Remove 'Other volumes in container'?

[Kevin Jarrett]

I've got a MacbokkAir 13", early 2015 which was set to factory settings 2 months ago. Now I'm trying to go from Catalina to Big Sur that there is not enough space. The instruction is to remove from 'Other volumes in container'.
But how do I do this?
This is how it shows in Utility tool (Norwegian version):

Regards,
Kevin

 

[casperes1996]

I don't know what your layout here is. The greyed out volume - What's that?
How did you go about it when you "set it to factory settings 2 months ago"?

My intuition is you want to remove the greyed out volume below the one you have selected in your bottom screenshot but I don't wish to advice something that could cause data loss now that I don't know anything about your setup.

But my guess is that when you restored the machine to factory settings you did not properly wipe the drive, and the greyed out volume is remnants from that

Note that on newer visions of macOS, Disk Utility starts in a simplified view mode. Go to the View menu and select "Show All Devices" not just "Show Volumes Only". - This gives a better overview of your disk. It's perhaps not so relevant now, but it could've been important when you restored the machine since to do it "cleanly" you want to wipe the root disk not any of the volumes inside the container

 

[Kevin Jarrett]

Ah - translation needed. The blue part (Brukt) = Used, the grey part (Andre volumer) = Other volumes an the white part (Ledig) = Free.
I want to remove or reduce Other volumes (which I don't know what is) so I can install Big Sur.
When I try to install Big Sur I get a message: There is not enough space on the chosen volume to upgrade the OS. An additional 21,78 GB is needed.
The factory setting was done at an authorized apple shop, so this should have been done in the right way.

Show all devices is like this

 

[casperes1996]

Ah - translation needed. The blue part (Brukt) = Used, the grey part (Andre volumer) = Other volumes an the white part (Ledig) = Free.
I want to remove or reduce Other volumes (which I don't know what is) so I can install Big Sur.
When I try to install Big Sur I get a message: There is not enough space on the chosen volume to upgrade the OS. An additional 21,78 GB is needed.
The factory setting was done at an authorized apple shop, so this should have been done in the right way.

Show all devices is like this
View attachment 1711574

Hehe, I'm Danish. I understood the Norwegian

In the screenshot you just showed there, as you can see there's a greyed out volume below the selected one, with seemingly identical name to the selected volume.
Can you mount it and check its contents? Is it mountable at all?

I've seen enough incompetence from authorised Apple shops to still doubt whether that was done properly, no offence to anyone intended - I'm sure there's plenty of very competent people in Authorised Apple shops too, but... Yeah

 

[Kevin Jarrett]

There's incompetence several places - I don't even know what I should do to mount a volume. How's that done?

 

[casperes1996]

There's incompetence several places - I don't even know what I should do to mount a volume. How's that done?

Well, a plumber being an incompetent guitarist is different to being incompetent as a plumber

Once you select the volume on the left hand panel there should be a button in the toolbar of the window that's named "mount".
It will look like this:

 

[Kevin Jarrett]

There is one called Deactivate that looks like yours, but it's grey

 

[casperes1996]

There is one called Deactivate that looks like yours, but it's grey

Screenshot?

 

[Kevin Jarrett]

 

[casperes1996]

It does not look like you have the volume selected on the left-hand panel.
MBADisk is the name of your system volume. Select the volume two spots down from it.

 

[Kevin Jarrett]

And then Activate is accessible. Should I use this? What happens?

 

[casperes1996]

And then Activate is accessible. Should I use this? What happens?

Yes. - Assuming the volume works, it will appear on your desktop. I then want you to go through it to see what's in there; If there are any files that belong to you that you do not want lost - if it looks like leftovers from before the "factory reset", if it's just junk.

If the volume is broken somehow, disk utility will just show an error.

 

[Kevin Jarrett]

The system asks for a password - and the one it should have been, does not fit. And the same with any other password I try ....

 

[casperes1996]

The system asks for a password - and the one it should have been, does not fit. And the same with any other password I try ....

Has anyone else ever had admin rights over this computer?

What I will suggest now though is to remove this volume. It seems like it doesn't contain any data you'd be sorry to lose since you can't even access it, and it would reclaim your storage.

To do so go back into Disk Utility, unmount or "deaktiver" it and click the minus button. It will ask if you're sure you want to remove the volume.

I will add though that the password thing would probably make me want to reformat or 'factory reset' the device myself again, in case there are any other unknown passwords lurking anywhere, whether accidentally set by the tech that restored it last or otherwise

 

[Kevin Jarrett]

Thanks for all help. I think I'll go for the factory reset. It's explained at apple support and should work. But that will be tomorrow.

 

[brianmowrey]

Right, (backing up your data first) Recovery Mode > Disk Utility > Show All Devices > Erase/reformat the top mechanical disk level is the most common solution. If you google "Duplicate Data volume Catalina" you see plenty of others in the same boat. Catalina's volume layout scheme made it very difficult to erase drives correctly in Recovery Mode Disk Utility.

I would also contact the repair shop you used, and explain the situation, and that it seems caused by their incorrect OS reinstallation process, before you nuke the drive. If you have to go to them after reformatting for any reason, it will be too late to mention their mistake.

 

[casperes1996]

Right, (backing up your data first) Recovery Mode > Disk Utility > Show All Devices > Erase/reformat the top mechanical disk level is the most common solution. If you google "Duplicate Data volume Catalina" you see plenty of others in the same boat. Catalina's volume layout scheme made it very difficult to erase drives correctly in Recovery Mode Disk Utility.

The process is the same as it has always been though. It has always been advised to erase the top level drive rather than the volume when you do a full reset unless you have reason to do otherwise. Catalina and Big Sur's handling of volumes only means you'll notice it if you don't do it that way
I wouldn't blame Catalina and Big Sur for this. Though I think that the default layout for Disk Utility hiding the root drive and only showing volumes is a problem that makes it harder on people who don't know the view options exist. That to me is the bigger issue

 

[Quackers]

I suspect that when you "reset to factory settings" you hadn't previously deleted the "old" MBA Disk - Data, so you ended up with 2 of them. Currently Time Machine wouldn't run as 2 volumes have the same name.
I had a similar set up after re-installing Catalina.
You have a choice to delete whichever MBA Disk - Data is not attached to the system volume and see if that affects your current OS in its day to day running (as it did with me).
If that is the case you'll need to re-install the current system again, after deleting both MBA Disk - Data volumes.
Alternatively, if you have a Big Sur installer USB you may be able to wipe all those 3 partitions from the disk and install Big Sur fresh. Obviously all your data would be destroyed if you do that and as Time Machine won't run on your current disk you'd need an alternative method of backing up your data (though I personally wouldn't transfer anything on to a new Big Sur installation.