Multiple!! MACINTOSH HD icons on desktop

Since using Migration Assistant to get my new MacBook Pro (15" 2019) running based on my older 15" 2016 because of a hardware problem, I have 8 Macintosh HD icons representing my 2 TB SSD internal hard disc on my desktop each time I restart the computer. (Both computers are running MacOS 10.15 latest beta) Three of the icons on the desktop are labeled Macintosh HD and five are labeled Macintosh HD - Data. 7 of the 8 have an "eject" option when I right click on the icon and the wastebasket changes to an eject icon if a drag a disc there (other than the one "real" disc). If I eject all the "ejectables" things work fine (they work fine if I don't eject them, except my Time Machine won't back up when they're on the desktop because it says there are multiple hard disks with the same name.


If I go into Disk Utility, there is a "Container disk1" that shows 9 Macintosh HDs (3 called Macintosh HD and six called Macintosh HD - Data). If I click on Container disk1 itself, it says there are 12 volumes in it, the 8 mentioned plus an additional Macintosh - Data, plus 2 labeled "Not Mounted" and a final one labeled VM.


Interestingly, on the desktop, each has a different amount of free space listed but differing only by small amounts (for example one says 2 TB, 636.31 GB free, another 2 TB 636.36 GB free, etc. The non-ejectable "real disk" shows 2 TB, 753.16 GB free. Within Disk Utility all but two of the 9 disks showing have less than a GB used except for one that has 1.35 TB used (it's one labeled with - Data suffix) and one that has 10.31 GB used. In Disk Utility, clearly all the extra disks are volumes within the SSD. Several have no data, but a number of them have some data, so I'm hesitant to delete the extra volumes. I can't find any files that are inaccessible after I eject all the efectables -- but that's just by running as many apps as I can.


As you can tell, I'm at a total loss as to what these represent, how to consolidate them all into one drive/volume or get rid of the ones that shouldn't be there, etc. I can say that I had to run in Rocovery mode several times to get the transfer of data to complete and each time I did, I was presented with an ever increasing number Macintosh HD drives to select from.


Please help -- if anyone has any suggestions, I'd really appreciate it!


Sandy

  • I have a similar problem where 6 "Macintosh HD" icons have appeared on the Desktop, seemingly from nowhere. iMac with MacOS 10.14.6. If I chose one of these icons from the Desktop and drag it to the Trash, the eject icon appears in place of the Trash can where I release the mouse button but nothing happens. None of these "Macintosh HD" icons appears in the Disk Utility, nor does a "container."

    I anyone has a suggestion on how to resolve, please share.

    Cal

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So. . . I made a full backup of my system, went into Disk Utility, and deleted all the errant volumes from the container (7 in all). I checked after each deletion that the system was running well and that a reboot went smoothly. After a couple went well, I deleted the rest in one fell swoop (except for the Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD -Data volumes that had substantial content in them).


All seems well, rebooting goes even smoother than usual and, after reboot, I have a single icon for Macintosh HD. All is well with the world.


Sandy

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By the way, none of the icons are aliases/links.


Sandy

No idea but at minimum there will always be two. The system drive is now read only and appears logical separate from your data.

Looks like when I eject the seven "ejectables" so I'm left with one on the desktop and go in Disk Utility those seven are listed as unmounted (greyed out) and there are two left mounted Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data. They are the two that have signficant "in use" numbers within Disk Utility. I'm tempted to delete the other volumes that show no data when opened in Finder and show minimal in use numbers in Disk Utility (all less than 1 MB.

Thought I'd show what disk itility looks like after ejecting all but the "good" icon:


And here's what Info of that disk looks like -- note that the Used and Available don't add up correctly to 2 TB:


Sandy

So. . . I made a full backup of my system, went into Disk Utility, and deleted all the errant volumes from the container (7 in all). I checked after each deletion that the system was running well and that a reboot went smoothly. After a couple went well, I deleted the rest in one fell swoop (except for the Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD -Data volumes that had substantial content in them).


All seems well, rebooting goes even smoother than usual and, after reboot, I have a single icon for Macintosh HD. All is well with the world.


Sandy