Little help with partitions (Core Storage?)

[Aquamite]

This is how my drive partitions look like on Disk Utility.

More info on every drive:
http://imgur.com/89Lsw2X,y7POZQF,IQLj3nJ,v5g70N8,DHfAaCh#0

I don't get why I have 2 different Macintosh HD partitions (one mounted and labeled as "Encrypted Logical Partition" and the other unmounted and labeled as "Core Storage Physical Volume") on my Macintosh HD 500GB SSD.

Also I don't get why I don't have that famous orange disk for Mac OS X Base System:

s this normal or did I do something wrong when formating my SSD Drive and installing OS X on it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Taz Mangus]

This is how my drive partitions look like on Disk Utility.

More info on every drive:
http://imgur.com/89Lsw2X,y7POZQF,IQLj3nJ,v5g70N8,DHfAaCh#0

I don't get why I have 2 different Macintosh HD partitions (one mounted and labeled as "Encrypted Logical Partition" and the other unmounted and labeled as "Core Storage Physical Volume") on my Macintosh HD 500GB SSD.

Also I don't get why I don't have that famous orange disk for Mac OS X Base System:

s this normal or did I do something wrong when formating my SSD Drive and installing OS X on it?

Thanks in advance.

Your partitions are configured as core storage. You can turn it off by entering the following in the terminal application:

diskutil cs revert /

 

[Aquamite]

Your partitions are configured as core storage. You can turn it off by entering the following in the terminal application:

diskutil cs revert /

Thanks for your answer but according to this: http://awesometoast.com/yosemite-core-storage-and-partition-woes/

I cannot revert from Core Storage back to HFS+ if I've encrypted the disk. This is what I get when I do

diskutil cs list

I'll continue reading this whole thread where they explain Yosemite partitions: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/caution-yosemite-may-screw-up-partitions.1741742/

However, any further help would be really appreciated.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Thanks for your answer but according to this: http://awesometoast.com/yosemite-core-storage-and-partition-woes/

I cannot revert from Core Storage back to HFS+ if I've encrypted the disk. This is what I get when I do

diskutil cs list

I'll continue reading this whole thread where they explain Yosemite partitions: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/caution-yosemite-may-screw-up-partitions.1741742/

However, any further help would be really appreciated.

I missed the part where one of the partitions is encrypted. You could turn off encryption convert the partition and then turn it back on after the partition has been converted.

 

[Aquamite]

I missed the part where one of the partitions is encrypted. You could turn off encryption convert the partition and then turn it back on after the partition has been converted.

I could but, why? I mean, what would be the advantages and disadvantages of doing and not doing so?

The thing is I don't understand the reason it shows two different Macintosh HD partitions. I've read that Core Storage is supposed to be a Logical Volumen maganer intended to be resizable however it would not allow me to resize its partition or something like that if I actually understood what I read.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I could but, why? I mean, what would be the advantages and disadvantages of doing and not doing so?

The thing is I don't understand the reason it shows two different Macintosh HD partitions. I've read that Core Storage is supposed to be a Logical Volumen maganer intended to be resizable however it would not allow me to resize its partition or something like that if I actually understood what I read.

Core storage is the basis for the Fusion drive. Maybe I am wrong about this but I really can't see any advantage to using Core storage if you are not using a Fusion drive and you loose the ability to resize partitions.

 

[Aquamite]

Core storage is the basis for the Fusion drive. Maybe I am wrong about this but I really can't see any advantage to using Core storage if you are not using a Fusion drive and you loose the ability to resize partitions.

This is the default configuration I got on the GUID partition scheme when I performed the clean installation of OS X Yosemite. Do you mean resizing partitions is the only disadvantage? Well, I guess as far as anyone is attempting to make partitions on the disk it'd be fine, isn't it?

So now I wonder, what is the real difference between both configurations and why Apple sets this Core Storage configuration as default one?

 

[Aquamite]

Just found this revealing explanation:

Quote source: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/10/os-x-10-10/2/

Core Storage was introduced in OS X 10.7 Lion, ostensibly to support the new, vastly improved FileVault, Apple’s whole-disk encryption system. Given the lamentable state of file system technology at Apple, Core Storage was a beacon of hope in 2011. OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion came and went in 2012 without any advancement on the file system front, but Apple had a surprise in store for us before the year was out: Fusion Drive, also powered by Core Storage.

Here we are in 2014, and HFS+ is still going strong. Yet here’s Core Storage once again, this time without any obvious purpose. Examination of the listing above reveals that installing Yosemite does not automatically enable FileVault encryption, and Fusion Drive isn’t involved at all in a single-volume installation scenario.



FileVault, Fusion Drive, and the diskutil man page provide ample evidence of Core Storage’s capabilities and purpose, but technical information has been hard to come by. As far as I’m aware, there is no direct, public API for Core Storage, so a lack of external technical documentation is not surprising. The limited implementation details about Core Storage provided by Apple make clear that it does include features found in many modern file systems: redundant storage of metadata ("ditto blocks" in ZFS parlance) and copy-on-write B-trees (shades of Btrfs)—diminished though they may be by the eventual layering of HFS+ on top of Core Storage.


Given that Core Storage is a prerequisite for both FileVault and Fusion Drive, and given that FileVault encryption is now offered as an option during system setup, the boring explanation for this move is that it just makes sense to apply Core Storage by default—if only to avoid a second reboot needed to convert the volume to Core Storage if the user chooses to enable FileVault during the OS installation process.

[...]

[Update: Here’s one contradictory truth. Core Storage is not applied to all installation targets. For example, installing onto an external hard drive will not convert the volume to Core Storage.]

So as Core Storage is required to encrypt the user's disk, why would I disable it as you said if I want to keep my disk encrypted?

 

[Weaselboy]

So as Core Storage is required to encrypt the user's disk, why would I disable it as you said if I want to keep my disk encrypted?

I think there is a little confusion here. Core storage is required for FileVault. What you are seeing with Macintosh HD twice there is totally normal on a core storage volume and there is nothing wrong with your Mac.

That second screenshot with the orange base system is from recovery and that is the installer partition you see mounted there. Totally normal.