News M2 MacBook Pro SSD became so full that data couldn't be deleted — user had to wipe SSD to make system functional again

[Admin]

An Apple Mac expert has written about an unfathomable issue one of his children faced after downloading a Steam game to an almost full SSD.

M2 MacBook Pro SSD became so full that data couldn't be deleted — user had to wipe SSD to make system functional again : Read more

 

[MacZ24]

You can see the error right on the first paragraph : trying to game on a Mac. It went downhill after that.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Add to this on the Mac the ssd is likely soldered on so you couldn’t just swap it to grab data later either.

 

[kenyon.jonathan]

An Apple Expert, I think not. Several easy fixes for this. The problems is with the Steam client not Apple. As for Apple Games, I have played them for years with no issues.

 

[Neilbob]

I see an enormous opportunity for Apple here: $999 for a support representative (trying hard not to snort my drink across my screen as I type that) to resolve the problem (i.e. delete a file).

 

[J4ck1nth3b0x]

Instead of wiping the SSD it would have be a better choice to either boot in single user mode, or as target disk mode on another mac and investigate from there. Where the use chose was a silly mistake. This could be fixed in terminal within minutes.

 

[PEnns]

"You might think the problem would be like water off a duck’s back for Seattle-based technology journalis...'

This is a self inflicted problem.

The problem is, these days everybody claims to be technology expert or a tech journalist. In this case, this gentleman is neither.

 

[mac2net]

An Apple Expert, I think not. Several easy fixes for this. The problems is with the Steam client not Apple. As for Apple Games, I have played them for years with no issues.

So please tell us what the fixes are...

 

[dtemple]

MacOS is, at its core, still based on Unix; Unix has always been more sensitive to extremely full disks. Perhaps the actual issue here is that Unix, being more powerful than Windows, is able to fill every last nook and cranny of the disk until its ability to function is compromised, where Windows would not allow that.

Macs have a "target mode," I'm not certain if it still exists on new models but it did back in the Intel Mac days. You'd boot the Mac while holding the T key for Target mode, and then the Firewire port would host the system's SSD as an external device. Meaning, if you then plugged your Mac into another system using a Firewire cable, the Mac's internal SSD would be accessible that way. Attaching your Mac to another Mac, it even allows you to unlock the disk's encryption on the other Mac. There's also the option to boot the system from a Linux flash drive and access the internal drive that way, but only if the drive is not encrypted.

 

[Dementoss]

Many here claim the journalist doesn't know what he is doing and, that the solution is simple.

Put your money where your mouth is, tell us the solution, or are you as ignorant as you claim the journalist is?

PS, I'm not proffering a solution because I have no idea, as I have never used MacOS. But, I am also not making, probably false, claims about the journalist as some of you are, despite your knowing nothing about him.

 

[mac2net]

MacOS is, at its core, still based on Unix; Unix has always been more sensitive to extremely full disks. Perhaps the actual issue here is that Unix, being more powerful than Windows, is able to fill every last nook and cranny of the disk until its ability to function is compromised, where Windows would not allow that.

Macs have a "target mode," I'm not certain if it still exists on new models but it did back in the Intel Mac days. You'd boot the Mac while holding the T key for Target mode, and then the Firewire port would host the system's SSD as an external device. Meaning, if you then plugged your Mac into another system using a Firewire cable, the Mac's internal SSD would be accessible that way. Attaching your Mac to another Mac, it even allows you to unlock the disk's encryption on the other Mac. There's also the option to boot the system from a Linux flash drive and access the internal drive that way, but only if the drive is not encrypted.

Target mode might have worked. I used it quite a bit with Firewire, It works now with Thunderbolt. For conventional users, I am not sure booting Linux from a flash drive on the Mac would work because the file system is probably unreadable.

https://support.apple.com/en-euro/g...e two Mac,computers using a Thunderbolt cable.

 

[kaalus]

Macbooks are world's best hardware saddled with horrible software called MacOS. If only they brought back Bootcamp. Macbook's keyboard, touchpad, speakers and build quality are next to none. MacOS is a horrible piece of slow, clunky and buggy junk.

 

[mac2net]

Macbooks are world's best hardware saddled with horrible software called MacOS. If only they brought back Bootcamp. Macbook's keyboard, touchpad, speakers and build quality are next to none. MacOS is a horrible piece of slow, clunky and buggy junk.

LOL so you are saying don't fix it, burn it?

 

[Sleepy_Hollowed]

Macbooks are world's best hardware saddled with horrible software called MacOS. If only they brought back Bootcamp. Macbook's keyboard, touchpad, speakers and build quality are next to none. MacOS is a horrible piece of slow, clunky and buggy junk.

macOS might not be Linux, but it’s much more solid than windows.

 

[mitch074]

My bet : disk so full you can't even write to journal. Solution : disable hfs+ journaling (may need mounting on other system), delete files, enable journaling, check file system.

 

[dtemple]

Target mode might have worked. I used it quite a bit with Firewire, It works now with Thunderbolt. For conventional users, I am not sure booting Linux from a flash drive on the Mac would work because the file system is probably unreadable.

https://support.apple.com/en-euro/guide/mac-help/mchlp1443/14.0/mac/14.0#:~:text=If you have two Mac,computers using a Thunderbolt cable.

If Target Mode exists with Thunderbolt, then it would have worked. That functionality is integrated into UEFI, so even if the operating system is non functional, if the system can POST then it works. Might take a PRAM reset to make it work, but it's always there and functional so long as UEFI is not corrupt.

 

[dtemple]

Many here claim the journalist doesn't know what he is doing and, that the solution is simple.

Put your money where your mouth is, tell us the solution, or are you as ignorant as you claim the journalist is?

PS, I'm not proffering a solution because I have no idea, as I have never used MacOS. But, I am also not making, probably false, claims about the journalist as some of you are, despite your knowing nothing about him.

The solution is not simple, it would take a lot of knowledge about Macs to fix this. Not even knowledge that your typical power Mac user would know - someone who uses the Adobe suite regularly on a Mac probably would not know about Target mode unless they previously needed to utilize it.

I think the general displeasure here is with the headline, naming the person involved a "Mac expert." That's a bit of a stretch for somebody who didn't know Target mode exists, although Apple calls their retail store employees "Genuises" so maybe it's par for the course in their ecosystem to overstate people's technical skill.

 

[JamesJones44]

Target mode might have worked. I used it quite a bit with Firewire, It works now with Thunderbolt. For conventional users, I am not sure booting Linux from a flash drive on the Mac would work because the file system is probably unreadable.

https://support.apple.com/en-euro/guide/mac-help/mchlp1443/14.0/mac/14.0#:~:text=If you have two Mac,computers using a Thunderbolt cable.

Some Linux variants support the macOS journaled FS. The issue would be if FireVault was enabled, at that point Linux may not/likely won't be able to decrypt the data on the drive.

You can boot the macOS setup from a thumb drive and then enter the terminal that way, mount the disk, enter the password and then theoretically be able to delete data. I've never tried this specific scenario, but I have used that method to copy data when doing a restore.

 

[dwbogardus]

The problem with restoring backups is that you don't find out that they are not actually restoreable, until you need them most... People may use utilities that routinely do backups, but how often are "trial restores" done to verify that the backups are actually functional? (Sometimes OS updates render all prior backups unusuable, which I have witnessed, though not specifically with Apple.)

 

[NeoMorpheus]

Hmm, i think i experienced similar issues on windows.

That said, MacOS has some weird quirks which results in orphaned files that you need to know exactly where they are to properly remove them. If not, you end up losing storage space.

 

[MadeInNY]

This article could/should have been a simple link to https://sixcolors.com/post/2024/03/a-disk-so-full-it-couldnt-be-restored.

 

[Me2045]

Many here claim the journalist doesn't know what he is doing and, that the solution is simple.

Put your money where your mouth is, tell us the solution, or are you as ignorant as you claim the journalist is?

PS, I'm not proffering a solution because I have no idea, as I have never used MacOS. But, I am also not making, probably false, claims about the journalist as some of you are, despite your knowing nothing about him.

The article has very few details so really I think it’s a bad job as well. It’s likely something MacOS does this thing when you delete where it puts it in “purgeable storage” and it doesn’t clear until you “need” the storage. It also doesn’t show in most storage menus. The problem comes when you try to install something like Baldur’s Gate 3 which is nearly 150GB and if you have a large “purgeable storage” something like Steam or GOG will just say you don’t have space. If it downloaded anyway MacOS would see it needs to free space and start purging that storage. GOG does this. It just stops and doesn’t try. I’d guess Steam does as well.

I downloaded a 3rd party tool to basically erase the purgeable storage immediately to get around this.

It’s kind of both a MacOS problem and a problem with the download clients. Still, the “journalist” put very few if any details about any of this, so I can only assume this is the problem because I’ve had this problem for years. This is the top story on the list right now and it’s kind of just there is a storage problem, someone couldn’t fix it, they erased and that fixed it.

 

[SSGBryan]

The solution is not simple, it would take a lot of knowledge about Macs to fix this. Not even knowledge that your typical power Mac user would know - someone who uses the Adobe suite regularly on a Mac probably would not know about Target mode unless they previously needed to utilize it.

I think the general displeasure here is with the headline, naming the person involved a "Mac expert." That's a bit of a stretch for somebody who didn't know Target mode exists, although Apple calls their retail store employees "Genuises" so maybe it's par for the course in their ecosystem to overstate people's technical skill.

Your typical power mac user knows about Target mode. It's only been around for what, 30+ years now?

 

[newtechldtech]

An Apple Expert, I think not. Several easy fixes for this. The problems is with the Steam client not Apple. As for Apple Games, I have played them for years with no issues.

not apple ? do you really think that an SSD on windows would beave the same way ? this is 100% driver problem.

 

[CmdrShepard]

An Apple Mac expert has written about an unfathomable issue one of his children faced after trying to download a Steam game to an M2 MacBook Pro with an almost full SSD.

A couple of observations here:

1. What, exactly, is unfathomable here except that the expert has failed as a parent so hard that they couldn't even manage to teach their child basic math and physics? If there's for example 5 units of space free and you are trying to download something that takes 50 units of space what else did you expect to happen? If math isn't your child's strong suite, how about showing them what happens when you try pouring another glass of water into an almost full glass? Operating systems have always needed (and will always need) some spare free space -- even if the game was downloaded successfully the computer would still cease to work.

2. Yes, we are all complaining about the article calling him expert because he apparently isn't if he couldn't figure out how to free some space, or worse have a working backup.