Any idea what "Volumes" is on my iMac HD?

[jonathanuy]

I recently noticed that the hard drive (3 TB fusion drive) on my late 2015 27" iMac (macOS 11.1) was more full that it should be (pre-dates the Big Sur update). When I ran Daisy Disk as Administrator, I found something odd. The top level of the HD has the usual 4 folders: Applications, Library, System, and Users. But it also had a folder (not visible in the Finder) called "Volumes," and in that is another folder called "iMac - Data," and in that are the same 4 folders that exist at the top level of the drive: Applications, Library, System, and Users. This mystery "Volumes" takes up ~1 TB vs. ~1.4 TB for the rest of the drive.

What is this "Volumes," an apparent partial duplicate of the rest of my hard drive? How do I get rid of it or at least shrink it?

Appreciate any insights. Thanks!

 

[Rob1n]

I recently noticed that the hard drive (3 TB fusion drive) on my late 2015 27" iMac (macOS 11.1) was more full that it should be (pre-dates the Big Sur update). When I ran Daisy Disk as Administrator, I found something odd. The top level of the HD has the usual 4 folders: Applications, Library, System, and Users. But it also had a folder (not visible in the Finder) called "Volumes," and in that is another folder called "iMac - Data," and in that are the same 4 folders that exist at the top level of the drive: Applications, Library, System, and Users. This mystery "Volumes" takes up ~1 TB vs. ~1.4 TB for the rest of the drive.

What is this "Volumes," an apparent partial duplicate of the rest of my hard drive? How do I get rid of it or at least shrink it?

Appreciate any insights. Thanks!

In catalina and big sur has made it that you have seperate volumes for your data and for system files. Because that is more secure. If you open disk utility you will see that there are multiple apfs volumes that make up your boot drive. I have attached an image of how it look in disk utility for me.

Mac os does this automatically with the install, since catalina.
It should not take up more space, its just that your data is seperated from your system files.

 

[jonathanuy]

In catalina and big sur has made it that you have seperate volumes for your data and for system files. Because that is more secure. If you open disk utility you will see that there are multiple apfs volumes that make up your boot drive. I have attached an image of how it look in disk utility for me.

View attachment 1722897

Mac os does this automatically with the install, since catalina.
It should not take up more space, its just that your data is seperated from your system files.

Thx for the response, but this is not the issue. My drive is split as it should be. There is basically a duplicate of most of my files on the same drive that is not visible in Finder on the invisible top level /Volumes folder.

 

[pmiles]

About the read-only system volume in macOS Catalina or later - Apple Support

macOS Catalina or later runs in a read-only system volume, separate from other files on your Mac. When you upgrade to macOS Catalina or later, a second volume is created, and some files may move to a Relocated Items folder.

support.apple.com

Maybe this will explain it.

Maybe what you are after below:

Delete "Other Volumes in Container" MacBo… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

OS Catalina. 2 MAC HD data drives - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[Rob1n]

I think it is normal, if this is what you mean. The volumes folder should be hidden, maybe you unhid it on accident.

 

[fivenotrump]

In catalina

"In Catilinam"

 

[svanstrom]

I think it is normal, if this is what you mean. The volumes folder should be hidden, maybe you unhid it on accident.

If I understood him correctly it was less on accident, and more a case of not understanding what he found.

Sort of like in the terminal doing cd / and being confused by it not looking like it does from the "top" in Finder.

 

[svanstrom]

I recently noticed that the hard drive (3 TB fusion drive) on my late 2015 27" iMac (macOS 11.1) was more full that it should be (pre-dates the Big Sur update).

Try emptying the trash and see what happens; just throw something in it if it looks empty to begin with.

(There exists like a bunch of reasons why actually emptying the trash might do miracles for free space; depending a bit on what software you might have that has done what.)

 

[jonathanuy]

The problem is not that it is there, and it isn't a "small" issue that can be resolved by emptying the trash. The issue is that it takes 1 TB of space and is a partial duplicate of the rest of the drive (which take 1.5 TB). What is this? How can I shrink this?

 

[Fuchal]

Volumes is a UNIX "folder" showing the mounted disk volumes. It's not a duplicate but a system folder of aliases to each mounted disk. What you see in "/" is a combination of "/Volumes/iMac" and "/Volumes/iMac - Data". Other disks you plug in to your computer or disk images you mount will also appear in "/Volumes".

 

[svanstrom]

The problem is not that it is there, and it isn't a "small" issue that can be resolved by emptying the trash.

Did you try that, and then check free space under About this Mac - Storage?

 

[jonathanuy]

Did you try that, and then check free space under About this Mac - Storage?

Yup. No effect.

 

[jonathanuy]

Volumes is a UNIX "folder" showing the mounted disk volumes. It's not a duplicate but a system folder of aliases to each mounted disk. What you see in "/" is a combination of "/Volumes/iMac" and "/Volumes/iMac - Data". Other disks you plug in to your computer or disk images you mount will also appear in "/Volumes".

I get this, but something still isn't right. For example, on my MacBook, /Volumes takes up less that 1 GB, and in it are two items: Recovery and Preboot.

On this iMac, /Volumes contains the one "iMac - Data" folder ("iMac" is not the name of my hard drive, which is called the default "Macintosh HD"), and in that folder are all the content of my hard drive. It also really takes up 1 TB, and this is real storage space as best as I can tell.

WAIT, I just thought of something. Is it possible that this entire folder is related to an old clone HD called "iMac," hence the name "iMac - Data"? That clone drive is no longer active, definitely not attached, and may be literally deleted and gone.