheel.
I think I"m just going to take a hammer or drill to it.
Only if I had Viggo to go with me. 😉
@see_the_sus Or take it to Mordor, to melt it in the fires of Mount Doom.