I have followed the instructions to erase an old iMac. I bought it second hand and I’m not sure if it was erased or set up properly. I have followed Apples instructions but I seem to have partitions in the hard drive!? I’m not a computer expert so please forgive me if I’m being stupid with this. I’ve attached a couple of pictures that hopefully explain what I mean. Thank you for your advice
iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.14
The two volumes you see there are normal. It's a feature of the APFS file format used with Catalina and newer macOS versions. The "Macintosh HD" volume is where the OS will live. The other with the '-Data' suffix will be used for the user account home folders and will be taken care of by the installation.
However, no, you have not erased the drive properly if this is what you see.
In Disk Utility you must click View > Show All Devices before you can properly erase the drive. The drive to be erased will then be the topmost device shown in the side bar, not just a volume, which is indented below.
What you see here is normal, but you aren't done yet.
If you are ready to install macOS Catalina, you can select the "Macintosh HD" as the disk to install to and proceed with that. I believe the process will complete without error.
The two volumes you see there are normal. It's a feature of the APFS file format used with Catalina and newer macOS versions. The "Macintosh HD" volume is where the OS will live. The other with the '-Data' suffix will be used for the user account home folders and will be taken care of by the installation.
However, no, you have not erased the drive properly if this is what you see.
In Disk Utility you must click View > Show All Devices before you can properly erase the drive. The drive to be erased will then be the topmost device shown in the side bar, not just a volume, which is indented below.
What you see here is normal, but you aren't done yet.
If you are ready to install macOS Catalina, you can select the "Macintosh HD" as the disk to install to and proceed with that. I believe the process will complete without error.
Derbychap wrote:
Thank you for the great reply. I have followed your instructions and wondered if you could tell me if this looks correct now? ...
Yes. And no.
Yes, it does appear that you have erased the drive (APPLE...Media) which now has a single untitled volume, which is fine.
But I see now there is Container disk2, but it is not where it should be on the list. APFS containers should reside within the drive device and ** should list them as an indented item below that device. It looks like you have a second partition on that device, but we're gonna fix that. See my pic here as an example of a properly formatted ssd.
To fix this, you'll again select the device (APPLE...Media) and then click the 'Erase' once more.
Make sure that APFS is selected for the Format and GUID Partition Map is selected as the Scheme.
When done, it should look similar to what you see in my pic, with different names of course.
Exactly which year iMac is this you are working on, please?
The drive is wiped, blank and has no OS is installed.
The folder with question mark at startup indicates there is no valid macOS available to startup from.
You can comfortably transfer this Mac to a new owner without fear of compromising personal info.
If you wish, you can reinstall macOS from recovery mode, but that's not necessary. That is something the new owner can do.
Mission accomplished, my friend. 👍🏽
I appear to have made a bit of a hash of things! The model year is 2014, I bought it second hand in 2018, so it doesn't owe me anything. I just need to make sure it doesn't have any personal data on it before disposing. I now get the below messages on screen!
Hi ** Johnson,
Thank you for the great reply. I have followed your instructions and wondered if you could tell me if this looks correct now? I've attached an image
Thanks You
Brilliant, thank you so much for your help.
Happy New Year
You’re welcome.
And Happy New Year to you as well. 🎉
Odd process when Trying to erase iMac Catalina
