Remove the erase disk option on the finder macOS Sequoia

over the last 15 years or so of daily mac use, I maybe have erased a removable disk once. Kind of mind boggling who thought that we deeded a shortcut to do that. Give us the option to remove it, or at least put it in services.

grdh20 wrote:

over the last 15 years or so of daily mac use, I maybe have erased a removable disk once. Kind of mind boggling who thought that we deeded a shortcut to do that. Give us the option to remove it, or at least put it in services.

A menu command is not a shortcut.

Felixucop wrote:

I thought the same... I almost erased a lifetime of photos because of this stupid button placement!

I almost did a lot of things...not sure how that is relevant.

If you value your user data

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite. 

More than one device, more than one backup methodology.

Does seem pretty odd. At least there's a confirmation dialogue (I assume, from Etresoft's comment, not one I'd be keen on testing!)

Rename showing and truncating the actual disk name is daft too - maybe that's been there a while but it just clutters the contextual menu without need.

Having had to boot into Big Sur earlier I was quite surprised by how much nicer the icons were, much the same as when the skeuomorphic ones got replaced by 'flat' ones.

The ecosystem is fantastic but the GUI seems to go backwards quite often for change's sake and nothing else.

This is especially risky for marginalized people.

Neurodivergent people, or others like myself who largely use bouma shape reading, will see "Erase" and "Eject" with similar word shapes, both starting with "E," and both in the same relative spot that they expect in the menu, and click the first one they see - not realizing until a split second later which one they actually clicked.

Similar risks for people who suffer from double vision or similar eyesight challenges.

And someone with Parkinson's, Tourette Syndrome, or any other condition that affects motor function, could end up clicking the wrong option just from a sudden tremor.

And that's before you even consider people who are just in a rush or have developed muscle memory that lulls them into false sense of security, and absentmindedly click the wrong thing.

In my opinion, it makes logical sense to put Erase at the bottom of the list, possibly underneath a category separation line - giving it a prominent placement that creates a subliminal difference from any other option on the menu, and also implies that it's least likely to be used on a daily basis.

This is a serious design flaw. I do not recall there was a warning that the disk was about to be erased. Zap, it was gone. There should be a double warning alert if the erase is directly below eject. Can an Apple engineer advise the thinking behind this?

Jay Yoo wrote:

I do not recall there was a warning that the disk was about to be erased.

There is a clear dialog warning that the disk is about to be erased. It looks a lot like this:

Zap, it was gone.

No. The user has to purposefully click the "Erase" button.

Can an Apple engineer advise the thinking behind this?

There are no Apple employees who will respond to posts here in this forum.

I almost made the fatal mistake several times, the last time I actually pressed the erase button.

What makes it so bad is that they are two words starting with the letter 'E' and with two syllables. Then when you put one on top of the other, it's a design catastrophe, there's no other way to put it.

YES! I have almost erased my disk TWICE today, this is really bad, please change it!

PSzep wrote:

YES! I have almost erased my disk TWICE today, this is really bad, please change it!

If the erase dialog comes up, just click "cancel"

Get a habit to use Command-E (or File > Eject).

Thanks, but the menu is in the wrong place, delete and eject should not be next to each other.

it gives you a mini heartache though

For me being a long time Windows user clicking the Right mouse button for the context menu is second nature. I will definitely be retraining my brain to use the drag to trash, Mac method.

Thanks for your concern. I assure you I'm still clear minded. Just don't want to be traumatized. 🤪