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. Запустите Дисковую утилиту.

    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.

    A new device appears in the list of storage devices. This new device corresponds to the USB stick that you plugged in. Click on it.

  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. В открывшемся диалоге нажмите кнопку Стереть для подтверждения.

  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.

Если стирание не сработало, попробуйте сначала отформатировать флешку с помощью программы в командной строке.

Formatting the USB stick using the command line

  1. Отключите флешку от компьютера.

  2. Open the Terminal utility from Applications ▸ Utilities.

  3. Выполните следующую команду.

    diskutil list

    Вы увидите список носителей данных. Пример:

    /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 again the same command.

    diskutil list

    Ваша флешка появится в списке как новое устройство. Убедитесь, что указанный объём соответствует фактическому объёму флешки.

     /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.