Two Macintosh HD Data disks, one is taking up so much storage. Can I delete it?

So recently my storage has been decreasing and when I factory reset my MBP 2019, I saw that there's two Macintosh HD Data disks.


The first one looks like this:



The second one:



My Macintosh HD Disk:


MY QUESTION: I need my storage back, can I delete one of them? If so, how do I proceed?


Some background info: I recently factory reset it and during the process of reinstalling Catalina, it froze and so I restarted the laptop. It took me to Internet Recovery and when I went to reinstall MacOS, it was Mojave that I reinstalled instead of Catalina. So currently, the MBP is running on Mojave.


Thanks!


Mac Pro

Posted on Aug 31, 2020 8:11 PM

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Posted on Sep 1, 2020 5:28 AM

You will need a Time Machine backup to do this, so if you don't, do something else. If you want Mojave, you need a backup you made while running Mojave. If you have made any files since you installed Catalina, copy them to an external drive because the backup won't have them. If you added photos to your Photos Library, export them to the external drive.

Oh ok by "erase the disk", which disk do I erase: the data or the data2, OR the Macintosh HD one?

By erase the disk, I mean erase the disk, not a volume, not some volumes. Erase the disk.

Boot into Internet Recovery (cmd-opt-R) and Erase the entire disk, then reinstall macOS. If you want Mojave, use cmd-opt-shift-R for getting into Internet Recovery.

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Support

And what do you mean by migrate from my backup during startup assistant?

After installing the OS, when it reboots, the Startup Assistant runs. It will ask if you want to copy your data from another Mac or from a backup. Use your backup. You do have a Time Machine Backup, correct?

How to move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support


If you have a backup of when you used Mojave, you can just restore from that after erasing the disk. Use the Restore from Time Machine backup after quitting Disk Utility. You won't need to use the Migration Assistant.

18 replies

Aug 31, 2020 9:25 PM in response to DiZoE

Okay just saw it was on Mojave so, if still showing Mojave OR Catalina, like I said, I’d still just remove the Mac Data volume that allows you to press “-“, and that’s that, after you can upgrade to Catalina on the one remaining volume that your booted from now. Otherwise if issues, as said I’d just reformat it from recovery mode from the main disk (Typically AppleSSD/HDD/Fusion drive), good luck.

Sep 1, 2020 12:14 PM in response to tdubzz

That is correct. Try that before your try anything else. If this works, it will save you a lot of trouble and time. In case I did not mention this prior, just select the - Data entry, CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the selection and select Delete APFS volume from the context menu. Quit Disk Utility and reboot.


Remember, do not remove Macintosh HD or the - Data2 entry which is the third entry in your earlier pics.


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Two Macintosh HD Data disks, one is taking up so much storage. Can I delete it?

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