How to delete volumes HD

[marfape]

Hi,
Thanis in advance for your help.

I have been trying to restore a Time Machine backup and it failed and have created a weird (for me) HD volumes structure. I do not have problem to boot from Sequoia but I would like to know how to delete and clean the HD volumes. This is what I have now (see attached image). The "wrongs" volumes are all the volumes inside the gray "Macintosh HD".
Thanks again,

 

[gilby101]

The "wrongs" volumes are all the volumes inside the gray "Macintosh HD".

No!! The "wrong" volumes are "Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD - Datos" at the bottom. Neither is using significant disk space.

The greyed out "Macintosh HD" is the read-only volume with the macOS - the "Instantánea de Macintosh HD" being the mounted snapshot. The read-write part of macOS along with all your apps and data is "Macintosh HD - Datos" immediately below it.

You can get rid of the "wrong" volumes. Check you have identified correctly by selecting each in turn and 1) check that the size is very small (less than a 1MB) and 2) dismount it using the "Desmontar" button (macOS won't let you if they are active). You can then safely remove them by selecting again and using the minus sign above "Volumen".

 

[marfape]

No!! The "wrong" volumes are "Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD - Datos" at the bottom. Neither is using significant disk space.

The greyed out "Macintosh HD" is the read-only volume with the macOS - the "Instantánea de Macintosh HD" being the mounted snapshot. The read-write part of macOS along with all your apps and data is "Macintosh HD - Datos" immediately below it.

You can get rid of the "wrong" volumes. Check you have identified correctly by selecting each in turn and 1) check that the size is very small (less than a 1MB) and 2) dismount it using the "Desmontar" button (macOS won't let you if they are active). You can then safely remove them by selecting again and using the minus sign above "Volumen".

Hi gilby101,

First of all, thanks for reading and give help.

I have done a full mess....

I wanted to recover a Time Machine copy but first I delete the disk. The result was good in terms that I could did it and I have my OS running, but the disk structure I have now is really weird. Look at the following screenshots and, please, tell me how to clean this mess. Thanks in advance,

 

[gilby101]

Make sure that your Time Machine backup is complete - just in case you need to erase the whole disk and start again.

Looking at your second screenshot with my annotated numbers:

You have a single APFS container (item numbered 1). This is good because it make cleanup easier.

Your macOS is booted from 4 which contains a) the read-only (12GB) volume 5 which has a mounted snapshot 6 and b) read-write data volume 7. You want to keep these.

Everything else can be deleted:
2 and 3: Looks like an attempt to reinstall macOS in a fresh volume.
8: An empty Data volume.
9: Another empty volume which I assume was created as part of a failed install or update.

Because all these volumes are inside a single APFS container, you can delete all of 2, 3, 8 and 9 to get a clean container keeping 4, 5, 6 and 7.

And reboot.

 

[marfape]

Make sure that your Time Machine backup is complete - just in case you need to erase the whole disk and start again.

Looking at your second screenshot with my annotated numbers:

View attachment 2451012

You have a single APFS container (item numbered 1). This is good because it make cleanup easier.

Your macOS is booted from 4 which contains a) the read-only (12GB) volume 5 which has a mounted snapshot 6 and b) read-write data volume 7. You want to keep these.

Everything else can be deleted:
2 and 3: Looks like an attempt to reinstall macOS in a fresh volume.
8: An empty Data volume.
9: Another empty volume which I assume was created as part of a failed install or update.

Because all these volumes are inside a single APFS container, you can delete all of 2, 3, 8 and 9 to get a clean container keeping 4, 5, 6 and 7.

And reboot.

Finally!!!! Thanks a lot for your help. Now this is the structure:

 

[marfape]

Hi again,

I have another problems with Finder and the share options.

The "Share" button in Finder is not working. Every time I am clicking on it to share a file, the color ball comes and Finder hangs up. I have to kill the Finder process in Activity Monitor. So, no option to use the Sharing options from Finder. Not only the button, also the option "Share" on the right click menu has the same reaction.

Any clue to fix this problem?

Thanks again in advance

 

[gilby101]

Now this is the structure:

That's good!!

The "Share" button in Finder is not working.

My guess is that one of the apps in the Share menu is causing the problem.

I would attempt to diagnose the problem by disabling nearly all apps in the share menu. When (if) you then have a working share button, add the apps back one at a time to discover which is causing the problem. Disable and enable in System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > scroll down to the bottom and, in the Extensions section, click on the "i in a circle" next to Sharing.

If that doesn't get you anywhere, create a new thread.

 

[marfape]

That's good!!


My guess is that one of the apps in the Share menu is causing the problem.

I would attempt to diagnose the problem by disabling nearly all apps in the share menu. When (if) you then have a working share button, add the apps back one at a time to discover which is causing the problem. Disable and enable in System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > scroll down to the bottom and, in the Extensions section, click on the "i in a circle" next to Sharing.

If that doesn't get you anywhere, create a new thread.

Ok, I did what you suggested and something happens. I include here the message but if it is better create a new post, I'll do it.

I have did it and the Finder was hanging up. The only two extension that were active and I could not disable was Mail and Messages. So, I try to open the app Mail and it was hanging up. I followed the suggestion (in other post in the foum) to add to the Star Items apps, reboot and, voila, the Mail app was opening and working again. So, trying again Finder and...nothing.
So, the only one app in the Share extensions was Messages. I did the same: triying to open, it hanged up. I add it to the Start Items (like Mail) but in the reboot the Messages app is still hunging up.
Then, my suspicion is that the Finder sharing problem is related to the Messages app.

How can I fix the Messages app to get it opened and, then, try again the Finder problem?

Adding more info: I have opend System configuration and in the iCloud settings, the Messages app is setup as "No" to sync to iCloud. Then, I tried to change to "Yes" and when click on the Messages icon, System settings hangs up.
In case this info gives some light to the problem (see attached images).
Thanks again,