[SOLVED] At the end of my rope.

[DrWho345]

I’m locked down in Australia and can’t take my iMac to get fixed and need help. This is going to be long so I apologize.

5k 27 inch, late 2015, running Big Sur 32GB Ram.
Had two fusion drives die on me, and took it in to get fixed, wanted a 4TB SSD, all they had was 2, 2TB drives. Replaced the fusion with one, and made the second, even though it was inside the computer, act as an external drive, but when I backed up via Time Machine, it acted as if both were connected.

This started on July 20th, I backed up that day, shut it down. Restarted and got a blank screen, multiple times until eventually I got a blinking folder with a question mark in it, attempted to reset NVRAM, but keyboard wouldn’t let me (something wrong with my Bluetooth) eventually had to connect a windows keyboard and hold alt to get into recovery mode.
Gave me the 4 options,
Restore from time machine
Reinstall OSX
Get help Safari
Disk utility
Tried restore, but there was no drive with Mac HD,
Tried reinstall OSX again no Mac HD nothing to reinstall it to
Tried disk utility
(Having no idea what I was doing)
Repartitioned drive (only found one)
Reinstalled Catalina
Downloaded and installed Big Sur
Restored from time machine using migrate assistant
Since then every shut down or restart I do the second drive is either there or not, and when it is I think it has just cloned the existing drive to itself.

I also have trouble freeing up space
I use DaisyDisk and it gives the option of deleting purgeable space and snapshots but it is not deleting them, and my available space keeps fluctuating anywhere between 7-800gb free to 4-500gb free.

I cannot handle the pandemic alone without a computer (non negotiable) so have kept it running, have my old time machine in case I need it, and have ordered another hard drive to do a new backup, but it is taking forever to be delivered.

I also ran drivedx and the internal drive is fine, tried running first aid via disk utility
But got this error message and I don’t know what any of it means.
“
checking snapshot 1 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-11-191440.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
warning: snapshot fsroot/file key rolling tree corruptions are not repaired; they’ll go away once the snapshot is deleted
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 2 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-11-231522.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 3 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-12-031701.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 4 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-12-072059.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 5 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-12-112142.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 6 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-12-152158.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 7 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-12-192214.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 8 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-12-232301.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 9 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-12-032315.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 10 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-13-072330.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 11 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-13-112408.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 12 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-13-152724.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 13 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-13-193008.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 14 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-13-233124.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 15 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-14-033601.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 16 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-14-073618.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 17 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-14-113659.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

checking snapshot 18 of 18
(com.micromat.techtoolpro.2021-08-14-153726.local)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x20064): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x30076): nchildren (3) does not match drec count (0)

deffered repairs failed
the volume /dev/disk0s2 could not be verified completely
“

Any help as to what to do from here, or suggestions would be very much appreciated

thanks

 

[spinningstill]

Apple replaced the drives or you did?

Can you post photos of what DU (Disk Utility) looks like?

 

[DrWho345]

Apple replaced the drives or you did?

Can you post photos of what DU (Disk Utility) looks like?

Apple did, so thankfully I have a warranty

I can post a photo, please disregard the external drives
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6p9dc1g8hj6k71q/Photo 18-8-21, 11 38 07 am.jpg?dl=0

 

[spinningstill]

Can you clarify what the computer does on start up?

The DU looks good to me.

Also are you able to disconnect any externals and then restart?

Would uninstall or delete the third-party disc Apps.

 

[DrWho345]

Can you clarify what the computer does on start up?

The DU looks good to me.

Also are you able to disconnect any externals and then restart?

Would uninstall or delete the third-party disc Apps.

Can you clarify what the computer does on start up?
Computer starts up fine, now, I just have not been able to find the other drive.

Also are you able to disconnect any externals and then restart?
Why would I need to do that? you mean go into safe boot?

Would uninstall or delete the third-party disc Apps.
Do you mean DaisyDisk or DriveDX

 

[spinningstill]

Can you clarify what the computer does on start up?
Computer starts up fine, now, I just have not been able to find the other drive.

Also are you able to disconnect any externals and then restart?
Why would I need to do that? you mean go into safe boot?

Would uninstall or delete the third-party disc Apps.
Do you mean DaisyDisk or DriveDX

What is the name of the other drive?
Disconnecting any external drives and or going into Safe Mode is a basic troubleshooting step to help eliminate any third-party interference.
Yes delete or uninstall third-party Apps like DaisyDisk and DriveDX. Additionally delete any anti-virus that may have been installed.

Restart after you have deleted the third-party apps in questions.

And I hope things get better there for ya'll.

Graciously,
Gary