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STRANGE PARTITIONS

dgian

dgian

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 10, 2022
17
3
Hello fellows !

Just did a clean re install of the Monterey OS and found out that an extra partition appears under Macintosh HD - having the same name and then a 3rd one Macintosh HD - Data. (please have a look at the attached photos)

I am sure when i was deleting the OS i clicked on the 1st line Macintosh HD and selected ERASE VOLUME GROUP.

I am also positive that prior to reinstalling Monterey OS there were only 2 lines:
Macintosh HD & Macintosh HD - Data.
The device is a Macbook Air 2020 M1 - 16gb ram - 256gb hd.

How can i fix this ? (i dont mind having to reinstall Monterey OS through restore - had no important data anyways).
Thanks
 

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You need to boot into recovery > Disk Utility > click on view all devices > and delete the drive that has APPL and numbers in the name. It should be the top one listed. Once you have done that, reinstall the OS.
 
Apple_Robert said:
You need to boot into recovery > Disk Utility > click on view all devices > and delete the drive that has APPL and numbers in the name. It should be the top one listed. Once you have done that, reinstall the OS.
Click to expand...
@Apple_Robert i have no appl there, here is a screenshot. all of them are apfs
 

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Even your screenshot shows the line with "APPL (actually APPLE!) and numbers in the name"
Move up one line -- That's the line that you want to select, then erase.
 
@DeltaMac & @Apple_Robert you guys are reffering to APPLE SSD AP0256Q Media ?
If so, i will select this one and hit ERASE. Correct ?
What name should i give it coz its asking me for one ? Should i go with the same or Untitled ?
 
@Apple_Robert ERROR - (i did hit erase on every partition below that as well and then retried it but got the same error). Prior to that i also hit the ERASE THIS MAC as well
 

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It's fine - don't do anything

Meaning the structure of the volumes and partitions are fine.. in my example My boot is a disk volume that's formatted with the name "Macintosh SSD" - APFS and macOS Monterey then proceeds to create system and data partitions. In macOS Monterey you'll normally only see "Macintosh SSD" with all your files.. when in fact your boot drive is quietly operating from different APFS volumes that keeps the system and personal files separate.

that's macOS Big Sur and macOS Monterey for you..

If you want to reformat the whole drive then follow instructions given to you above. You'll then be sad to learn that you formatted your disk for nothing.

In your screenshots there's some blue bars.. you can add those up - like it is in the first of the three screenshots and see that the the other two volumes add up to the total of the first. Hence .. don't worry about it

Screen Shot 2022-04-05 at 15.37.26.jpeg
 
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dgian said:
Hello fellows !

Just did a clean re install of the Monterey OS and found out that an extra partition appears under Macintosh HD - having the same name and then a 3rd one Macintosh HD - Data. (please have a look at the attached photos)

I am sure when i was deleting the OS i clicked on the 1st line Macintosh HD and selected ERASE VOLUME GROUP.

I am also positive that prior to reinstalling Monterey OS there were only 2 lines:
Macintosh HD & Macintosh HD - Data.
The device is a Macbook Air 2020 M1 - 16gb ram - 256gb hd.

How can i fix this ? (i dont mind having to reinstall Monterey OS through restore - had no important data anyways).
Thanks
Click to expand...
DO NOT DELETE ANY PARTITION.The first one is not a partition, it is the APFS Container. and the 2 Below it which are in dented are the Partitions. Go in Diskutility to the Menu VIEW and click on SHOW ONLY VOLUMES. Then it will only show the 2 Partitions without the APFS Container
 
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allan.nyholm said:
It's fine - don't do anything

Meaning the structure of the volumes and partitions are fine.. in my example My boot is a disk volume that's formatted with the name "Macintosh SSD" - APFS and macOS Monterey then proceeds to create system and data partitions. In macOS Monterey you'll normally only see "Macintosh SSD" with all your files.. when in fact your boot drive is quietly operating from different APFS volumes that keeps the system and personal files separate.

that's macOS Big Sur and macOS Monterey for you..

If you want to reformat the whole drive then follow instructions given to you above. You'll then be sad to learn that you formatted your disk for nothing.

In your screenshots there's some blue bars.. you can add those up - like it is in the first of the three screenshots and see that the the other two volumes add up to the total of the first. Hence .. don't worry about it

View attachment 1986717
Click to expand...
yours are shown as mine in the external SSD drives. But the internal partitions of yours are different than mine.
 
chabig said:
Your disk was normal in the first post. There is nothing wrong. If you reinstall the OS you're just wasting your time. You'll see the same structure because that's a normal macOS installation.
Click to expand...
@chabig i am a windows I.T. admin and this is my 1st mac going through this process. i just noticed the issue and hence i was worried.
If you are a kind enough i will post a screenshot once the installation is completed (4th time within the day :) ) so can you please verify that all the partions are shown as they normally should once i upload the screenshot ?
i am just terrified that the tiny 256gb ssd will become smaller hence i am going through this hassle.
 
Since you're more familiar with Windows, some of the things Macs do may look weird for sure. Apple File System (APFS) is an interesting beast, new and modern. It has some really neat features like variable size volumes and space sharing. Your first post showed a normal disk, formatted as APFS. On an APFS disk, the next logical structure down is a container. A container holds volumes. Volumes keep data logically separated. The beauty of APFS is that one container can hold multiple volumes, and they all share the space. In other file systems, you'd use partitions to accomplish this, and you'd have to decide in advance how much space to allocate to each partition. That's not necessary in APFS with all volumes sharing the space inside a single container.

Modern macOS takes advantage of this volume sharing feature of APFS to logically separate the operating system files form the user's data files. The OS volume is read-only so it cannot become corrupted. It's also signed and sealed. The Mac will not boot if the operating system volume is modified in any way. If your machine boots, you're guaranteed to have a pristine system volume.

By default, the volumes in a macOS installation are named "Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD - Data". The first is the operating system. The second is your use data. Finder hides this split structure from users. To a user, it looks like everything resides on a single volume.

Much good APFS information exists on this website, if you're really interested:

eclecticlight.co

Mac problem-solving

A list of articles to help you solve problems on Macs running Monterey and later. For older articles about previous versions of OS X, see this article, and this article for more recent ones includi…
eclecticlight.co eclecticlight.co
 
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Just to add to what others mentioned, OP what you are seeing is a totally normal and standard Monterey install. Nothing is wrong.

Here is mine.

Screen Shot 2022-04-05 at 8.54.52 AM.png
 
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The people who told you to delete the top partition don't know what they're talking about. Your disk is/was fine. If you're interested, google APFS and mac and read up on the details of how they partition drives.

Why are you reinstalling the OS anyway? What problem is there?
 
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@dgian you're talking about partitions, but showing us a list of volumes. They are not the same thing. Don't be afraid of what you don't understand, instead do your research on Disk Utility, APFS, and more.
 
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Its funny reading some of the "experts" tell you how to crash your system. When apple came out with the locked down system disk (don't remember when) the install would format your drive into a system which is locked down and a DATA which is where all the non-system is stored. Makes sense right?

The only thing weird I see on your screen shots is you seem to have created a disk image (why?).

so if you are looking at Show all devices in disk utility you will see:
Physical SSD or Media
Container disk (AFPS contaner)
AFPS Volume Group
The system Volume
A snapshot volume
and a DATA volume

If you show only volumes, you will not see the first two items
 
MauiPa said:
Its funny reading some of the "experts" tell you how to crash your system. When apple came out with the locked down system disk (don't remember when) the install would format your drive into a system which is locked down and a DATA which is where all the non-system is stored. Makes sense right?

The only thing weird I see on your screen shots is you seem to have created a disk image (why?).

so if you are looking at Show all devices in disk utility you will see:
Physical SSD or Media
Container disk (AFPS contaner)
AFPS Volume Group
The system Volume
A snapshot volume
and a DATA volume

If you show only volumes, you will not see the first two items
Click to expand...
As an example of this, here's my drive with Show Volumes:

Screen Shot 2022-04-05 at 10.27.01 AM.png

and here it is with Show All Devices:
Screen Shot 2022-04-05 at 10.27.18 AM.png


Anyone telling you to delete the top line is dangerously ignorant or deliberately malicious.
 
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guys i went through all your comments and here is what i was doing (while you guys were replying... ?)
1. i went at APPLE SSD AP0256Q Media and hit ERASE
2. reinstalled Monterey OS and here is what the drive looks like:
277113065_514896023492965_4328929089879627021_n.jpg


277545056_403218824484556_6341690051088869967_n.jpg


277113065_514896023492965_4328929089879627021_n.jpg


So guys whats your verdict on this ?
*just remember that all this started because prior to deleting Monterey OS (1st time) i was only seeing :
Macintosh HD & Macintosh HD - Data.
 
dgian said:
So guys whats your verdict on this ?
*just remember that all this started because prior to deleting Monterey OS (1st time) i was only seeing :
Macintosh HD & Macintosh HD - Data.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's exactly how it should look. There was/is nothing wrong.

Have a look at Apple's own site. Their support article even shows the exact same layout as yours.

 
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