Can I hide the "Macintosh HD - Data" icon?

[desertman]

I just got a new MacBook Pro with macOS 10.15 on it. After migrating the data from my older MacBook (which has macOS 10.14 on it) I suddenly have two hard disk icons on my Desktop - "Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD - Data."

Searching about this brings up many websites (and results here) with explanations that I don't fully understand. I kind of understand what this "Data" volume is about - and "kind of" is good enough for me.

However, I have 2 simple questions: 1.) Can I hide the "Macintosh HD - Data" icon from my Desktop, but still see the "Macintosh HD" icon? 2.) If so, how would I have to do that? Thanks.

desertman

 

[chscag]

The simple answer is no. They are both on the same drive so if you hide one, you will also hide the other. Actually, there really is no reason to keep the drive icon on your desktop since you can view it easy enough from your sidebar thru Finder preferences, Sidebar.

 

[desertman]

Thanks for clarifying that the "Macintosh HD - Data" icon cannot be hidden separately.

However, there is reason to keep the hard drive icon as one single icon on my desktop: that's how I want it - and that is reason enough (although I understand that I don't get here what I want).

 

[NoBoMac]

Actually, I think you can hide one. Or probably more accurately, the OS will "merge" them together under one icon. I've only got one icon for my APFS volume/container.

Wonder if the way you migrated stuff over might have borked up the APFS container. If you do a "diskutil apfs list" from a Terminal, you should not see two "Data" partitions: if you do, then that's why you are seeing the extra "Data" drive.

 

[chscag]

Actually, I think you can hide one. Or probably more accurately, the OS will "merge" them together under one icon. I've only got one icon for my APFS volume/container.

You are right. I just tried it and they do merge automatically and the icon is called "Macintosh HD". I was mistaken thinking that only the "Data" part will show up since that is read/write. However, clicking on the icon opens up both and shows the System and the User Data.

To the OP: Sorry about misleading you. Looks like you can indeed do what you wish.

 

[desertman]

There is only one Data partition. See attached screen shot.

How do I now "merge" these two icons into one? Several restarts did not do the trick.

 

[joevt]

disk1s5 (Data) and disk1s6 (System) are merged.

disk1s1 (Macintosh HD - Data) is a separate partition. Rename it. Or copy the contents somewhere else then delete it. It is only 1.3 MB so I don't think it has anything useful?

 

[desertman]

Thanks, guys. Slowly this is making more sense to me.

In Disk Utility I can see 3 volumes - exactly as described above by joevt. Nothing bad happens when I unmount dis1s1.

For now I leave disk1si (the visibly mounted "Macintosh HD - Data" volume) untouched, but I have it automatically unmounted after the system start.

 

[chrfr]

Thanks, guys. Slowly this is making more sense to me.

In Disk Utility I can see 3 volumes - exactly as described above by joevt. Nothing bad happens when I unmount dis1s1.

For now I leave disk1si (the visibly mounted "Macintosh HD - Data" volume) untouched, but I have it automatically unmounted after the system start.

Something definitely went wrong in your migration process.

 

[chabig]

I agree with chrfr. Something got hosed when you migrated. The two partitions (system and data) are supposed to invisible to the user. All you should see is Macintosh HD. I think you are going to need to reinstall the operating system. Keep the old MacBook as your backup. Boot the new Pro to recovery, reformat the SSD, reinstall, then migrate your user data over from the old machine.
[automerge]1587138423[/automerge]

There is only one Data partition. See attached screen shot

Look again. There are two Data partitions. One has all your data, and is no doubt merged with the system partition partition in Finder. The other, empty one, is extraneous, and is the one you’re seeing. Can you simply remove it using a Disk Utility? If not, reinstall per my above suggestion.

 

[digitalMenace]

Simply open Disk Utility select the Macintosh HD - Data that shows only a grey bar for the data. The other Macintosh HD will have a colored bar over a grey bar to show the merged volumes.

first, run diskutil apfs list in Terminal, like listed above. Find the volume taking up a minor amount of space and take note of its CAPFS Volume Disk (Role) name; generally going to be disk1s1

Open Disk Utility and choose the View menu, Choose View All Devices.
In the sidebar you will now see the SSD and it's volumes.
Under Container Disk 1, locate the two Macintosh HD - Data volumes.
When you click on one in the sidebar, look in the lower right of the disk window. The last box will show it's Device name. Make sure it matches the noted APFS Volume Disk (Role) name. Once you've located the proper one, right click (or two finger click) and choose Delete. It'll confirm you want to delete it.

Once that's done, it will no longer show the Macintosh HD - Data mounted on the desktop.

FYI, it does the same with the Big Sur Beta on a fresh install.

 

[vukelicn]

Hello guys, I didn't want to start a new thread, because I have the similar problem. My iMac has been repaired, i.e. the IT support reinstalled the whole system on a clean slate after repartitioning (at least that's what I have been told). The latest Big Sur is installed.

And, now I have Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data hard drives on Desktop, only HD - Data contains the real data and the HD, well, I don't know what it contains and why is it there. I have tried renaming it, that didn't work so well, now I have two Macintosh HD hard drives on the desktop...

I have made some screenshots from the Disk Utility, is it possible to solve this problem? I would like to have only one Macintosh HD in Finder, as it was before.

 

[desertman]

I am the original poster of this thread. The "Macintosh HD - Data" volume is still getting visibly mounted whenever I start the computer.

However, I found a way around. I use the tool "Power Manager" to run a script on login that unmounts the "Data" volume. This works very well and gives me peace - and spares me the huge task of reinstalling a clean macOS and then possibly having to install everything manually that I have had installed on my Macs since years.

It is a shame that Apple ignores this - not too uncommon - bug.

Maybe this is also a solution for you, vukelicn.

desertman

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[joevt]

Hello guys, I didn't want to start a new thread, because I have the similar problem. My iMac has been repaired, i.e. the IT support reinstalled the whole system on a clean slate after repartitioning (at least that's what I have been told). The latest Big Sur is installed.

And, now I have Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data hard drives on Desktop, only HD - Data contains the real data and the HD, well, I don't know what it contains and why is it there. I have tried renaming it, that didn't work so well, now I have two Macintosh HD hard drives on the desktop...

I have made some screenshots from the Disk Utility, is it possible to solve this problem? I would like to have only one Macintosh HD in Finder, as it was before.

First, use the diskutil list command to get a list of all the partitions and volumes.
Then use the diskutil apfs list command. Usually when there's a - Data volume, it belongs with a corresponding system volume (Catalina or Big Sur). One of the volumes has role "Data" and the other has role "System". The current system is mounted at / and the current data is mounted at /System/Volumes/Data

The System and Data volumes will have a matching APFS Volume Group ID. You can discover all the APFS Volume Group IDs using diskutil info -all. With this info, you can figure out what volumes you can remove (after backing up their contents elsewhere) or rename.

Your setup looks like this:

                disk2       Container disk 2                size 3.12 TB
System          disk2s5         /Volumes/Macintosh HD               used 15.05 GB
System          disk2s7         unmounted                       
System Snapshot disk2s7s1           /                               used 15.05 GB
Data            disk2s1         /System/Volumes/Data                used 1.57 TB

I think you want to remove disk2s5 - that's the old system. You are currently booted using the new system at disk2s7 (first snapshot). So verify that the APFS Volume Group ID of disk2s1 and disk2s7s1 matches.
diskutil info disk2s1
diskutil info /
And for curiosity's sake, check if disk2s5 has a APFS Volume Group ID:
diskutil info disk2s5

The info will also include a Volume Name field. Which ones have the " - Data" suffix? Only the volume with the Data role should have the Data suffix.

Also verify that the Preboot volume (probably mounted at /System/Volumes/Preboot ) has a folder with a name that matches the APFS Volume Group ID.
ls /System/Volumes/Preboot

 

[BrianBaughn]

Getting the hard drive situation ironed out is the way to go…but you can always set the Finder preferences to NOT show mounted hard drives and put an alias of the one(s) you want on the desktop.

 

[desertman]

disk1s1 (Macintosh HD - Data) is a separate partition. Rename it. Or copy the contents somewhere else then delete it. It is only 1.3 MB so I don't think it has anything useful?

After your recent reply to vukelicn I finally understand your reply to me from almost a year ago. No, disk1s1 does not contain anything useful (although I find it interesting that it has grown over the last year from 1.3 to 1.4 MB - see screen shot).

Can I just highlight this volume in Disk Utility and delete it?

desertman

 

[joevt]

After your recent reply to vukelicn I finally understand your reply to me from almost a year ago. No, disk1s1 does not contain anything useful (although I find it interesting that it has grown over the last year from 1.3 to 1.4 MB - see screen shot).

Can I just highlight this volume in Disk Utility and delete it?

Yes, your disk1s1 has no role and only contains 1.4 MB which is nothing. Delete it (make sure your deleting the proper one - the disk numbers can change after a reboot).

But first check the following:

I think you have Catalina, since in Big Sur, Preboot would be automatically mounted at /System/Volumes/Preboot . You can mount the Preboot volume with diskutil mount disk1s2 which should mount it at /Volumes/Preboot.

Verify the contents of the Preboot volume open /Volumes/Preboot to make sure it has only one folder with a name that matches the UUID of the the system volume (disk1s6).

With Catalina, the APFS Volume Group of the Data and System volumes matches the UUID of the Data volume.
diskutil info disk1s5 | grep "APFS Volume Group"
diskutil info disk1s6 | grep "APFS Volume Group"

 

[vukelicn]

Thank you very much for your answer, although its all greek to me, I am new to the mac world and have just a small bit of clue what you are talking about. But, we'll make it .

First, use the diskutil list command to get a list of all the partitions and volumes.

Then use the diskutil apfs list command. Usually when there's a - Data volume, it belongs with a corresponding system volume (Catalina or Big Sur). One of the volumes has role "Data" and the other has role "System". The current system is mounted at / and the current data is mounted at /System/Volumes/Data

Unfortunately, I have already renamed my "Macintosh - Data" Volume and I have no clue anymore which ones were named so.

The System and Data volumes will have a matching APFS Volume Group ID. You can discover all the APFS Volume Group IDs using diskutil info -all. With this info, you can figure out what volumes you can remove (after backing up their contents elsewhere) or rename.

Your setup looks like this:

                disk2       Container disk 2                size 3.12 TB
System          disk2s5         /Volumes/Macintosh HD               used 15.05 GB
System          disk2s7         unmounted                     
System Snapshot disk2s7s1           /                               used 15.05 GB
Data            disk2s1         /System/Volumes/Data                used 1.57 TB

I think you want to remove disk2s5 - that's the old system. You are currently booted using the new system at disk2s7 (first snapshot). So verify that the APFS Volume Group ID of disk2s1 and disk2s7s1 matches.
diskutil info disk2s1
diskutil info /
And for curiosity's sake, check if disk2s5 has a APFS Volume Group ID:
diskutil info disk2s5

Here I lost you a little bit, but I managed to find this:
for disk2s1 is the APFS Volume Group ID 650CDD21-3994-4326-97B8-BD379769A9B6
for disk2s7s1 is 650CDD21-3994-4326-97B8-BD379769A9B6

That looks same to me .

The info will also include a Volume Name field. Which ones have the " - Data" suffix? Only the volume with the Data role should have the Data suffix.

As I said, unfortunately I had already renamed that before my first post here...

Also verify that the Preboot volume (probably mounted at /System/Volumes/Preboot ) has a folder with a name that matches the APFS Volume Group ID.
ls /System/Volumes/Preboot

Looks good: 650CDD21-3994-4326-97B8-BD379769A9B6

So, let's say I need to delete the disk2s5, how do I do it? From the Disk Manager with the "Erase" option? Do I have to do anything after that, sorry I am coming from PC/Windows, where when I erase a partition I need to either assign a Volume to it or merge it to the existing Volumes, or something like that. What happens with the occupied space from disk2s5, where does it go?

Btw, it has about 24GB of data, and all in the Folder System, are those Catalina files or what?

Sorry for all the dumb questions...

@BrianBaughn Thanks, that is also a valid option, wouldn't bother me, but I wanted to go a little deeper that just cosmetics.

 

[desertman]

Joevt, I checked the volumes as suggested and then deleted disk1s1. No problem at all. I also disabled the script that for one year or so unmounted that volume automatically upon login, and restarted the computer. Again, no problem at all.

Thanks for your help!

desertman

 

[joevt]

Thank you very much for your answer, although its all greek to me, I am new to the mac world and have just a small bit of clue what you are talking about. But, we'll make it .

Unfortunately, I have already renamed my "Macintosh - Data" Volume and I have no clue anymore which ones were named so.

Here I lost you a little bit, but I managed to find this:
for disk2s1 is the APFS Volume Group ID 650CDD21-3994-4326-97B8-BD379769A9B6
for disk2s7s1 is 650CDD21-3994-4326-97B8-BD379769A9B6

That looks same to me .

As I said, unfortunately I had already renamed that before my first post here...

Looks good: 650CDD21-3994-4326-97B8-BD379769A9B6

So, let's say I need to delete the disk2s5, how do I do it? From the Disk Manager with the "Erase" option? Do I have to do anything after that, sorry I am coming from PC/Windows, where when I erase a partition I need to either assign a Volume to it or merge it to the existing Volumes, or something like that. What happens with the occupied space from disk2s5, where does it go?

Btw, it has about 24GB of data, and all in the Folder System, are those Catalina files or what?

Sorry for all the dumb questions...

@BrianBaughn Thanks, that is also a valid option, wouldn't bother me, but I wanted to go a little deeper that just cosmetics.

I prefer copies of Terminal.app text instead of screenshots so that I can paste it in a text editor for analyzing and editing. Place text output inside [ code] and [ /code] tags to keep the spacing. Make sure to use Preview to verify that the text is formatted correctly (sometimes it gets triple line spaced).

The first screen shot shows how the fusion drive is made of two physical disks with only one APFS container. The APFS container is spread over the two disks (the small one is the SSD and the big one is the HD). The APFS Container contains all the APFS volumes. There is no separate partition for each APFS volume. The APFS volumes all share the same 3.1 TB space as you saw in the Disk Utility.app screen shots in your older post - so you don't need to do anything after deleting a APFS volume.

I believe you are safe to delete disk2s5 - it is your old System role volume. In Catalina and Big Sur, the System Role volume doesn't contain any user files - user files and some non-system system files are always on the Data role volume. You should be able to delete it using Disk Utility.app. You can select it, right click it, then select "Delete APFS Volume...".
This command may also work:
diskutil apfs deleteVolume disk2s5
Always make sure the disk numbers match what you want to change since they may change between reboots.

 

[joevt]

Joevt, I checked the volumes as suggested and then deleted disk1s1. No problem at all. I also disabled the script that for one year or so unmounted that volume automatically upon login, and restarted the computer. Again, no problem at all.

Did the disk numbers change afterward? I guess disk1s2 becomes disk1s1, etc...

 

[vukelicn]

I prefer copies of Terminal.app text instead of screenshots so that I can paste it in a text editor for analyzing and editing. Place text output inside [ code] and [ /code] tags to keep the spacing. Make sure to use Preview to verify that the text is formatted correctly (sometimes it gets triple line spaced).

Ok, good to know, next time I’ll do it that way.

The first screen shot shows how the fusion drive is made of two physical disks with only one APFS container. The APFS container is spread over the two disks (the small one is the SSD and the big one is the HD). The APFS Container contains all the APFS volumes. There is no separate partition for each APFS volume. The APFS volumes all share the same 3.1 TB space as you saw in the Disk Utility.app screen shots in your older post - so you don't need to do anything after deleting a APFS volume.

I believe you are safe to delete disk2s5 - it is your old System role volume. In Catalina and Big Sur, the System Role volume doesn't contain any user files - user files and some non-system system files are always on the Data role volume. You should be able to delete it using Disk Utility.app. You can select it, right click it, then select "Delete APFS Volume...".
This command may also work:
diskutil apfs deleteVolume disk2s5
Always make sure the disk numbers match what you want to change since they may change between reboots.

Thank you very much, it worked and everything works fine after deleting it.

 

[jynxnyx]

Having similar issues and want to pare things down to one. I feel this is causing issues and the spinning beach ball. In my case the data volume is being used to store all my files, so cannot delete. I think I need to reinstall but not sure.