Time Machine has turned a single 2TB external drive into two 1TB volumes... and I can't make it go back

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Level 1

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Time Machine has turned a single 2TB external drive into two 1TB volumes... and I can't make it go back

Hi there, I'm using an external drive I'd used for a previous Time Machine backup on my new M2 Mac Mini. When trying to set up the drive on my new Mac, there was a prompt asking if I wanted to keep the old Backups (which were for my MacBook Air). I said "yes" not realizing that it would effectively turn my 2TB external drive into 2 x 1TB volumes with an identical name. And I can't find any way in Disk Utility of re-uniting the volumes so that it's a single 2TB drive.

Any ideas?

Mac mini (M2, 2023)

Posted on May 3, 2023 4:11 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

James Brickley

Level 5

4,648 points

May 3, 2023 4:32 PM in response to BGCooper

You can fix it but you'll lose all prior backup data....

Open Disk Utility and click on the View pulldown menu and select Show All Devices. This will ensure you see everything in the sidebar on the left of Disk Utility.

Highlight the external disk top-level branch that lists the manufacturer of the disk then click Erase, format it APFS and perhaps name it 'Time Machine'. Eject the disk. Plug the disk back in and tell Time Machine to make it a Time Machine drive.

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Answer 2

BGCooper Author

Level 1

7 points

May 4, 2023 4:32 AM in response to James Brickley

Thank you James, that's fixed it. Data loss wasn't an issue as I have an offsite Time Machine backup too. I appreciate your time and wisdom!

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Time Machine has turned a single 2TB external drive into two 1TB volumes... and I can't make it go back

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