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Updates, Drives, and Startup. Oh my!

I am trying to confirm all is setup as it should be after the recent 11.3 update.


My main concern is a discrepancy between Live and Recovery modes as well as having the correct startup disk.


This is what I see in Disk Utility while using the live enviroment: I have my system (Macintosh HD Snapshot), my data (Macintosh HD - Data), VM Volume, Preboot Volume, but no Recovery Volume (1 Not Mounted). Notice that only one disk is showing.


This is what I see using Disk utility in Recovery mode. Sorry for the picture quality Recovery doesn’t allow screenshots. Here we see the same disk but this time it is “Container disk3.” Now four volumes are Not Mounted - My Data, Preboot, VM, and Recovery.


We can also now see the macOS Base System disk image which is not visible at all in live mode.


To further concern me Macintosh HD is my only option for a startup disk. I cannot see or select macOS Base System. This should be my startup disk correct?

I will add more in the discussion.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.3

Posted on May 1, 2021 6:45 PM

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Posted on May 1, 2021 7:02 PM

Mac HD is your startup disk, the macOS base system is the recovery boot process. the HD Data contains your data and apps and is read/write, whereas the Mac HD is now read only and contains the OS and other system files.

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3 replies

May 1, 2021 7:27 PM in response to babowa

Thank you!


I had created a local virtual machine of my old MacBook but completely forgot. After updating to 11.3 everything looked a bt starting and I got worried the update partially went to the virtual machine (which I lost access to) leaving my actual computer at risk. I appreciate you explaining how it all was in play and reassuring me.


I am going to chalk this up to me being being overly cautious since I barely understand how computers work.

Updates, Drives, and Startup. Oh my!

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