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User profile for user: DoobieScoo
DoobieScoo Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Container Disk 2 Structure

Greetings from Australia

I recently purchased a 2023 Mac Mini M2 with 16 MB memory and 1 TB SSD running Ventura. This took over from a late 2012 iMac with 24 GB memory and a 3 TB Fusion drive, running Catalina.

I decided to install Parallels on the iMac to run Windows 11, and use the large fusion drive as a combination of an archive and possibly a server. Once I set up the Mac Mini as I wanted, purged a lot of stuff from the iMac and set it up from scratch with a full reinstall of Catalina (It's too slow to run Ventura via Opencore Legacy Patcher).

I browsed the iMac's structure after the rejig, and found that I had a new volume under Container Disk 2 named "disk2s4". I dug deeper and found that /dev/disk2 is labeled "Synthesized". I don't believe that i have mysteriously acquired another 3 TB of disk space but I can't find any information about disk2s4. Does anyone have any info about this? My questions are...

  • What is disk2s4?
  • Can I delete it?
  • Can I hide it? If so how? (shift-command-. doesn't work.


I have included a couple of screen-dumps that I hope clarifies it.


I hope someone can shed some light onto disk2s4


Thanks

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Mar 6, 2023 8:38 PM

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User profile for user: MartinR
MartinR
User level: Level 7
21,757 points

Mar 7, 2023 6:54 AM in response to DoobieScoo

Most of what you see is normal. The "/dev/disk2 (synthesized)" is merely how the APFS container is described. The volumes it contains are a normal Catalina structure except for your "disk2s4"


I don't recognize "disk2s4" but note that it is only 2.2 MB. I would leave it untouched subject to much further research. I also think it's odd that there is a "disk2s6" and a "disk2s7" but not a "disk2s5." This may have happened when you reinstalled Catalina.


  • It will be helpful if you post the full results from diskutil list, not just /dev/disk2
  • Does "Disk2s4" appear on your iMac desktop?
  • Exactly what was your full procedure when you "set it up from scratch?"
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Container Disk 2 Structure

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