Macintosh-HD Data

wibbly

wibbly

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WTF is Macintosh HD-Data and how do I remove things from it to give me some of my space back.

Deleting files seems to make no difference.
 
All of your documents and user files are stored in HD-data, all system files are stored in HD.

To delete stuff from hd-data, just delete the files from the finder window.
 
TCR4x4 said:
All of your documents and user files are stored in HD-data, all system files are stored in HD.

To delete stuff from hd-data, just delete the files from the finder window.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I’ll have a look at that and see if that works. There isn’t much left to delete from the finder window. I’ve moved all the big stuff (ie LR) to an external drive.
 
Right click on the macintosh HD icon on the desktop and click manage storage. It will then populate a list of all files and documents by type.
On the left you can click on a category and filter by file size to see what’s talking up the room. Could well be a backup or something.
I often loose 800gb through davinci resolve cache files if I forget to determine them regularly
 
TCR4x4 said:
Right click on the macintosh HD icon on the desktop and click manage storage. It will then populate a list of all files and documents by type.
On the left you can click on a category and filter by file size to see what’s talking up the room. Could well be a backup or something.
I often loose 800gb through davinci resolve cache files if I forget to determine them regularly
Click to expand...
(y)

I’ll have a look when I get back. I’m pretty sure I only have a ‘main’ icon and not a Mac-HD Data icon in fairness.

Thanks again.
 
Yes you will only have a Macintosh hd icon as the -data is basically hidden. It’s supposed to be a seamless way of separating system files so you can’t easily get malware or viruses into it. Everything you interact with when it comes to applications and documents is stored on the hidden -data partition, whereas all core system and application files are stored in the hd partition that you technically can’t mess with.
 
So how does one get to the hidden part?

If I go to about this Mac and storage it shows I have about 800gb free. Problem is if I go to Disk utility and look at the hd-data it shows a full disk.

All I can find anywhere online is deleting the drive as a fresh install. :thinking:
 
You don’t need to touch it, it the same disk, just a partition, well it’s a volume actually, but the same principle , the data portion changes size as you add and delete stuff, so it might always look full, it isn’t.
 
Last edited:
OK, thanks. So it’s telling me the start up disk is full and won’t download anything - my HDD says I have 800gb free - nothing in bin etc and there’s nothing much else I can delete.

My mind is blown!
 
I assume you have more than one physical drive then? Can you screen shot your disk utility.
The startup drive should be just that, for startup, you shouldn’t download anything to it unless you are trying to update the OS, in which case you may need to format the startup disk and reinstall the new os via disk recovery.
 
TCR4x4 said:
I assume you have more than one physical drive then? Can you screen shot your disk utility.
The startup drive should be just that, for startup, you shouldn’t download anything to it unless you are trying to update the OS, in which case you may need to format the startup disk and reinstall the new os via disk recovery.
Click to expand...
I’ve got one disk only. I think with a particular software update the disk was partioned as part of the update. I’ll take a screenshot when I’m in front of it!
 
TCR4x4 said:
I assume you have more than one physical drive then? Can you screen shot your disk utility.
The startup drive should be just that, for startup, you shouldn’t download anything to it unless you are trying to update the OS, in which case you may need to format the startup disk and reinstall the new os via disk recovery.
Click to expand...
8399DFD8-D3EB-4323-8BC0-B8938CDDE798.jpeg
That’s all that’s showing.
 
Go into disk utility via applications and utility and see what that says. If you have a startup partition it will show there.
 
TCR4x4 said:
Go into disk utility via applications and utility and see what that says. If you have a startup partition it will show there.
Click to expand...
That’s what I get through disk utility

EB971A5C-72BF-439D-AC12-A8FCCA3A0AF0.jpeg
 
That makes it even more complicated as you have a fusion drive, which is a traditional hard disk drive and a ssd combined into one!
The ssd stores all the apps and often used files and everything else gets moved onto the traditional hdd. As well as this, you still also have the separate HD and -data volumes within the fusion drive. This is all controlled by the OS and can't be messed with.

So as to why you are getting a startup disk error, I forgot they changed it, the startup disk can now be the main drive, it used to be a separate partition.
Looking at the image its hard to say if its full or not, as its showing the fusion drive as full by the blue, but that doesn't necessarily mean the storage part of the drive is also full.
 
Oh OK. So basically I’m fooked :rolleyes::ROFLMAO:
 
I use an app called DaisyDisk to work out what is filling my Mac drive.
 
Craikeybaby said:
I use an app called DaisyDisk to work out what is filling my Mac drive.
Click to expand...
Cheers, I’ve used Daisy Disk previously but couldn’t download it even if I wanted to - start up disk says full!
 
Have you tried Apple logo ---> About this Mac --> Storage ---> Manage.

Might be another way to check and purge files, or offload to iCloud.
 
Your disk is full then. It’s says it’s full in the image of the fusion drive too. Where are you seeing it say it’s not full?
 
You can see from the images below. The drive says the storage shows 892gb free & the second image shows the Macintosh HD -Data files has used 941gb. Start up disk is full.

I don’t understand the discrepancy or where I can remove files from the HD - Data file. 0E0110C0-DC70-4FFF-8F28-13B1D0A96881.jpegF6E17111-141E-4BF0-8F31-E4A1C40171D7.jpeg0E0110C0-DC70-4FFF-8F28-13B1D0A96881.jpegF6E17111-141E-4BF0-8F31-E4A1C40171D7.jpeg
 
Go to FINDER, locate your disk on the left column and click on it once.
You should see what it contains appear in the right-hand box - Applications, Library, System, Users.
Double-click on Users then double-click your file e.g. "wibbly" to display all of the folders in there ... Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Movies etc.
Double-click on where you want to remove files from, e.g. Documents.
Select any files/folders you want to remove and either drag them to the Bin or Right-click on them and select Move to Bin.

Caveat - I don't have a fusion drive so things could be different for you.
 
I've ended up re-installing everything, via a Time Machine back up. Hopefully that's solved the issue.

Thanks for all the info, particularly you @TCR4x4 (y)
 
wibbly said:
I've ended up re-installing everything, via a Time Machine back up. Hopefully that's solved the issue.

Thanks for all the info, particularly you @TCR4x4 (y)
Click to expand...
Very odd issue, the fusion drive is saying it’s full, the had saying it has 800gb free and the data saying over 900 used. I’m not very good at maths, but that doesn’t add up :ROFLMAO:
Hopefully just a glitch and the reinstall has sorted it.
 
wibbly said:
Thanks, I’ll have a look at that and see if that works. There isn’t much left to delete from the finder window. I’ve moved all the big stuff (ie LR) to an external drive.
Click to expand...

Reading the thread, I suspect you had the disk filled with APFS snapshots of the data you moved off to the external drive, which hadn’t been subsequently released for some reason/bug.

derflounder.wordpress.com

Creating, managing and using Apple File System snapshots for startup drive backups

Starting with macOS High Sierra, Time Machine on Apple File System-formatted (APFS) startup drives gained the ability to create APFS snapshots. These snapshots capture the state of the startup volu…
derflounder.wordpress.com derflounder.wordpress.com

The Fusion drive may be a factor as they were excluded initially from AFPS deployment by Apple because of the challenges they present.

Your clean reinstall should sort it out, though
 
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