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How does recovery mode work on my M1 iMac?

I tried to restore my M1 iMac to a Time Machine backup from a couple of days ago. After finding out how to boot to recovery mode, I tried a restore and got this window:



So I clicked on Install MacOS. It started and told me it would be 3 hours. 2 hours later I came back and my computer had rebooted. It looked just like nothing happened. So I opened migration assistant and migrated from my backup, with all of the headaches of a new installation.


So what happened with Recovery Mode? Why couldn't I restore from there? What happened when I reinstalled MacOS?

iMac 24″, macOS 11.4

Posted on Jul 17, 2021 8:22 AM

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14 replies

Jul 17, 2021 11:07 AM in response to howardfromlafayette

Last qstn: Is the cable connected to the Seagate via USB-A or USB-C?


Since Big Sur has a reputation for bugs and APFS works more efficiently with SSDs, I'm wondering if the problem is possibly related to the slowness of both your HD and cable connection (if USB-A).


On Catalina, my old HD connected via USB-A was bricked during a conversion to APFS by a backup app. So strange things can happen with Apple's new APFS on old, slow HDs.


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Jul 17, 2021 1:34 PM in response to howardfromlafayette

Reading over here at Carbon Copy Cloner regarding the Restore function as it relates to CCC. Find the Restore sort of has changed to Migrate from the CCC on external drive.


Have not attempting a Restore on an M1 based machine so thinking Restore is interchanged with Migrate while in Recovery Mode with TM Backup available ?


Will have to test this out sometime.

How does recovery mode work on my M1 iMac?

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