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I have trouble dealing with disk utility.

I've made disk image folder for security but I changed my mind and I want to remove it.

However every time I followed the steps shown in various sites, I always failed with an error:

Error: -69772: A writable disk is required

I tried to click erase or delete APFS volume button in disk utility sidebar, but I always failed. I also tried to use Terminal with some commands but the above error is what I found.

I found a thread in this site which tells me to just throw it to trash.

But I'm so worried that this method completely erases disk volume files.

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  • It's not really clear exactly what you did - "steps shown in various site" tells us nothing. You need to describe the full steps you took, along with any error messages. Generally, if a disk image is not mounted, then you can delete it from Finder just like any other file.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Apr 12, 2023 at 9:13
  • Are you talking about removing a disk image from the list of disk images in Disk Utilty; or deleting the image from the Finder; or un-mounting the image; or something else?
    – benwiggy
    Commented Apr 12, 2023 at 9:27
  • Actually I didn't understand the difference between "disk images in Disk Utilty; or deleting the image from the Finder; or un-mounting the image". I just want to COMPLETELY delete the content inside the disk image file as much as someone can't recover it. Then can I just throw it to trash bin?
    – Heart Lion
    Commented Apr 12, 2023 at 11:02

1 Answer 1

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Disk images can be considered regular files and deleted as such.
Dragging to the trash is one possible way.

If the disk image is still mounted, i.e. open in Finder, you will be prevented from deleting it. Unmount the volume using the eject button in the Finder sidebar first.

Consider the disk image as any other file, e.g. a text document.
There is no difference between

  1. opening a text file,
  2. selecting and deleting all the text,
  3. saving the file,
  4. dragging the file to the trash,

and

  1. dragging the file to the trash

In either case, the file is deleted, so emptying it first makes no difference.
The same is true for disk images.

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  • Actually I didn't understand the difference between "disk images in Disk Utilty; or deleting the image from the Finder; or un-mounting the image". I just want to COMPLETELY delete the content inside the disk image file as much as someone can't recover it. Then can I just unmount it and throw it to trash bin?
    – Heart Lion
    Commented Apr 12, 2023 at 11:06
  • Why do you want to delete the individual files and not just the whole dmg. In either case after cleaning the trsshit has all gone
    – mmmmmm
    Commented Apr 12, 2023 at 11:54
  • @Heart I've updated the answer with a parallel to normal text documents, does that help?
    – grg ♦
    Commented Apr 12, 2023 at 15:30

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