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I need Monterey to access all the new features in FCP X but I don't want to get rid of Big Sur. So I intend to create a new volume on my iMac's Fusion Drive.
The Apple Support instructions state . . .
"In the sidebar, select your existing APFS volume, such as Macintosh HD."
I have lots of drive items listed below "Fusion Drive" (which will apparently work) so should I choose Macintosh HD? Is this the best option?
Your red "+ Volume" at upper middle is the same as Edit > Add APFS Volume... menu command. They are only active when a container (or some volume) is selected.
On the other hand, it is possible to add another Container (or an old-style not-so-flexible Partition) via the Edit > Partition menu. But usually you want just to add APFS Volumes to the same Container so they can share the same disk space.
(BTW Apple by default hides devices (i.e. "Fusion Drive", "Toshiba ..." etc) but they can be revealed via View > Show All Devices (or via the "View" widget besides "Disk Utility" text). You have that option selected. That can be used if the user wants to nuke the whole device, i.e. erase all hidden volumes).
It is best to be careful there because it is quite easy to accidentally delete important info. So backup before doing anything potentially destructive and irreversible.
Your red "+ Volume" at upper middle is the same as Edit > Add APFS Volume... menu command. They are only active when a container (or some volume) is selected.
On the other hand, it is possible to add another Container (or an old-style not-so-flexible Partition) via the Edit > Partition menu. But usually you want just to add APFS Volumes to the same Container so they can share the same disk space.
(BTW Apple by default hides devices (i.e. "Fusion Drive", "Toshiba ..." etc) but they can be revealed via View > Show All Devices (or via the "View" widget besides "Disk Utility" text). You have that option selected. That can be used if the user wants to nuke the whole device, i.e. erase all hidden volumes).
It is best to be careful there because it is quite easy to accidentally delete important info. So backup before doing anything potentially destructive and irreversible.
Thanks.
I suppose what I am really asking is what is the significance of all the items in the red rectangle.
Selecting any one of them highlights the + volume button (arrowed) and brings up the same volume creation window.
I have never really understood what all those components of a drive actually are.
You can choose Fusion Drive > Container disk2 (I think choosing Macintosh HD would do the same, though), add APFS volume to it (so that drive space is shared between those volumes), install Monterey to it, and then Option-boot to Monterey (or select it as a Startup disk). I have done that with my son's MBP when he still used Big Sur and booted to Mojave to run Lightroom 6.14. But he thought it was clumsy and coughed some $$ for Adobe and bought a subscription for a new Lightroom.
But a less risky and less cluttered option would be to use an external SSD formatted as APFS (GUID) and use it for Monterey and keep the internal disk for Big Sur.
Whatever you do, make good backups with either Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner.
Thanks Matti, I chose to use the "Macintosh HD" and the whole process of creating a volume and installing Monterey (from a previously downloaded installer) took 42 minutes.
I hadn't noticed that the "View" in Disk Utility can be altered, so thanks for that.
My first job in Monterey was to check out the new FCP X background noise removal tool which I found quite impressive.
Adding an APFS (Monterey) Volume to my Big Sur iMac?
