What happens if I erase Macintosh HD data?

“Help! I'm desperate!! So I went to clear my data to sell my MacBook Pro and instead I deleted the Internal Macintosh HD drive with Disk Utility.”

-From Apple Discussions

This one’s a bummer! Accidentally deleting a few files from your Macbook or iMac is still fine as it’s quite easier to recover such traditional files. However, when someone ends up deleting the entire Macintosh HD drive, things can go south within the blink of an eye. For readers who don’t know the Macintosh is the primary folder that contains the macOS files as well as other data present on your system. In short, it acts as the central hub for all the other files that are available on the Macbook/iMac. So, when you delete the Macintosh HD drive, everything (including the macOS) gets erased from the device and it gets restored to factory settings with nothing but Disk Utility flashing on the screen.

But, the good news is that it’s possible to restore the accidentally deleted Macintosh HD on a Macbook or iMac. This guide will walk you through the detailed procedure of how to use the Disk Utility program to restore Macintosh HD when you have deleted it accidentally.

Part 1: What Happens If I Accidentally Deleted Macintosh HD in Disk Utility?

As we mentioned earlier, the moment you delete Macintosh from your system, everything gets wiped out instantly and the device gets restored to factory settings with no operating system whatsoever. Keep in mind that deleting the Macintosh HD is different from deleting the external hard drives because it’s still possible to recover the latter. However, when you have deleted the Macintosh HD, it may get a bit challenging to successfully recover all your files and the operating system.

Part 2: How to Restore Accidentally Deleted Macintosh HD

So, how can you restore the accidentally deleted Macintosh HD drive on your system? Well, the easiest way to do this job is using the Disk utility features, considering it’ll be the only thing you’ll be able to access on the device. Here’s the step-by-step to restore accidentally deleted Macintosh HD using Disk Utilities.

Open the Disk Utility app on your Mac and choose View > Show all devices there.

Note: If your Mac can’t start up normally, you have to access the Disk Utility from macOS Recovery. To do this:

• For Mac with Apple Silicon: Turn on the Mac, and then press and hold the Power button until the startup options window appears. Then, click the gear icon option and then press Continue.
• For Mac with intel processor: Turn on the Mac, and then press and hold Command and R keys until you see the Apple logo flashing on your screen.
• You may be asked to select a user. Select the user you know the password for and click the Next and enter the admin password.
• From the utilities windows in macOS Recovery, select Disk Utility and click Continue.

Now, select the volume that you want to restore and tap the “Restore” option. The volume will be erased to become an exact copy.

Now, click the “Restore” menu to pop up and select the volume you want to copy. Click on the “Restore” button to complete the process.

That’s it; the Macintosh HD will be restored and you’ll be able to boot up your Macbook without any interruption.

Part 3: How to Recover Data from A Erased Hard Drive on Mac

Now, there are a few situations where the users haven’t deleted the entire Macintosh HD drive, but only a few selected files from the folder. This won’t restrict you from accessing the device but may affect the overall performance. In this situation, you would want to recover these accidentally deleted files and restore them on your MacBook. Ideally, there are two different ways to recover deleted data on macOS or macOS Ventura. You can either use the Time Machine Backup or recover data using a professional data recovery tool. Let’s walk you through both these solutions so that you can recover the deleted Macintosh files without any hassle.

1. Recover Files from Erased Hard Drive without Time Machine

The easiest way to recover files from an erased Macintosh hard drive, especially when you don’t have a Time machine backup, is using a professional data recovery software like 4DDiG Mac Data Recovery. It’s an exclusive data recovery tool for macOS that you can use to retrieve deleted files from your system in different situations. It doesn’t matter whether you have deleted the files accidentally or lost them due to a system failure, 4DDiG Mac Data Recovery will allow you to get them back within a few taps on the screen. And, since the tool supports almost every file format, you can use it to recover everything including pictures, documents, GIFs, videos, songs, etc.

Here’s the step-by-step process of recovering accidentally deleted files from a Macintosh hard drive using 4DDiG Mac Data Recovery.

• Step 1:After installing 4DDiG Mac Data Recovery, launch the software and select the hard drive from where you had deleted the files. Then, click the “Scan” button to proceed further.

• Step 2:The tool will start scanning the hard drive and display a list of all the deleted files on your screen.

• Step 3:Browse through these results and select the files that you want to recover. Then, tap “Recover” at the bottom-right corner to restore these files on your macOS.

Within three steps, you would have recovered all the deleted files on Mac.

2. Restore Erased Macintosh HD Files with Time Machine

In case you had configured your macOS to create dedicated Time Machine backups, you can also use them to get back the deleted files. This method is also a convenient solution; however, it’ll only work when you do have the Time Machine backup on your device.

At the top-left corner of the screen, click “System Preferences” and then, tap on “Time Machine”.

Now, click on “Show Time Machine in menu bar”.

Now, in the menu bar, click on “Enter Time Machine”. Here go through the files and select the ones that you want to get back.

Finally, tap the “Restore” button to retrieve the selected files on your device.

Conclusion

Completely deleting the Macintosh HD on an iMac or Macbook can be the biggest nightmare for any user. However, instead of falling into a state of panic, it would be better to take the required measures to restore the deleted Macintosh drive and avoid any severe data loss. And, in case you end up losing any valuable files during the process, you can either use the Time Machine backup or install 4DDiG Mac Data Recovery to get them back easily.

Last Updated on Nov 1, 2022

If you have a MacBook running on the latest macOS, you will find two disks labeled: Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD-Data. Starting from the macOS 10.15 Monterey update, Mac’s internal hard disk is divided into two parts. One is called Macintosh HD, which contains the macOS and is the read-only volume of the system files. While the other is labeled Macintosh HD- Data which has all the other files you store in your MacBook. 

This post focuses on the difference between the Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD- Data drives available to the users after the macOS 10.15 Monterey upgrade. Let us look at these drives individually and then talk about the differences.

What is Macintosh HD Drive?

The Macintosh HD drive is a system volume that contains all the system files and the operating system of your MacBook. You might find this drive greyed out when trying to delete files from it.

This drive is greyed out because Apple does not allow users to delete, erase, or edit the data in this drive as it contains information about the operating system.

If these files are erased or edited, the MacBook will fail to start up, and you will have to reinstall the entire macOS again. The Macintosh HD drive file format is set as APFS or APFS (Encrypted) and can not be reformatted or changed to other system file formats.

What is Macintosh HD- Data Drive?

Unlike the Macintosh HD drive, the Macintosh HD- Data drive contains all the user data like photos, videos, documents, and all the other files saved or stored by you on the Mac.

You can erase, delete or edit files stored in this drive as the users get read-write access to this drive. The deletion of the files stored in this volume won’t affect the booting-up process of the MacBook as it does not contain any system files of the operating system.

Similar to the Macintosh HD drive, the system format for this drive is also APFS or APFS (Encrypted), which cannot be changed to other file systems.

What is the Difference Between Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD- Data?

The main difference between the Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD- Data drives is the contents and files stored in the respective drives.

Macintosh HD is a system volume and contains all the scripts, system apps and files, and the macOS. In contrast, Macintosh HD- Data has all the user data and personal files like audio, documents, videos, etc. 

Another significant difference between the Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD- Data is the mode of access to the drive’s contents. Macintosh HD is a read-only system volume meaning no data or files can be erased or edited in this volume, and it controls the information for starting up your Mac.

In contrast, the Macintosh HD- Data volume is a drive with read-write access to the contents meaning all the files in it can be erased or edited without affecting the functioning of the MacBook.

Besides the differences, both the volumes and one thing in common- Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD- Data show up in the finder app as a single Macintosh HD drive.

Macintosh HD or Macintosh HD- Data. Which Drive to Erase?

Knowing which volume you should erase or wipe out for your desired purpose is crucial. This section sheds light on the various reasons a Mac user should erase the specified volumes.

• For reinstalling the macOS

As we have discussed before, the Macintosh HD volume contains all the system apps, data, and macOS. This data is why this drive is partitioned as a separate volume to prevent overwriting of vital operating system data by accident.

The first step for reinstalling macOS is wiping out the startup disk of your MacBook by heading to the macOS recovery mode. This means deleting or cleaning up all the system data stored in the Macintosh HD volume.

By wiping out the Macintosh HD system volume, the users can free up the space required to install the new operating system while building a safe and stable condition for reinstalling the macOS.

You might run into installation failures and errors if you start installing the latest macOS without erasing the Macintosh HD volume.

• For Downgrading the macOS

If you face some problems or glitches with the current macOS installed on your device, you might want to downgrade the macOS to an earlier version to fix this issue. The process of downgrading the macOS involves erasing both Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD- Data volumes.

As for a reason for erasing the Macintosh HD- Data drive, when downgrading to an earlier version of the macOS, the system will create a new Macintosh HD- Data folder for storing all the user data.

If you don’t delete that drive, two drives with the same name- Macintosh HD- Data will be created. The presence of two drives with the same name can cause a lot of problems for your Mac. Hence, it is encouraged to create a backup of all the data stored in Macintosh HD- Data volume before cleaning it off for downgrading the macOS.

The differences between the Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD- Data volumes in your MacBook were successfully discussed in this article. Keep in mind the key points explained in this post to avoid any problems while reinstalling or downgrading the macOS on your Macs.

We conclude all the necessary details about Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD- Data volumes and hope you can grasp all the information delivered to you.

Q & A→ 

1. Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD- Data which to erase?

→ If you are reinstalling the macOS on your MacBook, then erasing the Macintosh HD volume is the best way to do it for avoiding errors. In case of downgrading to an older version of the macOS, erasing both the Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD- Data volumes are crucial.

1. Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD data where to install macOS?

→ Since all the system files and the macOS are stored in Macintosh HD system volume, the new macOS should also be installed in the same volume.