Are you trying to use the Erase Assistant feature on your Mac and seeing the error message “Erase Assistant is not supported on this Mac”?
It’s important to understand what this error message means and what your options are for securely erasing data from a drive on your Mac.
Erase Assistant is a feature of macOS that allows you to securely erase the data on a hard drive or SSD by overwriting the data multiple times.
However, not all Macs are compatible with the Secure Erase instructions that Erase Assistant uses, and if your Mac doesn’t have the necessary hardware, the feature will not be available.
In this blog post, I will explain what causes the “Erase Assistant is not supported on this Mac” error message, and provide alternative ways to securely erase data from a drive on a Mac that doesn’t support the Erase Assistant feature.
What Does “Erase Assistant Is Not Supported On This Mac” Mean?
“Erase Assistant is not supported on this Mac” is an error message that appears when you try to use the Erase Assistant on a Mac that is not compatible with it.
Erase Assistant is a feature of macOS that allows you to securely erase the data on a hard drive or SSD. It uses a specialized set of instructions called Secure Erase to overwrite the data on the drive multiple times, making it almost impossible to recover.
The feature requires a specific type of hardware that is compatible with Secure Erase. If the Mac you are using does not have the necessary hardware, the Erase Assistant feature will not be available and you will see the error message “Erase Assistant is not supported on this Mac”.
If you need to securely erase data from a drive on a Mac that does not support the Erase Assistant feature, you can use other tools such as Disk Utility, Terminal commands or third-party software to accomplish this task.
Why Is Erase Assistant Not Supported On This Mac?
Apple Macbook will not have the Erase Assistant supported in the mac device until it is a newer model than Mac Ventura.
If You are getting the error message that is showing that the erase assistant is not supported then it means that your Apple Macbook does not support that particular feature.
Using the Erase assistant will erase all your data and information that you have in your Mac device.
It is no different from having factory reset so if your device does not support the feature of Erase assistant then you can manually reset and delete data through Factory reset.
How To Fix Erase Assistant Is Not Supported On This Mac?
There is no fix as such for these problems if your mac does not support the feature then there is nothing that you can do about it.
However, if you are using a newer model then you can use this feature easily. It will reset your computer and erase all the data inside it.
So it is recommended by us that you do a backup of all your data before you try resetting your device. Follow the below steps to do that easily on your device.
Step 1: Go to Erase all contents and settings button and click on it.
Step 2: You will have to enter the admin password after this.
Step 3: You can backup your data with Time machine, however it is an optional step so you can skip it if you don’t want to.
Step 4: Now, click continue and all the settings, data and information will get erased from your device.
Step 5: Sign out of your Apple ID.
Step 6: Now, click the button that has red words and your Mac will start to reset.
Step 7: Wait till the process bar is at the end and then click Restart.
And that’s how you use the Erase assistant.
But, if your erase assistant is not working then you can do a factory reset easily. Below are the steps described in detail.
Step 1: Enter Recovery mode on Mac. ( For this hold the power button for Silicon Macs and hold Command and R keys together in intel Macs).
Step 2: Choose Disk Utility.
Step 3: Now, erase the startup disk which has the name Macintosh HD.
Step 4: Erase the disk by choosing Erase.
Step 5: After this, quit the Disk Utility.
Step 6: Now, click on Reinstall macOS and follow the steps to install it.
With this step, we are finally done doing a factory reset on your Mac device.
To sum up, you can not avail the feature Erase Assistant until it is supported in your device and the only way you can erase and reset your device then is to do a factory reset for it.
