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How to delete shadow volumes after install

I had to upgrade from a disastrous Monterey back to a stable Catalina. I created a bootable USB and everything seemed fine. However I have now 2 "shadow volumes"

The one "backup" I could erase.

However, the second one takes half the space but can't be accessed, nor can I delete it. I can unmount it, but after the next reboot it is back again.

How do I get rid of it, as I only have 13gb space left, but should have about 60?

IF I would do a TM machine restore, would I not also reinstall this dreaded volume?

The same for CCC, none allows me to deselect this volume in the backup.


I only should have "Caution "file in ...." The volume "Monterey ..." is exactly that, sh%$t !!!


P.S. note the different little "logos" caution... has the "finder" logo while Monterey "Home" attached to it.

Also ssd is shared by 7 volumes!???



Posted on Jan 14, 2023 11:31 AM

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13 replies

Jan 18, 2023 6:20 AM in response to guido.coza

Here's what I think you have ....


  • Volume "Caution ..." appears to be what would otherwise be called Macintosh HD because it's your startup disk
  • Volume "Monterey ..." appears to be what would otherwise be called Macintosh HD - Data. As the data volume, it may have been preserved when you reinstalled Catalina but at this point there's no way to know for sure.
  • The two Volumes "disk1s5 ..." & "Update" are what you originally called "shadow volumes" and are still unknown as to how they were created or what they represent


If this is correct, the two volumes "Caution ..." and "Monterey ..." would be combined behind the scenes by macOS and would appear on your desktop as a single "drive" called "Caution ..." ---Is that what you see on your desktop?


Jan 18, 2023 5:55 AM in response to MartinR

Hello Martin

Thank you so much for your reply.

Sorry for the late reply, but my shortcut to this thread is not working and I thought the thread is lost altogether "oops we ran into some problems"

To your questions

1) Caution "file ...." is the only one I actually knowingly created.

I have no idea what all the others are!!!

(however I think the Monterey might has been a backup of some sort. BUT I have no idea how it got onto the ssd as I formatted the drive before installing Catalina.

2)I have a TM of the current Catalina install. I whipped TM as there was still Monterey backups on and I somehow could not excess them in the first place.

I might have some Mojave CCC back-ups though


3)yes it is booting into Catalina. However it takes quite some time, and halfway thru the booting the "bar" under the apple logo stops and than a second letter starts again. Like it starts somewhere and than redirects. Never did that with Mojave


MBP mid 2015 retina


Jan 17, 2023 5:19 PM in response to guido.coza

First, for reference, this is what a normal Catalina install looks like like. There would be 5 volumes as shown below under /dev/disk1 (synthesized) - Macintosh HD, Macintosh HD-Data, Preboot, Recovery and VM. Disregard the Apple_HFS partition disk0s3 named My_iMac_Data - it's unique to my iMac.)


Last login: Mon Jan 16 20:05:01 on ttys000
martinr@Martins-iMac ~ % diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         250.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS My_iMac_Data            749.6 GB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.3 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     159.5 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 84.6 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                528.9 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      17.2 GB    disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            11.3 GB    disk1s5


Your installation is quite different. You have 7 volumes in your APFS Container, not 5. Two volumes have unfortunate names, one has no name and there is a volume called Update. Can you help identify what each of these volumes actually is -


Monterey *****

Caution *****

Update

Blank (your disk1s5)


Second, what backup(s) do you have of your data? You seem to have a TM backup - is that on an external drive and what is its source (original Catalina install, your 'disastrous' Monterey install, or your current Catalina reinstall?) Do you have any other data backup(s)?


Third, is your MacBookPro currently functional (booting into Cataina) and exactly what model is it?



Jan 18, 2023 12:52 PM in response to MartinR

Yes on the desktop it shows 1 volume and after a reboot the backup volume is also visible. However I just eject it.

But that does not explain why I only have less than 10gb and should have a minimum of 40.

I also never had this before. I sadly can't show you old screenshots but I know I never had this 2 volume setup with Mojave.

Is there a way to combine the two and free up space?

Jan 18, 2023 2:04 PM in response to guido.coza

I'm sorry - I don't see any volume called "backup" in any of your posts. What is the backup volume you are referring to? And is the "Caution ..." volume the one you normally see on the desktop? Please be very specific.


I cannot explain why you have only 10GB space available. Putting aside the volume names showing in your diskutil listing, the sizes pretty much add up to to your 121.3GB drive.


If it were me, I would make sure I had a good backup of my data on an external drive. (User data only.) Two good backups on different drives would be better. And neither of them TM backups. I would then boot into Recovery Mode, wipe & reformat the SSD using the copy of Disk Utility in Recovery Mode; and then reinstall Catalina from scratch. After completing installation, I would run diskutil list to verify that I had a clean Catalina installation with no unusual volumes.


That will of course necessitate reinstalling your apps and then copying your data files back to the SSD.

Jan 18, 2023 2:07 PM in response to guido.coza

Regarding "not having a 2 volume setup with Mojave." Mojave was an early (only the second) iteration of APFS and yes, it "only" had a volume called Macintosh HD that was visible. Preboot, Recovery & VM were still there but were hidden. There was no separate Macintosh HD -Data volume.


Catalina introduced the 2-volume arrangement where the boot volume - Macintosh HD - became a read-only system volume. Macintosh HD - Data was introduced as the writeable volume that contains all user home folders, user installed apps and user data. As I said before, those 2 volumes are linked behind the scenes and presented as a single "disk" to the user.

Jan 19, 2023 9:52 AM in response to MartinR

Heyo Martin Thanks a mill for taking the time and answer.

I understood the part with the two volumes.

HOWEVER, both volumes have about 20GB of free space. As my 1TB ssd packed up and I seem not to be able to get a new one to work I need every bit I can get.

If I "internet restore" to catalina, (after I formatted SSD and whipped it completely), and than restore single items from either CCC or TM, would I than have access to the free space on the SSD?

As you said there are too many volumes and at least one of the two (Monterey**** or reboot) should be unnecessary!?!


I see you answered this question already. You are an absolute star!!!

How to delete shadow volumes after install

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