missing data volume after adding Catalina on external hard drive

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missing data volume after adding Catalina on external hard drive

To start I cannot find where I update my device info. Things changes a bit on the forums?

OK. I have a backup plan and this particular external disk is not used in it. I have a few other external hard drives with "just in case" MacOS on (Mojave) and time machine that manage my backups.

I have a particular external hard drive that I just keep Apple films on. I decided to add Catalina to it as my main drive (iMac 2013 1TB fusion) is showing potential issues, running up to date Catalina. More adding another start up option than anything else.

The volume already contained info, I added Catalina to the external hard drive via the Apple installer and now have two APFS volumes on that single external drive, one that is visible directly to the OS, with Catalina. The other volume is not visible to the OS directly but is via disk utility or Carbon Copy Cloner or Apple TV app, this non visible volume has a tag diskname-Data and contains the films.

I have unlimited ISP, would it be easier to re format and start again then re download films or is there a quick fix to tidy this up?

Thanks in advance.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 30, 2020 1:56 AM

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Answer 1

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Barney-15E

Level 10

113,650 points

Dec 30, 2020 8:09 AM in response to J400SE

Try looking in /Users/Shared/Relocated Items/

The installer will move files into that when they are found at the root level of the drive. You can move them into your home folder on that drive, or just move them into /Users/Shared for access by all users.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

113,650 points

Dec 30, 2020 5:48 AM in response to J400SE

That is how Catalina works.

The APFS container contains volumes for the OS and for your data, along with Recovery, VM, and Preboot. None of those are visible in the Finder. The data volume is mounted within the OS at /System/Volumes/Data. The Finder merges the OS and Data volumes so they appear as one. The other volumes are not mounted at all.

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Answer 3

J400SE Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 30, 2020 6:24 AM in response to Barney-15E

OK, thanks, 200+films reside in there. Seems odd that I cannot get at them in finder but backup apps etc. can but I can see the OS folder in finder? I have looked through the OS (non Data named volume) volume in finder and no links through there.

Missing something I think? That is I am not connecting what you are saying to the disk?

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Answer 4

J400SE Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 30, 2020 8:40 AM in response to Barney-15E

That got it.

My error, looking from the main boot HD but rebooted into the other one, found the files, put them where I would expect them in my named folder. Rebooted main HD and all is there.

Bit of light reading as well when you pointed the way.

Thank you.

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missing data volume after adding Catalina on external hard drive

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