Big Sur. Anyone else have a second Data container

[DonCarlos]

Big Sur. Anyone else have a second Data container. I noticed one has a home icon inside.

Should there be only one data container? Note how each has it's own available and use GB, but the totals are the same. Any thoughts on this. Thanks. This is from a fresh install

 

[MacGizmo]

I've not had this issue, but I have a friend who asked me about the very same thing. Because he could, he deleted the second Data partition (against my advice) and seems to have no problems or loss of data. I would recommend making a full backup of all your data before doing anything to rectify the situation.

 

[jennyp]

I did when I clean-installed and mistakenly erased the volume instead of the disk. But maybe that was a different issue.

 

[DonCarlos]

I don’t feel comfortable deleting a data volume (trouble would be which one to delete Lol) I will keep it as is, if everything keeps working correctly But still any further comments are appreciated

 

[steinmb]

On a clean install if you erase the volume (visible volume) and not the disk you will end up there with two "Data volumes" after reinstall. Before running a clean install you you should remove both volumes from the disk, or erase the disk. This is the official doc from Apple on erasing disks and volumes.

Background:

When Apple introduced macOS Catalina in 2019 it added a new read-only volume where the operating system lives. This volume is Macintosh HD (yours may have a different name). Alongside it you will also have a Macintosh HD - Data volume. This is where your data resides. The reason Apple separated the two volumes in Catalina is to ensure that critical operating system data can't be overwritten - but it means that if you want to make sure all traces of your data are removed from your Mac before selling it on, or because you want to do a clean install, you will need to wipe both volumes.

When you are reformatting your Mac in Catalina you first need to delete the Macintosh HD - Data volume before deleting Macintosh HD. You do need to delete both, you can't cut corners.

Source: macworld.co.uk

 

[jennyp]

When I made that mistake I just did it again, erasing the disk, not a volume. Now all is well (apart from my dislike of the "whiteout" toolbar interface).

 

[DonCarlos]

Thank you I downloaded screen shots of drives and volumes to advisor or Apple chat She said it all looked fine, no need to do reinstall I will see if any glitches start