Detailed account of disk, volume and folder layouts on Big Sur’s boot disks, complete with roadmaps which are downloadable as PDFs.
APFS
Boot disk volume layout is intricate in Big Sur. M1 Macs lose the EFI partition on their internal SSDs and gain two more for APFS. Contents of /System/Volumes has also changed.
Diagrams of the layout of volumes on boot disks for macOS 10.13 to 11, covering both Intel and M1 models.
There’s no more critical app on your Mac, yet Disk Utility has suffered years of neglect – years in which APFS has grown many new features, and all Disk Utility gets is bugs and workaround.
Securing sensitive data from access by others, and safeguarding it from loss of damage, is common. Solutions range from encrypted images to specialist external disks.
We don’t know when Apple decided to introduce Big Sur’s SSV, but even now it hasn’t told users it won’t be releasing standalone updates for 11.0.1 or 11.1.
When does an M1 Mac validate its Sealed System Volume? Who designed its display interface? How soon does Find My Mac launch? So many answers found in the log.
For many, this could be the best reason for upgrading early. Even when it doesn’t go quite as expected, this really isn’t difficult.
The answer could be anything from 15 to 32 GB. Maybe the Finder’s just having a wild guess? Numbers courtesy of Big Sur and APFS.
Extends support for the new feature in Big Sur to make Time Machine backups to APFS volumes.
