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Did a clean install, disk utility says my SSD is shared by 4 volumes - Why?

SRLMJ23

SRLMJ23

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
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Central New York
I did a clean install tonight, APFS (Encrypted) and everything went smooth with my installation, however, when I go into Disk Utility and click on "Macintosh HD" which is my main/startup disk it says in the upper right hand corner of Disk Utility under where it says how much space you have left "SHARED BY 4 VOLUMES." What the hell does this mean? It should only have the volume it is installed on. All four volumes only take up 1.07gb of space, but why is it like this? Thanks in advance!

:apple:
 
I’ve not used an APFS drive yet, but my understanding is that a feature of APFS is that it can share space across partitions on the same drive. So if you initially create two partitions and run out of space on one, but have space on another, the first one can use that space.
 
Problem is I did not create any other partitions. I wiped my drive clean (it never had any extra partitions ever) and installed High Sierra. Thanks for the reply!

On a side note, wow is High Sierra great! Everything is fast and fluid!

:apple:
 
I have the same 4 volumes and also am wondering why... I have an SSD - not sure if that will make a difference (can't see why it would though). I have never intentionally created any partitions - it has always been a pretty default install (and then upgrade to new versions of Mac OS).
 
It's normal to see these 4 volumes. Recovery is obviously the recovery partition, VM is virtual memory (swap files) and Preboot is likely to be Filevault etc (I guess).
 
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DU 4 volumes.png
EDIT, you are correct, four is normal for both .
 
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Anyone know what this is, like I said...I did a clean install and created zero partitions. Does everyone else who used APFS (Encrypted) see this "Container disk1"? I assume it is where those 4 other partitions are as I can see VM on it, just want to make sure everything is good on my machine:

Screen Shot 2017-09-26 at 12.28.58 PM.png
 
It is totally normal. Like mentioned, if you run diskutil list in Terminal you can see the other hidden volumes not shown in Disk Utility.

Code: 
/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            61.7 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 18.2 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                520.0 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4
 
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Weaselboy said:
It is totally normal. Like mentioned, if you run diskutil list in Terminal you can see the other hidden volumes not shown in Disk Utility.

Code: 
/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            61.7 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 18.2 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                520.0 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4
Click to expand...

What does it list above that in Terminal when you do diskutil list? I get a few things above what you posted. I will post a screen shot:

Screen Shot 2017-09-26 at 2.14.55 PM.png


:apple:
 
Weaselboy said:
Mine is the same. The top is the physical disk and the bottom is the volumes on the virtual disk1.
Click to expand...

Ahh, okay I appreciate your help! It is good to know I am not the only one with these 4 volumes. I was thinking I was going to have to do another clean install.

PS: Think you can help with my other thread, you seem much more knowledgeable than I am with macOS.

Here is the link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/anyone-else-dislike-the-new-login-screen.2072578/

:apple:
 
hi guys,

I having a big problems with my MacBook Air after running the command
diskutil mergePartition ...... (2 volume of total 300GB partition)

And now it appears as shown picture:

Screenshot 2021-03-16 at 3.04.16 AM.png



300GB of disk space has gone missing, this is definitely NOT normal
Advise from Apple support is to reformat the MacBook, I wonder WTF these supports have in mind?
Perhaps guys here could help me to claim back the disk space.

Your help and advise are much appreciated.

Regards,
Dave
 
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