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1e restore from time machine failed leaving 2 disks

When restoring from Time Machine from Catalina back to Mojave

the first time it failed (stopped with just the message failed).

The second time i used another restore point which was succeeded.

For some reason everything seems okay except that my main drive seems to be have 2 internal disks

which look the same (different activating point).

I suppose this is some leftover from the first failed restore point.

I could downsize one of the disks and the space came available for the second.


It does not look like a partition but i am not familiar with this on a Mac.

I tried disk EHBO with no luck.


How can i get rid of the obsolete disk?

(see attached screenshots, i renamed one disk to be able to distinguish them).

2 internal disks which should be one (both had the same name before i renamed).

Below the obsolete one

Below the correct one



Posted on Oct 17, 2019 6:16 AM

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Posted on Oct 23, 2019 9:54 PM

Catalina uses two separate APFS volumes now for the system which is hidden from the user. One read-only volume for the macOS core system files and another read+write volume for the user files. Mojave and earlier macOS versions do not understand this so the best thing to do is to use Disk Utility to erase the physical drive as GUID partition and APFS file system (the first option). You may need to click on "View" within Disk Utility and select "Show all devices" before seeing the physical drive in the left pane of Disk Utility. You will need to boot into Internet Recovery Mode, or from a bootable TM backup, or from a macOS USB installer to do erase the physical drive.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 23, 2019 9:54 PM in response to longjohnagain

Catalina uses two separate APFS volumes now for the system which is hidden from the user. One read-only volume for the macOS core system files and another read+write volume for the user files. Mojave and earlier macOS versions do not understand this so the best thing to do is to use Disk Utility to erase the physical drive as GUID partition and APFS file system (the first option). You may need to click on "View" within Disk Utility and select "Show all devices" before seeing the physical drive in the left pane of Disk Utility. You will need to boot into Internet Recovery Mode, or from a bootable TM backup, or from a macOS USB installer to do erase the physical drive.

Oct 23, 2019 9:49 AM in response to longjohnagain

Hi longjohnagain,


Thanks for posting. I understand you have a question about disks showing in Disk Utility.


To clarify, it sounds like everything is operating as expected otherwise on your Mac; is that right?


What you're seeing looks perfectly normal in macOS Catalina, and you'll find more information about this here: About the read-only system volume in macOS Catalina. As long as everything is functioning on your Mac and the only concern is the two disks showing in Disk Utility, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.


I hope I've answered your question. Take care.

1e restore from time machine failed leaving 2 disks

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