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time machine will not start back up due to two disks named Macintosh-HD-Data

How can I rename one of two Macintosh HD-Data disks to allow time machine to start back up?


iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on Sep 16, 2021 6:48 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 16, 2021 8:37 PM

Yeah, that is definitely out of order.

Obviously only one of those "Macintosh HD - Data" volumes is current and proper.


When you select these different volumes, you should find one has the Finder face icon displayed on it in the pane to the immediate right, indicating it is the current startup volume. And one of the "... - Data" volumes should display a house that indicates that is the location of your current user "Home" folders. Can you identify those?




The others are errant APFS volumes and should be deleted by right-clicking and selecting "Delete APFS Volume..."

You may have to unmount them first.


You do already have your data backed up onto other drives, yes?



5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 16, 2021 8:37 PM in response to Sabino444

Yeah, that is definitely out of order.

Obviously only one of those "Macintosh HD - Data" volumes is current and proper.


When you select these different volumes, you should find one has the Finder face icon displayed on it in the pane to the immediate right, indicating it is the current startup volume. And one of the "... - Data" volumes should display a house that indicates that is the location of your current user "Home" folders. Can you identify those?




The others are errant APFS volumes and should be deleted by right-clicking and selecting "Delete APFS Volume..."

You may have to unmount them first.


You do already have your data backed up onto other drives, yes?



Sep 16, 2021 8:15 PM in response to D.I. Johnson

Thank you, D.I.,

You are correct, thought I could erase and restore to correct this issue and after several tries finally accepted the restore. But I noticed the extra drives and thought to update Big Sur 11.6 and try to fix. Ended up with all these drives now showing in Utility. Looks like I did not properly erase disks before restore. Appreciate any advise. I have several back ups in outer drives that also appear to show up duplicated in time machine.

Sep 16, 2021 9:44 PM in response to Sabino444

You'll find the Unmount button right there in the tool bar just below the Disk Utility window title.


I was really hoping that the volume "Macintosh HD1" would be your startup drive. I'm not sure if what I've suggested will ultimately work, but it's worth a try. Typically the startup drive is not an indented volume below "Macintosh HD". It usually IS "Macintosh HD". So I'd still see about deleting these other APFS volumes, but don't be surprised if it doesn't pull things together. You may end up having to erase and restore the startup drive once again to fix this properly.


EDIT- What year iMac is this? (Apple  icon > About This Mac)


time machine will not start back up due to two disks named Macintosh-HD-Data

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