SSD Used Space Growing After Each Erase – Causes and Fixes

apfsdisk-utilityhard drivepartitionssd

I bought a brand new Samsung T7 SSD, and I used macOS's Disk Utility to format (erase) it in APFS(Encrypted), scheme: GUID Partition Map.
Before erasing (brand new), "Used" space was 108,5 MB.
After first erasing, "Used" space was 20 kb.
Then I erased it again (same way as before – APFS(Encrypted, scheme: GUID Partition Map).
After second erase "Used" space was 766 kb!
Then I erased it as MacOS Extended(Journaled).
After this 3rd erase "Used" space was 852 MB!
Then I erased it back the same way as in 1st and 2nd erase -APFS(Encrypted, scheme: GUID Partition Map).
After this 4th erase "Used" space went back to 766 kb.
Then I erased it to exFat.
And then back to APFS(Encrypted, scheme: GUID Partition Map).
After this 5th and 6th erase "Used" space was to 725 kb.
Then I ejected it and plugged in back to my MacBook and "Used" space was 750 kb.
Then I ejected it and plugged in back to my MacBook one more time and "Used" space is now 762 kb.

What's going on???
After first such erase – APFS(Encrypted, scheme: GUID Partition Map) – it was just 20 kb.

And I can't go back to 20 kb again!
What's going on? How can I go back to 20 kb of "Used" space?
Please help!

P.S.
After erasing it's showing in Disk Utility like this:
enter image description here

But after I reopen Disk Utility, it shows like this again:
enter image description here

Hidden files:
enter image description here

Best Answer

750 kB is so small, that this could easily be Spotlight indexing and other invisible files. Can you do Shift+Command+. in a Finder window of the empty disk to see hidden files? The original 20kB may have been a fluke before any of the files were added.

About the pictures, Disk Utility often doesn’t realize that the old partition has been deleted and shows 2 partitions that are each 2 TB (impossible). Restarting Disk Utility returns it to a normal state.