What's disk2s4 beneath Container disk 2 in Disk Utility on Mac?

General
1

I bought a 2023 Mac Mini M2 to replace my late 2012 iMac with a 3TB Fusion Drive that runs macOS Catalina. Since I’ve got a new Mac, I decided to install Parallels on the iMac to run Windows 11. When I check the iMac’s drive structure in Disk Utility, I notice the following drive structures:

  • Fusion Drive
  • Container disk1
  • DIsk2s4
  • iMac HDD
  • Macintosh HD - Data

When I run diskutil list in Terminal, I find a /ded/disk2 (synthesized) with the following structures:

  • APFS Container Scheme
  • APFS Volume iMac HDD
  • APFS Volume Preboot
  • APFS Volume Recovery
  • APFS Volume Disk2s4
  • APFS Volume VM
  • APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data

So, what is this disk2s4? Can I get rid of it?

2

disk2 is the synthesized virtual drive from the physical fusion drive. This is part of APFS and usually consists of a container, and 5 other volumes, including the system (iMac HDD in your case), data volume (Macintosh HD - Data), VM, Recovery, and Preboot.

The volume disk2s4 seems extra with only 2.2MB of storage and is not essential to the APFS structure. You can right-click on it and choose “Show in Finder” to view its content.

To check whether you can delete disk2s4, select it in Disk Utility and check if the + / - Add/Delete APFS volume button is highlighted. If the system allows you to delete it, you can remove it. Otherwise, you should leave it be.