Finder indicates a wrong partition size? What did I do wrong with Disk Utility and… how to correct?

Question

Finder indicates a wrong partition size? What did I do wrong with Disk Utility and… how to correct?

I have an ext. SSD of 4 TB.

It erased and formatted as should (mac OS Sonoma 14.1.2 & using Disk Utility 22.6)

I divided it into 4 partitions:

• 277 GB (82,5 GB free after putting data on it)

• 567 GB (126,31 GB free after putting data on it)

• 1,01 TB

• So the remaining fourth partition should be around 2,1 TB but… The Finder indicates 2,99 TB of which 2,35 TB are available

And, knowing that I didn’t put any file and that fourth partition, it increases the confusion and… my worry about WHAT WENT WRONG?

Questions:

Q1. Anybody an idea what could have gone wrong?

Q2. Why does the forth partition has a wrong size?

Q3. Why is there 0,64 TB eaten up of that fourth part?

and especially:

Q4. What do I need to do to have the Finder indicate the CORRECT Space, ±2,1 TB?

Thanks for helping & that 2024 may be fruitful and smooth :-)

Mac mini, macOS 14.1

Posted on Jan 1, 2024 6:16 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

MartinR

Level 7

25,087 points

Jan 1, 2024 8:00 AM in response to DLWorldCitizen

Cannot really tell from these screenshots (GetInfo does not distinguish between a partition & a volume - it calls them both Volume.)

It would be better if you run the following command in Terminal and copy the results here. It will provide a detailed listing of the actual structure of your drive(s).

diskutil list

Also, did you actually partition the drive, or did you create Volumes within a single APFS container? In Disk Utility, set View > Show All Devices and then do a screenshot of the left panel of the DU screen.

(FWIW, normally under APFS you do not partition the drive (especially an SSD) but create Volumes in the APFS container instead.)

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Answer 2

MartinR

Level 7

25,087 points

Jan 2, 2024 4:02 PM in response to DLWorldCitizen

Since you already have data on the drive, you should back up your data before doing anything to the drive's Containers. Keep in mind that you do not have Partitions - you have 2 APFS Containers that contain Volumes.

If it were me, I would back up all my data and then redo the entire drive, creating 1 APFS Container having 4 Volumes with no reserves or quotas.

That said, it *may* be possible to combine the 2 Containers into 1 Container but there are a number of complex steps involved and it would depend on whether or not your 3TB Container is the first container in the existing disk map.

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Answer 3

MartinR

Level 7

25,087 points

Jan 2, 2024 12:21 PM in response to DLWorldCitizen

It appears this is how you set up your 4TB drive:

Two APFS Containers - 3TB & 1TB

APFS Container 1 (3TB)

Volume "Capacity should be ..." - no reserved or quota size

Volume "567 GB Shakti **" - with a reserved and/or quota size of 567GB

Volume "277 GB Shakti **" - with a reserved and/or quota size of 277 GB

APFS Container 2 (1TB)

Volume "1,01 TB FilMovie **" - no reserved or quota size

A reserved size is the minimum the volume is guaranteed; a quota is the maximum the volume is allowed. Neither is the same as the fixed size of a traditional partition. Volumes in a container are all variable in size, subject to the limitations imposed by any reserved or quota sizes and the ultimate size of the container. (For example, your "567" volume is actually only 440.69GB in size right now ... not 567GB.)

The available spaces are all being reported correctly. In Container 1 if you subtract the space used in "567" and "277" from the total drive capacity of 3TB, you get 2.35TB, which matches the available space in the volume named "Capacity should be ...".

I think the capacities are also being reported correctly. In Container 1 if the "Capacity should be ..." volume has no reserve or quota it would be allowed the entire 3TB (well, 2.99 to be exact). Even if "567" and "277" have reservations or quotas that would not reduce the capacity of "Capacity should be ...".

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Answer 4

MartinR

Level 7

25,087 points

Jan 1, 2024 8:12 AM in response to MartinR

It's also possible that this a reflection of overprovisioning on this SSD. That's a feature where the SSD actually has more than its rated capacity; it increases the endurance of the SSD by distributing writes & reads over a larger population of memory blocks.

But first lets see what your diskutil list report shows.

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Answer 5

MartinR

Level 7

25,087 points

Jan 2, 2024 12:33 PM in response to MartinR

I am sure you had reasons for setting up the drive the way you did. It would appear that you wanted to segregate portions of the disk from one another as would have been done in the past with partitions.

However, under APFS on an SSD it's best to use only 1 APFS Container and create as many volumes in it as you need. The system will manage the volumes as necessary. I would only reluctantly impose reservations or quotas; in most cases they are unnecessary.

I am not suggesting that you redo the containers or the volumes. But if you do, just be aware that redoing them may require erasing the entire drive.

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Answer 6

Jan 1, 2024 11:20 AM in response to MartinR

I might have mixed up the Partition and Volume possibilities in D.U. Before it was much more simple (at least to me).

Here is what you asked and strangely the first 3 GOOD partitions are not put together, while the fourth is put as third!

Here is what Terminal gives me (knowing I'm a bit afarid using Terminal as it is far too complex for me and I know one single mistake character can have disastrous consequences… or is this exaggerated?)

Last login: Mon Jan 1 20:10:22 on ttys000

You have new mail.

sono@Mac-mini ~ % diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0

1: Apple_APFS_ISC Container disk1 524.3 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk3 245.1 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_APFS_Recovery Container disk2 5.4 GB disk0s3

/dev/disk3 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +245.1 GB disk3

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data 212.0 GB disk3s1

2: APFS Volume Shiva 9.9 GB disk3s3

3: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 9.9 GB disk3s3s1

4: APFS Volume Preboot 5.7 GB disk3s4

5: APFS Volume Recovery 870.3 MB disk3s5

6: APFS Volume VM 2.1 GB disk3s6

/dev/disk4 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk4

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk4s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk5 499.9 GB disk4s2

/dev/disk5 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +499.9 GB disk5

Physical Store disk4s2

1: APFS Volume Shakti 443.0 GB disk5s1

/dev/disk6 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *4.0 TB disk6

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk6s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk8 3.0 TB disk6s2

3: Apple_APFS Container disk7 1.0 TB disk6s3

/dev/disk7 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +1.0 TB disk7

Physical Store disk6s3

1: APFS Volume 1,01 TB FilMovie ** 661.5 GB disk7s1

/dev/disk8 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +3.0 TB disk8

Physical Store disk6s2

1: APFS Volume Capacity should be 2... 909.3 KB disk8s1

2: APFS Volume 567 GB Shakti ** 440.7 GB disk8s2

3: APFS Volume 277 GB Shiva ** 194.5 GB disk8s3

sono@Mac-mini ~ %

I might be too busy til tomorrow 16:00 (= 4 PM). It's now almost 20:20 local time (Belgium - Europe).

Very curious to know how to solve this queer situation.

Have anice evening/day & week :-)

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Answer 7

Jan 7, 2024 3:40 AM in response to MartinR

Thank you so much for all information. I don’t know what segregation is, but, if I need to only use volumes, I just check with one of me two ext. Drives and…

All containers are shown as VOLUMES by Disk Utility [DU] , and despite this, the size of the LAST one (so impossible to correct without reinitialising), which should be 1,44 TB, is indicated as 1,15 TB.

So, as I can reinitialise this one, I did it as follows:

1. ERASE.

2. Next to make Volumes: I tried all menu options, even RESIZE (which prompt me for the desktop???) but partition seems the only possibility

Finally I clicked on Partition in DU’s window itself:

I can’t see any option to choose Volume partitioning and… it informs me about THE OLD size !?!?? How is this possible?

I’ve to choose the size: so I put1,44 TB, then clicked the + sign with — finally — offers me a choice between Partition and Volume, so (of course) I choose Volume.

Name = “** Movies 1,44 GB” but after this is done… when I click on its icon (in the left pane of DU) it keep shows 2 TB which is very confusing, isn’t it?

Next I clicked (in the left pane) on the main icon of that ext. disk and made,

a) ** Shiva 293 GB

followed by

b) ** Shakti 555 GB

3. In Finder (get info) they all show as “2 TB” big disk, which is enormously confusing to me. Cherry on the sour pie: 4 Volumes are shown instead of 3.

Fortunately I gave them a proper name and it seems to work fine for CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner).

And… I can eject the 4th one (name = “2 TB ext. WD disk”) so that confusing icon is gone.

Anyway. It works even if I don’t know why they didn’t keep the old good easy, and NOT ambiguous partitioning possibility as before.

Have a very nice year

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Answer 8

Jan 8, 2024 9:53 AM in response to MartinR

Thanks. it IS easy and it offers possibilities. I don’t have to worry about sizes (which I had before because CCC often told me there is not enough space) AND… I can add things on volumes while a CCC coy is in progress.

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Answer 9

Jan 2, 2024 2:56 PM in response to MartinR

Ok, thanks a lot. Your info helps. And If I understand it well, I can’t change the partitions into volumes without erasing them? can I?

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