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After doing a clean install of Big Sur on my iMac, I now have 2 HD volumes mounting on my desktop. One is called '– Data'. Can I safely remove the '– Data' volume using Disk Utility without losing any data on my Mac? Note, when I double click on the '– Data' volume there appears to be no data on there. Thanks for your help.
iMac 27″, macOS 11.1
Hi Artset007,
We understand you have questions about deleting volumes from your computer. We're happy to help.
If you just want to remove the item from the desktop screen, you can do that by clicking and dragging it to the Trash in the dock, then empty the trash.
If you'd like to remove the volume from the hard drive all together, you can do so with these steps: Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac
If there's data in the volume you'd like to save, you'll want to make sure to do that first before deleting it. We'd also recommend doing a backup before deleting anything, that way if you accidentally delete something you want to keep, you'll be able to recover it.
Back up your Mac with Time Machine
We hope this helps. Take care!
Hi jdo_apple
Thanks for your reply. I do want to remove the volume (the 2nd of the Angus Humungous – Data volumes, see original screenshots). There appears to be no data/files on that volume, but I'm concerned that if I remove that volume it might affect the other volume that contains the system and my work files/data.
As you'll see in the original screenshots, the 'mount points' are as follows...
/systems/volume/data This is the volume I want/need to keep.
/volumes/Angus Humongous – data/ This is the volume I want to remove/delete, providing it does not affect the other volume that has the system and all my data.
So, my questions is... can I remove the 2nd volume without it affecting the other volume in any way i.e. my system and data/work files will not be deleted/removed?
Thanks again for your help.
Cheers.
Hi Old Toad
Thanks for your explanation.
I do understand how the HD is structured but, according to the screenshots I posted, to me it looks like my system and data are on the same volume. Also, when I boot up my iMac I get 2 separate volumes loaded on my desktop when there should only be the one. Hence, why I'm reluctant to delete the 2nd '– Data' volume.
I'm thinking this is happening because I may have taken the wrong option when I originally erased the HD before doing the clean install. Instead of choosing 'Erase Volume Group', I erased the 2 volumes one by one. I realise now that was a mistake.
Should I just accept that the 2 volumes are mounted separately on my desktop or should I delete the 2nd one?
Thanks for your help.
You can't delete one of them, the one with the4 system on it and the other has your data files and you don't wan't to delete it. Just learn to live with the two icons on the Desktop.
What you're seeing is normal. The system is on the Angus Humungous volume and your user data is on the Angus Humungous - Data volume.
This schematic shows how the two share a drive:
Ok. Thanks for your help.
Clean install of Big Sur
