2 Drives on my desktop when there was previously 1!

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Level 1

21 points

2 Drives on my desktop when there was previously 1!

I recently decided to sell my 27" intel iMac and replace it with a MacBook Pro. However, for a variety of reasons decided against that and just bought the MacBook Pro for when I travel.

As part of the preparation to sell the iMac I used Apples Disc Utility to erase all the files and eventually re installed the OS macOS Sequoia 15.7.3. But now I appear to have split my drive into 2 parts both of which are showing 4.1 Tb which cannot be correct as I replaced the original 3 Tb apple drive with the new 4 Tb drive as you will see from the screenshot.

One of the problems I have noticed, which may not be related to this is the computer is slower to start and now at one point displays a black bland screen. Otherwise it seems to be working ok.

Can I safely remove one of the extra drives? I have started to re install software suites I have used for a long time and keep 2 external drives using apple Time Machine on a regular basis.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wishing all the Community a merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year

iMac 27″, macOS 15.7

Posted on Dec 19, 2025 3:23 AM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

68,714 points

Dec 19, 2025 9:14 AM in response to Frankfiz

You ended up leaving an existing APFS volume intact and erased the the other existing APFS volume.....look at the "Available" and "Purgable" value for each in the "Get Info" screenshots, they are the same. Theoretically you should be able to just delete the APFS volume you are not booted into, but make sure you already have a backup of all the data on that volume which you want to keep. See the following Apple article:

Add, delete, or erase APFS volumes in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

FYI, when erasing an Intel Mac, I personally prefer to erase the whole physical drive (or Fusion Drive item when using a Fusion Drive), but the physical drives are hidden from view by default in Disk Utility. Here is an Apple article for the proper way to erase a macOS boot drive where it will prompt you to also delete the "Volume Group" and is the safe method of choice on an M-series Mac (or use the "Erase All Content & Settings" option on an M-series or T2 Mac).

Erase your Mac and reset it to factory settings - Apple Support

Also, when erasing a Hard Drive as opposed to an SSD, you should do a secure erase with Disk Utility so that you write zeroes over the whole drive to destroy all your data.....or you can first enable Filevault & let it finish encrypting before performing a simple erase. Apple overlooks this very critical item when a Hard Drive or Fusion Drive is involved.

With an SSD, a simple erase is sufficient for destroying all data on an SSD due to how SSDs work.

Here is an Apple article with everything to do when selling or recycling a Mac (again, Apple forgets to mention about the need for Filevault or a secure erase when a Hard Drive is involved):

What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac - Apple Support

Edit: Actually it appears both volumes are empty.

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Answer 2

Frankfiz Author

Level 1

21 points

Dec 20, 2025 2:16 AM in response to Old Toad

Good Morning Old Toad (and others) and thank you for your very helpful reply.

Now the confession, I did erase the volume and re installed, not only that I forgot to say in my original post that I replaced (had a company do the work) re installed the drive with a 4 Tb SSD drive as compared to the original Apple HDD. Don't know if that will make any difference?

Anyway, today I will use your helpful diagram to try I repair and re install properly.

Thank you again for your help

Frank

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