No more room and too many Macintosh HD Data Drives

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Level 1

8 points

No more room and too many Macintosh HD Data Drives

I am at capacity - 121.02 GB (this is a computer revived from my daughter) and disk utility shows that I have 15.05 GB used, 99.67 GB in "other volumes", and 6.29 GB Free. I cannot update apps, or OS. I have moved all to the cloud and cleared off all other items I could.

It does not appear to be partitioned, but I do show three Macintosh HD-Data Drives. Is that normal? This is my first Mac and I really want to keep using it, but if I can't update the apps, then I am stuck.

How do I get access or combine these drives so I can recoup the 99.67 GB in "other volumes" and use this Mac to its fullest capacity?

TIA.

iMac Pro

Posted on Mar 30, 2021 3:24 PM

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Answer 1

DonH49

Level 6

16,716 points

Mar 30, 2021 4:40 PM in response to KellDenn

I'm not going to discuss saving your personal data but the 3 data volumes is a user induced error in disk Utility.

Nowadays its not partitioning that important but APFS and container. From the container user makes volume or volumes which all volumes share the total media size. So those first two data volumes should have been misused using the - button then use the + button to add a volume. So in this case you will have a difficult time deciding which is which so I'd minus all three then add a volume back. From there do the install and you'll end up with only one data volume. Using APFS give a read only volume, the one you see on the desktop and a data volume where you see it under disk Utility. This is design for safety and security.

Good luck and make the correct moves.

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Answer 2

KellDenn Author

Level 1

8 points

May 11, 2021 4:59 PM in response to DonH49

Don-thanks. It worked!

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No more room and too many Macintosh HD Data Drives

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