Uninstalling Tails using macOS

To uninstall Tails from a USB stick, and use it for something else, you have to format it.

The content of the USB stick is lost in the operation, but an attacker might still be able to tell that Tails was installed on that USB stick using data recovery techniques.

  1. Start on macOS.

  2. Make sure that the USB stick that you want to uninstall is unplugged.

  3. Inicie o Utilitário de Disco.

    A list of all the storage devices on the computer appears in the left pane of the window.

  4. Plug in the USB stick that you want to uninstall.

    Um novo dispositivo aparecerá na lista de dispositivos de armazenamento. Este novo dispositivo corresponde ao pendrive USB que você acabou de conectar. Clique nele.

  5. In the list of storage devices, verify that the device corresponds to the USB stick that you want to uninstall, its brand, its size, etc.

    You might overwrite any hard disk on the computer.

    If you are not sure about which device to choose, stop proceeding.

  6. To reset the USB stick, select the Erase button in the top middle.

  7. No dialogo de confirmação, clique no botão de Apagar para confirmar.

  8. In the Erase dialog, if you want the USB stick to also work on Windows and Linux, specify:

    • Format: MS-DOS (FAT)
    • Scheme: Master Boot Record

  9. Click Erase.

Se o processo de apagamento falhar , tente formatar o pendrive USB usando linha de comando primeiro.

Formatting the USB stick using the command line

  1. Desconecte o pendrive USB do computador.

  2. Open the Terminal utility from Applications ▸ Utilities.

  3. Execute o seguinte comando.

    diskutil list

    Ele retorna uma lista dos dispositivos de armazenamento no sistema. Por exemplo:

    /dev/disk0
 #:                     TYPE NAME         SIZE      IDENTIFIER
 0:    GUID_partition_scheme             *500.1 GB  disk0
 1:                      EFI              209.7 MB  disk0s1
 2:                Apple_HFS MacDrive     250.0 GB  disk0s2
 3:                      EFI              134.1 GB  disk0s3
 4:     Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP     115.5 GB  disk0s4

  4. Plug in the USB stick that you want to uninstall.

  5. Execute novamente o mesmo comando.

    diskutil list

    O seu pendrive USB aparece como um novo dispositivo na lista. Confirme se o tamanho que aparece corresponde ao tamanho do seu pendrive USB.

    /dev/disk0
 #:                     TYPE NAME         SIZE      IDENTIFIER
 0:    GUID_partition_scheme             *500.1 GB  disk0
 1:                      EFI              209.7 MB  disk0s1
 2:                Apple_HFS MacDrive     250.0 GB  disk0s2
 3:                      EFI              134.1 GB  disk0s3
 4:     Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP     115.5 GB  disk0s4

/dev/disk1
 #:                     TYPE NAME         SIZE      IDENTIFIER
 0:   FDisk_partition_scheme             *8.0 GB    disk1
 1:                Apple_HFS Untitled 1   8.0 GB    disk1s1

  6. Take note of the device name of your USB stick.

    In this example, the USB stick is 8.0 GB and its device name is /dev/disk1. Yours might be different.

    You might overwrite any hard disk on the computer.

    If you are not sure about the device, stop proceeding.

  7. Execute the following command to safely eject the USB stick. Replace device with the device name found in step 6.

    diskutil unmountDisk device

  8. Execute the following command to format the USB stick. Replace device with the device name found in step 6.

    sudo fdisk -iy device

  9. You can try to uninstall the USB stick again using Disk Utility from the beginning of this page.