Disk Volumes Explanation

[KevinBerry]

What are these items below Container disk1 I see in Disk Utility?
I'm new to Mac coming from Windows.
This is Monterey on a Mac Mini 2014.
I'm guessing MacMini is the name I gave my SSD?
MacMini is the boot volume or operating system (I don't know which)?
MacMini is a snapshot to restore everything from?
MacMini-Data is operating system and data or just data (I don't know which)?
Thank you!
Kevin

 

[hobowankenobi]

Good questions. It is a bit complicated, so consider checking out this great blog post about the what and why of all the bits of an APFS drive.

A quick answer for the easier ones:

• Yes, MacMini is the name you gave the drive. The default is Macintosh HD in all documentation.
• MacMini is the locked system volume. Read-only, not modifiable. It is the boot volume too.
• MacMini-Data is where all user-owned data lives. Everything a user installs or creates is housed here.
• MacMini Snapshot is a volume-level copy of the parent volume. More info here, including in the comments.

...This is confusing as they are presented as a single drive or volume. If one never opened Disk Utility, there would no way of knowing about the separate volumes.

Similar in Windows NTFS (Recovery is similar to Snapshot), but not quite as complicated; would be kind of like if the C drive was actually two separate partitions...presented as one by using savvy and invisible shortcuts.

 

[DrCC]

What are these items below Container disk1 I see in Disk Utility?
I'm new to Mac coming from Windows.
This is Monterey on a Mac Mini 2014.
I'm guessing MacMini is the name I gave my SSD?
MacMini is the boot volume or operating system (I don't know which)?
MacMini is a snapshot to restore everything from?
MacMini-Data is operating system and data or just data (I don't know which)?
Thank you!
Kevin

Former user here too (~25 years on Windows)

macOS is very different and strange to someone used to how things are and work in Windows. At first I tried to dig deeper and tweak because this is what I was used to on Windows, but because of the simplicity of macOS, I developed a different approach:
1) Let it just do its thing + 2) Get an external drive for Time Machine => 3) Don't care about maintaining like I used to on Windows = Bliss.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Former user here too (~25 years on Windows)

macOS is very different and strange to someone used to how things are and work in Windows. At first I tried to dig deeper and tweak because this is what I was used to on Windows, but because of the simplicity of macOS, I developed a different approach:
1) Let it just do its thing + 2) Get an external drive for Time Machine => 3) Don't care about maintaining like I used to on Windows = Bliss.

Agreed. Fine to learn about some of the unique file system stuff, but (outside of possibly using snapshots), very little to do or tweak for 98% of all users.

 

[KevinBerry]

hobowankenobi: Thank you very much! Now I can sleep tonight knowing what's under the hood. Thank you for the links too.

 

[KevinBerry]

DrCC: Thank you very much! Those are good ideas, to be a Mac user on a Mac instead of a Windows user on a Mac, and use an external drive for Time Machine.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Happy to help.

Keep in mind that macOS is in fact built on Unix, so it has much more in common with Linux than Windows...regarding structure and naming and subsystems, like printing.

If this is your first Mac, this video is a good overview without getting too technical about some of the many different pieces and parts of macOS. Plenty of stuff not mentioned, or glossed over, but a quick overview.

 

[chengengaun]

This Carbon Copy Cloner explainer about APFS should be instructive too.

Working with APFS Volume Groups | Bombich Software

bombich.com

 

[hobowankenobi]

The Bombich overview is very good to try and wrap one's brain around APFS volumes, containers, partitions, and the read-only system. The bit at the end is particularly useful for the folks new to this:

Finder shenanigans with the Applications folder​

Firmlinks are mostly transparent, but there is one really noticeable exception: the Applications folder. The Applications folder at the root level of the System volume is a firmlink to the Applications folder at the root level of the Data volume, however, if you navigate to your startup disk > System > Volumes > Data > Applications, you'll notice that the bulk of the Applications are not there. Yet when you look at the Applications folder on the System volume, they are all there! The Finder applies some magic here. The read-only System Applications folder actually resides at System > Applications on the System volume, and when you open the Applications folder in the Finder, you'll see the aggregation of that folder and the Data volume's root-level Applications folder. To the average user, this is exactly what you expect to see, and that's great.