Restoring free space

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eng_asa Author

Level 1

4 points

Restoring free space

Since the beginning, I split my SSD disk into two partitions 250 GB each

I started to run low on the startup boot partition so decided to resize and increase it to 300 GB

While resizing the operation failed, and now I am not able to mount/use the free space.

What can I do to restore this free space back?

Current status

$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 251.0 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +251.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 232.8 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 43.6 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 510.9 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4

Posted on Jul 7, 2021 1:23 PM

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Answer 1

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Jul 8, 2021 12:34 AM in response to eng_asa

Yes restarting your mac while pressing and holding Command and R keys reboots

you to your Recovery HD.

From there you should run Disk Utility> First Aid on the Disk and its Volumes.

Remember to select Show All Devices from View in the menubar.

Run First Aid several times on the Disk and its Volumes to see if the error clears.

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode this will run disk repairs and clear caches

it may help, Safe Mode takes a long time to boot up, so be patient.

How to use safe mode on your Mac – Apple Support

Try reinstalling the OS over what you already have without erasing this may reset things for you.

If not then you will probably have to erase and reinstall the OS, have you made a backup.

Have you made a bootable USB installer using the Install macOS mojave.app and these instructions

from Apple.

How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support

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Answer 2

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Jul 7, 2021 10:35 PM in response to eng_asa

How much free space is on the Free space partition.

With the Free space partition selected if you click on the minus button what happens.

Have you tried running Disk Utility> First Aid while booted to your Recovery HD.

Remember when you open Disk Utility, click on View in the menubar and select

Show All Devices.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 7, 2021 8:34 PM in response to eng_asa

No use in partitioning an APFS volume, the Free Space in APFS is free to use by any other Container, (sort of pseudo partitions).

I'd backup what you have & reformat to one partition.

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Answer 4

Jul 8, 2021 12:49 AM in response to eng_asa

Back up whatever you can NOW.

Reinstalling the OS will not fix the problem.

Only an erase and reformat/partition will do it, and that will definitely be destructive to any data that is on the drive.

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Answer 5

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Jul 7, 2021 9:49 PM in response to eng_asa

If you were trying to protect free space on your Macintosh HD partition why were you not saving your

personal data and files to the free space partition.

All you need to do is to take your personal files and data and copy it over to the free partition and

delete it from the Macintosh HD partition.

If you want to merge the two partitions you can only do this when booted to your Recovery HD.

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Answer 6

eng_asa Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 8, 2021 4:07 AM in response to D.I. Johnson

OK, thanks all for the advices.

so to conclude, the only solution is to reformat. I think I will be just doing that as no other option.

It is pity tho to fail to reclaim a free space of a healthy disk just because it is using Apple partitioning that can't be repaired while all the volume & its data are perfectly healthy and accessible.

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Answer 7

eng_asa Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 7, 2021 8:45 PM in response to BDAqua

If it can be reused by any container, why I can't access it then and use it to merge to the existing partition?

I can't access it at the moment. I only see half of the disk and failed to mount the other part.

$ df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on

/dev/disk1s1 234Gi 218Gi 14Gi 95% 2183368 9223372036852592439 0% /

devfs 336Ki 336Ki 0Bi 100% 1168 0 100% /dev

/dev/disk1s4 234Gi 2.0Gi 14Gi 13% 3 9223372036854775804 0% /private/var/vm

map -hosts 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /net

map auto_home 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /home

For me, it was good to have two Volumes to be able to control my data away from the system data.

Any other way to reclaim the free space without reformating?

Thanks.

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Answer 8

eng_asa Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 7, 2021 11:30 PM in response to Eau Rouge

It is 250 GB missing as free space, please check my initial comment in the problem description.

I tried first aid (on container & startup volume) and partitioning to merge from the recovery mode, and got the same error that I posted its screenshot (object map error exit code 8)

Running first aid on the SSD itself as a whole, doesn't return any error

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Answer 9

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Jul 8, 2021 12:04 AM in response to eng_asa

You still haven't told me if you are booted to your Recovery HD, three times now.

If you still end up with the same error you will need to erase the drive completely and

format and reinstall the OS.

Have you made a backup you can restore your personal data from.

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Answer 10

eng_asa Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 8, 2021 12:11 AM in response to Eau Rouge

Hi there, by "recovery HD" you mean "recovery mode", right? The one you reach with CMD+R

Then yes, as I mentioned in my previous comment, I tried the same first aid & partitioning from there and still getting the same error. No issue in the SSD drive itself when I run the first aid on it.

So there is no way to reclaim the free space without erasing, format & re-install?

I was hoping for a better solution as at this stage I am worried to erase and lose really everything this time. That what I tried with my second partition which I lost.

No way to fix this object map error or mount this free space some how?

Thanks.

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Answer 11

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 7, 2021 9:17 PM in response to eng_asa

I'm afraid the can't be Verified is a killer, You can use Drive DX to possibly get a better view of Drive health…

https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

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Answer 12

eng_asa Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 7, 2021 10:21 PM in response to Eau Rouge

Hi there, I can't access this free partition at this stage. This is the problem!

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Answer 13

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 8, 2021 5:04 AM in response to eng_asa

Something isn't perfectly healthy despite the current state of accessibility. :)

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Answer 14

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 24, 2021 5:55 PM in response to eng_asa

Great deduction methinks! :)

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Answer 15

eng_asa Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 24, 2021 5:37 PM in response to eng_asa

After a few trials and errors, I think I understand what was going on

It is all about APFS Volume format, it doesn't integrate with another separate partition/volume of a similar format or another format "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" via the "Disk utility" tool at least. And even if "disk utility" doesn't indicate this before executing the merge, the APFS container will be considered corrupted after any attempt in merging it with another.

The issue won't be faced if it is about merging or splitting a Volume within the same APFS container or if the older MAC OS format is being used.

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Restoring free space

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