Is this normal in disc utility?

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Level 1

4 points

Is this normal in disc utility?

I have an air mac 2022 (M2) and just upgraded to Sonoma. When I went to disc utility, I found that there is no longer an option to erase and one is grayed out. And they are not named like I remember and seems there is a duplicate? I will post 6 screenshots. 4 are in disc utility with each disc highlighted to see the status and the other two are from system info in settings. I hope someone here can look at these and let me know if it is OK or if I need to take to the apple store to re-install?

MacBook Air, macOS 14.0

Posted on Oct 20, 2023 10:36 PM

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Answer 1

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WheelieNick

Level 8

38,643 points

Oct 21, 2023 2:15 AM in response to 729Zoom

This is normal. see this link for further reference

View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

A quick explanation: this means that your macOS startup disk is snapshotted upon startup and the macOS is running from the snapshot. This allows changes, updates for example, to occur while the Mac is booted, because the snapshot is not changed, only your physical disk that is under that. And when your Mac is running from the snapshot there will be no changes to take place when the Mac is excecuting, to prevent data damage.

All of the disks you're seeing are part of the same AFPS (Apple File System) group. This seems to be like a ton of nonsense, but all of this have to do with protecting your data and keeping your Mac safe, it is just a part of how your Mac operates.

And no, you cannot erase the snapshot as your Mac is currently running from this snapshot. Erasing it will cause permanent data damage, so that is why you cannot do that.

Hope this helps you understand your Mac better!

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