Macintosh HD-data no Macintosh HD

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Level 1

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Macintosh HD-data no Macintosh HD

I have a 2017 iMac which should be compatible with the newest OS. I was previously running Big Sur. My machine completely tanked and I had to use the recovery to reinstall the original OS (Mojave). This worked and machine is running fine, however several of my applications require a newer OS, so in trying to upgrade to Big Sur, I get the "null" and the install crashes. It sent me looking for a fix and I can see in the disk utility that I have a Macintosh HD - Data but no Macintosh HD. I understand with the newer OS (which I had been running) that the HD is partitioned into HD and HD-Data so that the OS lives on it's own drive. I seems like trying to go backwards maybe messed that up?

In utility I also have something called Update. Should I rename that to Macintosh HD and then try OS update? Or should I rename the the Macintosh HD-Data to just Macintosh HD?

Otherwise my machine is working fine, just need to get past this update issue. I have made a complete back up to an external drive.

Any advice would be very appreciated!

iMac 27″ 5K

Posted on Feb 6, 2023 10:11 AM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

Level 9

60,380 points

Feb 6, 2023 1:57 PM in response to ebstats

Sounds like you did not properly erase the drive. For an Intel Mac it is best to erase the whole physical drive before reinstalling macOS. The "update" volume is part of Big Sur and should not currently exist on a Mojave install. For Mojave, you still only have a single "Macintosh HD" volume. Again, the "Macintosh HD - Data" volume is a left over from Big Sur and most likely now contains your Mojave OS (just a guess). Mojave does not recognize some of the later file system modifications utilized by macOS 10.15+.

Make sure you have a good backup, then go back and perform a clean install of macOS by erasing the whole physical drive as GUID partition and APFS (top option). You should then have a single empty APFS volume necessary & compatible with Mojave.

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Answer 2

ebstats Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 6, 2023 4:43 PM in response to HWTech

Thank you so much, very much appreciate the help. It took a bit but this worked perfectly. I am now up and running. Was able to install Mojave and then update to Ventura flawlessly. One slight hitch, in case you have some wisdom....I seem to have duplicates of the HD. I am hoping I can just delete the one not needed in Disk Utility, but I am not 100% sure which is the correct one. This is what it looks like in Disk Utility:

Any suggestions what to do next? Thanks in advance!

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

245,189 points

Feb 6, 2023 11:15 AM in response to ebstats

You need to Clone the Macintosh HD-data to an external drive, boot from that ASnd erase the internal drive to one APFS partition, clone back then install a later OS.

Carbon Copy Cloner...

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

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Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

60,380 points

Feb 7, 2023 6:29 AM in response to ebstats

It appears you have two installations of macOS on the drive, probably Mojave and Ventura judging by the volumes listed. If you are using & booted into Ventura, then you should be able to go into Disk Utility and delete the other "Macintosh HD" volume since macOS won't let you delete the volume you are currently booted from. That should remove the first two "Macintosh HD" items which are shown grouped together.

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Answer 5

ebstats Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 6, 2023 1:44 PM in response to BDAqua

Thank you. I will try this.

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Macintosh HD-data no Macintosh HD

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