Erasing internal drive and clean installing OSx. Everything LOOKS new and default but my storage capacity is still full.

[Yumid]

So I just attempted to do a clean install of big sur and it LOOKS like a clean install but my storage capacity never reset.

1. I booted my late 2013 MacBook running Big Sur with recovery mode.
2. I went to disk utility and selected my main Macintosh HD then I hit erase. It said erase successful and gave me the option to name it, which I kept as Macintosh HD. I formatted it as APTF or whatever that 4 letter format is that's close to that
3. I then went back to recovery modes main window and did a clean install of my OSx, which is big sur.

Upon starting my clean OSx it APPEARS like it's a fresh slate, all my downloads/settings and everything are back to default and everything is as it looks on a fresh machine.

But the problem is when I look at my storage it still only says 46gb of 500gb are free. In other words everything except my storage capacity is reset, if all of my old files are still.occupying space, where are they? And how do I delete them?

 

[Gregg2]

Are you running Time Machine? Do your backups go to your hard drive?

 

[Fishrrman]

Let's get a few things straight:
- You want to erase THE ENTIRE internal drive, and start fresh?
- You booted to "the recovery partition" to do this...?

If that's what you did, you didn't do it correctly, because you can't erase the entire drive from "the recovery partition".

To completely erase the ENTIRE internal drive, you need to boot to INTERNET recovery:
Command-OPTION-R
at boot.

You'll need your wifi password, and the internet utilities will take a little while to load, so be patient.

When you get to the internet utilities, open disk utility.
IMPORTANT STEP:
Go to the "view" menu and choose "show all devices".

Now, look at the "list on the left".
The topmost line represents the physical drive inside.
Click on it and ERASE it to "APFS, GUID partition format".

When done, quit disk utility and open the OS installer.
You should be offered Big Sur, as I believe that is "the last OS" for the 2013 MacBooks.
Begin clicking through.
The MacBook will restart one or more times, and the screen will go dark for a few minutes, with no other indication of activity. Be patient.

When the install is done, you should see the initial setup screen (choose your language).
Begin clicking through.
At the appropriate moment, setup assistant will ask if you wish to migrate from another drive or backup.
Connect your backup and "aim" setup assistant at it, give it time to digest things.

Select what you wish to migrate and let it go.
Again, be patient.
When done, you should see your login screen...