Apple Intelligence is now available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac!

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

How many Macintosh HD volumes should there be in MacOS Big Sur?

I sent my newly purchased MacBook Pro 16" in for service (it needed a Logic Board replacement) on June 8. When I sent it in, it was running MacOS Big Sur 11.4 with only one Macintosh HD partition, at 8TB, with 4.46TB of space used. It originally came to me from the Manufacturer facility with Big Sur 11.x and just one hard drive volume (Macintosh HD). I backed it all up to my Time Machine drive just before I put in in the box for service so I'd have the very latest backup when the machine returned.


I received it back from Support servicing yesterday (June 15) with a new logic board installed-- except that it was now running macOS Catalina and had 2 hard drives partitions listed- "Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD - Data". I created a temporary admin account and upgraded to Big Sur, and after that I was able to restore my original account from my Time Machine backup using Migration Assistant. But I still have the two partitions ("Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD - Data") listed. Time Machine now won't complete a backup of my newly restored system without first renaming the drive titled "Macintosh HD - Data"; it tells me I can't have two drives with the same name ("Macintosh HD", supposedly). There is nothing of my personal files, documents, applications, etc. in the "HD - Data" drive; it's only on the "Macintosh HD" partition.


I called Apple Support and asked them if there was a way to merge the two drives into one volume called "Macintosh HD" without having to wipe and reinstall (since I'm used to having only one "had drive" visible on my machine in Finder). They insisted that the "HD/HD - Data" split is how the drives are supposed to me- even though the MBP came to me from the build factory with only one partition, like they would be pre-Catalina. They told me that the "HD - Data" volume is for my personal account folder (files, apps, documents, etc), but I told them there's nothing of that nature in the "HD - Data" partition. Also, the only applications in "HD - Data" are older Catalina-era versions of GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, etc. I told them that the MBP came to me from the factory with only one Macintosh HD partition, and they told me that was an error that would cause performance issues- all explanations that sound fishy to me.


My actual question is: How many Macintosh drives should be present under MacOS Big Sur? Should there be one drive called "Macintosh HD" or two partitions- "Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD - Data"? What have you all experienced? (below is the current state of my storage space after my restore from backup.)



MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.4

Posted on Jun 16, 2021 8:50 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 16, 2021 9:55 AM

it appears that you have the volume to be removed selected (highlighted) in your second screenshot. double check. the one mounted /System/Volumes/Data is the one you want to keep. the volume mounted /Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data is the one to be removed. to remove that one, make sure the correct one is selected,(you cannot undo this) then click the "-" sign above "volumes" to remove it.

Similar questions

10 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 16, 2021 9:55 AM in response to Terry Smelker

it appears that you have the volume to be removed selected (highlighted) in your second screenshot. double check. the one mounted /System/Volumes/Data is the one you want to keep. the volume mounted /Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data is the one to be removed. to remove that one, make sure the correct one is selected,(you cannot undo this) then click the "-" sign above "volumes" to remove it.

Jun 16, 2021 9:23 AM in response to Terry Smelker

mac HD and mac HD-data started with catalina and continued in big sur.

Why you might see a new “Data” disk in Catalina

you would have seen this in disk utility. it is quite normal. however, i've not seen the separate volumes showing up in the storage section of "about this mac". you may want to look in disk utility and see if you have more than one HD-data volumes. if there are two, you need to keep the one that is at mount point /System/Volumes/Data. the one mounted /Volumes/Data can be removed.

Jun 16, 2021 9:41 AM in response to jeffreythefrog

Okay, fair enough. Checking on my wife's computer n Disk Utility, I see that she does indeed have an "HD - Data" volume on her machine, even though it doesn't show up at all in Finder. However, when looking under Disk Utility at my Mac, I see that it has an extra "HD - Data" volume, which I assume is why it shows up in Finder and is causing all this confusion. What can I do to eliminate that one- and which one should I remove?



Jun 16, 2021 9:56 AM in response to Terry Smelker

This happens when the drive is incorrectly erased when installing Catalina or Big Sur.


You have one volume that is mounted in /System/Volumes/Data. This one you want to KEEP. You may notice also that it uses over 2.6TB, where the other one is only 13GB.


Fortunately, it is easy to fix.

All you have to do is delete the one that shows "Mount Point: /Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data".

In Disk Utility, control-click this volume and choose "Delete APFS Volume".


How many Macintosh HD volumes should there be in MacOS Big Sur?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.