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A drive and a partition: How to understand the difference when erasing Mac disks

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Carmela writes in with a question after wiping a 2010 MacBook Pro and reinstalling macOS:</p>

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I wanted to restore it to factory settings, but while erasing the disk I erased not only “Macintosh HD” but the “Hitachi…” What have I done? I reinstalled the OS fine. Did I damage my system?</p>

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This highlights how well Apple typically hides some of the fussy details of an operating system from users, usually to the good: most of the time, we don’t need to know any low-level details in order to use a Mac. iOS obviously goes a few steps further, mostly preventing even advanced users from seeing much of what’s under the hood.</p><p>
What Carmela is seeing is the difference between a drive and a partition. While this may be old hat for veteran users, it’s just jargon for those who have never had to format a drive before.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3158210/storage/a-drive-and-a-partition-how-to-understand-the-difference-when-erasing-mac-disks.html#jump">To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here[/url]</p></section></article>

Source: A drive and a partition: How to understand the difference when erasing Mac disks (http://www.macworld.com/article/3158210/storage/a-drive-and-a-partition-how-to-understand-the-difference-when-erasing-mac-disks.html#tk.rss_all)