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Macintosh HD volume and Macintosh HD - Data

I bought from someone the iMac 21,5 inch, late 2015

I installed macOS Montery.

I installed my software on it and other data from my previous iMac.


In the left pane of the Finder window, I added Computer

When I click on Computer, I see two volumes.

1. Macintosh HD

2. Macintosh data


in the Macintosh HD volume I see in the folder Users, my home folder.

in the data volume, I see the home folder of the previous user.

I removed the data volume.



Unfortunately I learned now that this data volume should not be removed.

1. How can I create a data volume again?

2. How can I let my iMac use that volume for user home folders again, instead of the Macintosh HD volume.


The volume is still visible in the utility app, under the Macintosh HD volume


(Dutch)

iMac 21.5″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Dec 31, 2021 5:42 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 31, 2021 1:40 PM

Ideally you should perform a clean install of macOS by first erasing the physical drive (Intel Mac only -- different for an M1 Mac) before installing macOS so you have a clean factory fresh install of macOS without any nasty surprises that may have been left behind by the previous owner. Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Here is an Apple article describing what the previous owner should have done prior to selling the Mac (you can only do the last step):

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac - Apple Support


Of course a clean install destroys all data on the computer so you need to make sure to have a backup of your data before erasing the drive for the clean install.

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6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 31, 2021 1:40 PM in response to jjimacos

Ideally you should perform a clean install of macOS by first erasing the physical drive (Intel Mac only -- different for an M1 Mac) before installing macOS so you have a clean factory fresh install of macOS without any nasty surprises that may have been left behind by the previous owner. Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Here is an Apple article describing what the previous owner should have done prior to selling the Mac (you can only do the last step):

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac - Apple Support


Of course a clean install destroys all data on the computer so you need to make sure to have a backup of your data before erasing the drive for the clean install.

Jan 2, 2022 4:24 AM in response to Barney-15E

When I looked in the Finder, I saw 2 volumes; 

  1. Macintosh HD volume
  2. Macintosh HD Data volume (dutch; Macintosh HD Gegevens volume)


In the Macintosh HD volume, I saw my home folder.

In the Macintosh HD Data volume, I saw the home folder of the previous owner.


In Disk utility, I deleted the Macintosh HD Data volume


The status now;

The Macintosh HD Data volume is gone.

That volume is not visible in Finder.


But both volumes are still visible in Disk Utility.

With the amount data that has been used.


I cannot delete the data volume (again).

I only can add volumes. But not a data volume.


I have attached screenshots of the Disk Utility and Finder.



Dec 31, 2021 1:52 PM in response to jjimacos

I'm now confused at which Data volume you removed.

The one you show in the screenshot (Macintosh HD - Gegevens) is the orphan left behind (previous owner's).

If you disclose the caret (>), you should see a Data volume inside that volume group.


When you view the Macintosh HD in the Finder, Finder makes it look like it is one single volume. The Data volume is mounted to /System/Volumes/Data.

If you select the orphaned Data volume in Disk Utility, you will see the mount point (Activeringspunt) as /Volumes.

Remove the orphan in Disk Utility by selecting it and clicking the Remove Volume button (–).

Jan 2, 2022 8:19 AM in response to jjimacos

Big Sur and Later splits the drive into several system volumes and a Data volume.

What you see in the screenshots are the System Volume (gray), it's sealed Snapshot, and your Data volume.

The data volume you removed was from the previous owner.


You don't need to remove your Data volume. I became confused because I couldn't tell which Data volume you removed as the only screenshot showed the previous owner's data volume.


It's possible it merged in the previous owner's data. Check for a home folder in /Users/

You can delete that.

Macintosh HD volume and Macintosh HD - Data

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