Confused about separate partitions in Catalina -please help!

[4ik]

Several weeks or even months ago, I have upgraded to Catalina without giving it a second though. All of a sudden I started running out of space on my 512GB hard drive which was odd given that I don't store ALL my files on the machine....applications began running out of memory and crashing. When I started digging I realized that my HD was now split in half (odd but looks like its normal?) I looked and searched but can't figure out how to add more space onto my fully filled up 250gb sized partition....while the other partition remains practically empty (and appears to be holding only the OS???.....Any suggestions or explanations are greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance

 

[oatman13]

APFS volumes space share; it's not like the old days of HFS where a partition is hogging all of your free storage. Your system and data volume are in the same APFS Partition. So if there is free space in one volume, then there is free space in another volume.

DaisyDisk is an excellent tool for finding what is taking up all of the space on your Mac. Sadly, it isn't free; but it's worth it!

 

[4ik]

APFS volumes space share; it's not like the old days of HFS where a partition is hogging all of your free storage. Your system and data volume are in the same APFS Partition. So if there is free space in one volume, then there is free space in another volume.

DaisyDisk is an excellent tool for finding what is taking up all of the space on your Mac. Sadly, it isn't free; but it's worth it!

Oh wow, thank you I will look into that. So what you are saying, I may have some ghost files that need to be cleared, erased, deleted etc. Good to know!

 

[chscag]

Something doesn't sound right about what you're describing. Catalina does not split the drive into two but rather creates a "Container Disk 1" which has two volumes: One is called "Macintosh HD" which is read only and has your system information, the other is called "Macintosh HD Data" which is your data, apps, etc.

As the previous reply stated, there should be space sharing. Why don't you open Disk Utility and take screen shots of what it's showing and post them here? Be sure to select "view all devices" from the view menu first.

 

[joevt]

Also post result of diskutil list and diskutil info -all

 

[4ik]

Something doesn't sound right about what you're describing. Catalina does not split the drive into two but rather creates a "Container Disk 1" which has two volumes: One is called "Macintosh HD" which is read only and has your system information, the other is called "Macintosh HD Data" which is your data, apps, etc.

As the previous reply stated, there should be space sharing. Why don't you open Disk Utility and take screen shots of what it's showing and post them here? Be sure to select "view all devices" from the view menu first.

You are correct, I made a mistake thinking I had a 512gb drive when I only have 256gb. Which is why I kept thinking my drive is split into 2 halves. I discovered the mistake when I downloaded Daisy Disk like oatman13, suggested and it showed how all my data was distributed. Mystery solved!

 

[Apple Bite]

One partition remains practically empty (and appears to be holding only the OS???.....Any suggestions or explanations are greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance

You nailed it my friend. That's exactly what's going on. One partition is protecting the System. AT LAST!!! I've being using Mac since PowerMac 7600CD (the Pizza Box) Mac OS 8 arrived and I was so exited! I still have those pictures. Today I'm 45 years old and Since I installed Mac OS X on my PowerMac G3 233mhz in the 90's I asked myself the same freaking thing! "Why Apple is letting the user see all the System files???" I even came up with a prototype idea of a lite/basic version of the OS and a Pro Version (pro version as a normal OS like we used today). My sister had a Mac, my mom had a Mac even my girlfriend at that time had a Mac too, every one of them messed up the OS moving files to the trash or truing to clean all those folders from that folder name "system"! So, I designed a way that Old people, slow learners or non computer savvy people (even kids) could use a Mac without messing things up. I still have my notes and my Keynote prototype of 2006. I even ask on every forum for help to develop and people laughed. Here is the link: The NOW concept! Today I'm so happy that Apple with the help of SSD technology can protect the system from the user that I can't even believe it! instead of hate the changes take advantage of it!