To uninstall Tails from a USB stick, and use it for something else, you have to reset 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.
You might overwrite any hard disk on the computer.
If at some point you are not sure about which device to choose, stop proceeding.
Make sure that the USB stick that you want to reset is unplugged.
Start Disk Utility.
A list of all the storage devices on the computer appears in the left pane of the window.
Plug in the USB stick that you want to reset.
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.
In the list of storage devices, verify that the device corresponds to the USB stick that you want to reset, its brand, its size, etc.
To reset the USB stick:
a. If there is an Erase tab in the right pane, click on it and then click on the Erase button on the bottom right
b. If there is an Erase button on the top middle, click on it.
In the confirmation dialog, click on the Erase button to confirm.
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
Click Erase.
If the erase process fails, try formatting the USB stick using the command line first.