Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD Data?

The problem is, I was following the steps to restore the SSD by using the SATA to USB 3.0 cable, so I’m not too sure if it will partition my data. I selected restore on my SSD from MacOS HD, not MacOS HD data. Slightly concerned now 😂

Agreed- I upgraded to Catalina and most of my apps wouldn’t work so I reverted the update by restoring to an earlier version and then copying my files over. I now am unable to delete any of my files because my disk is full. I have a feeling that it duplicated my drive because I also have “Macintosh HD- Data” which what looks to be a second drive.

Yes please, it seems as though my hard drive is partitioned in some way. I usually am on point with this stuff, but ive never seen it say Mac HD Data before and I think its actually doubling my information.

I updated to Catalina and decided I didn't like it, so I restored from the last Mohave backup. It seems that both the Macintosh HD and the Macintosh HD - Data have the same amount of storage used, almost as if data files got stored into both internal storage hard drives. Like the information was doubled.

Thank you. I can do that BUT when I reinstall from a TimeMachine backup, like from the day before, won't it reproduce that ghost data. Will not the TimeMachine backup have both the Mohave data etc. I want and the Catalina I abandoned? Or it doesn't work that way?

When I decided to abandon Catalina and go back to Mohave, I did NOT first install Mohave and then setup as a new computer. I did the entire reinstall from a TimeMachine backup. Is this where I f**ked up?

No need to reinstall from a TimeMachine backup, but if you do that is ok. What you NEED to do is go into "Recovery Mode" when restarting your Mac. It will bring up an option for "Disk Utility" and that is where you un-mount and erase "Macintosh HD Data."

Helpful for only people that are running Catalina. Many people are looking to downgrade their system and the ghost hard drive is getting stuck in translation. Like I have been mentioning if anyone is having any of these problems, they should boot into recovery mode, unmount that hard drive and erase it.

Yes, that is true, but if you just delete Mac HD Data and don’t reformat the drive all of the space it occupied becomes unusable. For some strange reason I am not willing to give up half of my storage.

This really makes no sense to me. Why would you show a HD and an HD - DATA?

A reason is stated but the explanation is not clear to the me. Should two drives appear on my desktop or not? If they are sharing the same hard-drive space, but are each showing up with two drive spaces that supposedly share the same space what is the point other than to confuse? Why did they only show up one the reinstall? This is very confusing.

What is going on here?

Oh, and BTW, Siri just popped up when I was writing this three times, even though I expressly asked many times to please go away. Perhaps you could send this to the appropriate people?

Should two drives appear on my desktop or not?

No, it should just show one, but if two appear, it doesn't really matter.

Confirm you are still running Catalina and didn't revert back to Mojave.

Perhaps you could send this to the appropriate people?

I don't know who the appropriate people are, either. But, I couldn't send it to them even if I knew.

Could you please tell me what you mean by 'reinstall correctly"? Please understand that I mean absolutely no sarcasm here. There seems to be a good chance that I will receive the same error that I am getting now, shown in the graphic below, if I were to reinstall incorrectly. I fear the issue that I presented in my first posting, and this issue are related

If I search concerning this issue on the internet, the answers state that if all other solutions fail, I should reinstall the OS as a last resort to make this error go away. I have tried every solution I a can find, and fear that reinstallation could be repetitious if I don't understand the issues presented here and in the previous email

Thank you for your time.

After finding that the majority of my Apps would not work on Catalina I decided to reinstall Mojave. What a nightmare, it would not go back with TimeMachine, so tried erasing the HD, no matter how many times I erased the HD the DATA folder was still there. I reinstalled Mojave anyway and it is showing the HD and DATA disk with 121GB which is impossible as I only have 140GB,. Just living with it as it is not affecting anything. This is a total screw-up by Apple!

Come on Apple, SORT IT!

So does that mean I have to delete the current container In the recovery mode, or some other way, before I do an installation again as recommended here, or does the new installation do that for me?

If the new installation does not delete the current container setup before installation and provide a new container setup, then I will in fact get the same errors I am getting now right ?

so I may end up installing the os a few times and not have access to my computer until I get to go to the apple store?

i don’t think reading the documentation will help me put this problem in context. Again I could really use some help here. I don’t think that RTFM will do.

thanks again,

bob

Will a new installation do that for me?

What I would like to understand, is why I bought a 2TB Macbook Pro, yet Apple decides to take HALF the drive just for the operating system? So I get 1/2 the advertised drive space??? Do we really need 1TB for Catalina? Is there a way to extend the partitions so i can make the Data partition smaller?