Troubleshooting Questions

Q: Parted Magic isn't booting on my system!
Q: I don't see the yellow text when Parted Magic is booting up, and the "Disk Verifier" option is missing from the Secure Erase GUI!
Q: Why isn't my disk appearing in the Secure Erase GUI?
Q: Why is my disk coming up as "unsupported" in the Secure Erase GUI?
Q: The live disk isn't booting on my system!

Q:

Parted Magic isn't booting on my system!

A:

This can happen for a number of reasons. First try the "Live" option, and then try any of the options in the "Fail-safe" menu that seem to apply to your problem.

If you are unable to solve your problem, I would recommend searching and asking on Parted Magic's forums at https://partedmagic.com/forums/.

Q:

I don't see the yellow text when Parted Magic is booting up, and the "Disk Verifier" option is missing from the Secure Erase GUI!

A:

This indicates that the Disk Verifier module has not been installed successfully. Please re-read the instructions in the section called “Preparing the module” and watch the tutorial video.

Q:

Why isn't my disk appearing in the Secure Erase GUI?

A:

This can happen for a number of reasons.

The most likely reason is you selected the wrong option when you opened the Secure Erase GUI. You may need the SATA option instead of the NVME option or vice versa.

Failing that, it's most likely that your disk doesn't support the secure erase feature, and you'll have to use another method to erase your disk.

Q:

Why is my disk coming up as "unsupported" in the Secure Erase GUI?

A:

Your disk may be locked. Microsoft Windows sometimes locks SSDs and prevents them from being secure erased. Fortunately, I recently wrote another GUI that comes with Parted Magic that helps fix this problem. Simply open "PSID Unlocker GUI" from the Secure Erase GUI to unlock your SSD using the physical ID printed on its case:

Figure 5.1. Parted Magic Secure Erase PSID GUI option

Parted Magic Secure Erase PSID GUI option


There is a full tutorial for using the PSID Unlocker GUI on my blog

Q:

The live disk isn't booting on my system!

A:

You can try the "Fail-safe" and "Diagnostic" options, but if they don't help you, you can post on my support forum or use the contact form if you payed for the Business Edition and I'll do my best to help.