Originally Posted by artie505
Originally Posted by joemike
In the event the internal drive is somehow totally wiped out the only way to recover begins with connecting another M1 Mac to a specific Thunderbolt 4 port on the dead Mac and proceeds from there.
So Recovery as it exists on an Intel Mac does not exist on an M1?
Given url=https://eclecticlight.co/2020/11/28/startup-modes-for-m1-macs/]there are multiple startup options[/url] and a Boot Recovery Assistant I will let you answer that question for yourself. I am not willing to test a complete failure out because it would be such a PITA to recover from the test. However, given the SSD is on the fabric with the CPU, memory, etc. it would appear the odds are anything that would wipe out the SSD would likely make replacement of everything else as well.

Hopefully the following will help clarify what is present and what is missing on the drives:
Originally Posted by Internal drive on M1 Mac
APFS Container “AppleAPFSMedia”
Physical Disk “iBootSystemContainer”
APFS Volume “Hardware”
APFS Volume “iSCPreboot”
APFS Volume “xART”
APFS Volume “Recovery”
APFS Container “AppleAPFSMedia”
Physical Disk “RecoveryOSContainer”
APFS Volume “Update”
APFS Volume “Recovery”
APFS Container “AppleAPFSMedia” Physical Disk “Container”
APFS Volume Group “Macintosh HD”
APFS Volume “Macintosh HD”
APFS Snapshot “com.apple.os.update-1F37D1B32...
APFS Volume “Data”
APFS Volume “Preboot” APFS Volume “Update”
APFS Volume “Recovery”
APFS Volume “VM”
Portion in blue is the part of the boot process that is only present on the internal drive.
Portion in green is the fallback recovery (essentially the previous macOS version) and does not appear until the OS is updated.
Portion in red is the bootable sealed encrypted snapshot, although it is present on all the boot drives it is invisible and shows on the current boot drive because it is currently booted.

Originally Posted by Structure on Intel Mac
APFS Container “AppleAPFSMedia”
Physical Disk “Customer”
APFS Volume Group “Macintosh HD”
APFS Volume “Macintosh HD”
APFSSnapshot“com.apple.os.update-...
APFS Volume “Macintosh HD - Data”
APFS Volume “VM”
APFS Volume “Update”
APFS Volume “Preboot”
APFS Volume “Recovery” Physical Disk “Macintosh_HD2”
APFS Volume Group “Macintosh HD”
APFS Volume “Macintosh HD”
APFSSnapshot“com.apple.os.update-...
APFS Volume “Macintosh HD - Data”
APFS Volume “VM” APFS Volume “Update” APFS Volume “Preboot”
APFS Volume “Recovery”

Originally Posted by Installed external drive
APFS Container “AppleAPFSMedia”
Physical Disk “Untitled 2”
APFS Volume Group “Test”
APFS Volume “Test - Data”
APFS Volume “Test”
APFS Volume “VM”
APFS Volume “Recovery”
APFS Volume “Preboot”

Originally Posted by Cloned external volume
APFS Container “Apple
APFSMedia” Physical Disk “Untitled 2”
APFS Volume Group “Alternative”
APFS Volume “Alternative - Data”
APFS Volume “Alternative”
APFS Volume “Preboot”
APFS Volume “Recovery”
APFS Volume “VM”

If you say I said this I will call you a liar, but it appears that given the internal SSD is on the fabric and part of the M1 hardware "package" that Apple has elected to go with putting the deepest levels of recovery on the drive rather where they could be modified if necessary rather than in firmware.

Last edited by joemikeb; 05/31/21 12:12 AM. Reason: Correct color groups

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