Mac 911
ERASE AN ENCRYPTED MAC VOLUME IF YOU DON’T NEED ITS CONTENTS
MacOS offers a number of drive encryption options. With a Mac with a T2 chip built in, the startup volume is always encrypted. On other Macs, enabling FileVault encrypts that volume. (On all Macs, FileVault provides additional protection for a powered-down Mac, too.) You can also select a drive in the Finder, Control-click it, and choose Encrypt drive name, setting a password of your choosing.
If you forget that password or were given or purchase a drive that’s encrypted, you might think you’re at a dead end. However, as long as you don’t need the data on the drive, you can still erase it using Disk Utility:
1. Launch Applications → Utilities → Disk Utility.
2. Select the volume or drive in the sidebar (see our note below).
3. Click Erase.
4. Choose the format, if you need to change it from the current setting. Then click Erase and follow the prompts. You’ll have a newly formatted drive available for use with no password attached.
On the matter of the sidebar: If you don’t see the sidebar in Disk Utility, choose View → Show Sidebar. The sidebar also shows only logical volumes by default, or the segments of a drive that
