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amitabhbansal

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 8, 2011
446
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Delhi, India
Friends, i am using M1 macbook pro, i have two partition one is Macintosh HD and other one is Backup to store my all files, i have downloaded monterey and created a bootable pen drive, i saw video on youtube how to clean install the new os and followed it, what i did is pressed the power button and kept on pressing it and then booted from monterey and opened disk utility and formatted macintosh hd and data drive but not backup drive, and installed monterey, but after 30-40 minutes of installing monterey when it restarts i got this message attached in the post, i dont know what should i do now, there is around 200 gb of my data which i want, i am losted, please help
 

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I have never seen that message but it sounds like you have not lost your data yet. However it is not clear to me how to recover it from that the second paragraph of that message.

You could try using "Volume sharing" which is the M1 equivalent of Target Disk Mode, as described in This article

Or you could try booting from an external drive and that would mount the internal partitions on the desktop and you could transfer the data somewhere safe. With all the M1 security features this might not work.

For future reference it is a bad idea to have backup on same drive, as you are finding.

Unless you have the confidence and means to try the above I would take it to an Apple store and ask for help.
 
If I've got it right you seem to have created a new partition on your M1 Mac for backup purposes.
Did you change the security policy to do this?
I'm only guessing here but that may be a problem to macos re-installing. Resetting the security policy and re-installing macos may use the whole drive again, losing your backup partition.
Maybe others could confirm/deny?
 
I have never seen that message but it sounds like you have not lost your data yet. However it is not clear to me how to recover it from that the second paragraph of that message.

You could try using "Volume sharing" which is the M1 equivalent of Target Disk Mode, as described in This article

Or you could try booting from an external drive and that would mount the internal partitions on the desktop and you could transfer the data somewhere safe. With all the M1 security features this might not work.

For future reference it is a bad idea to have backup on same drive, as you are finding.

Unless you have the confidence and means to try the above I would take it to an Apple store and ask for help.
I did Volume Sharing and trasffered all data to another MacBook, and then click on erase and restore, I don't know what the MacBook did, but it restarted and erased everything and wake up in Monterey Installation screen, I have completed the installation and found that the back partition is gone, I need backup partition because I can't carry external hdd all time with me, and I also don't know what happened with the clean installation that time, As Quackers said, I removed the partition in disc utility while in Security startup as I don't want Macintosh HD and DATA drive separate.
Well everything its fine now but I really want to understand the right way to clean install MacOS without removing the backup partition
Thanks
 
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I did Volume Sharing and trasffered all data to another MacBook, and then click on erase and restore, I don't know what the MacBook did, but it restarted and erased everything and wake up in Monterey Installation screen, I have completed the installation and found that the back partition is gone, I need backup partition because I can't carry external hdd all time with me, and I also don't know what happened with the clean installation that time, As Quackers said, I removed the partition in disc utility while in Security startup as I don't want Macintosh HD and DATA drive separate.
Well everything its fine now but I really want to understand the right way to clean install MacOS without removing the backup partition
Thanks
Macintosh HD and Data are always seperate now. That's how the system installs.
It's not ideal to have a backup partition on the same drive as your system, though I'm sure you already know that.
It seems like macos wants the whole drive nowadays to install itself, like Windows used to do.

ps you'll be able to add a partition after installation but you're likely to come across the same problems when re-installing again.
 
Why do people add unnecessary complexity by trying to develop non-standard ways of doing what Apple makes so easy?

I agree with the others that you might not have lost your data yet, assuming your backup partition is still there. You'll need to follow Apple's instructions and boot to recovery. Then hopefully you can copy that backup data to an external drive. After you do that, you need to start from scratch and put the disk back in the condition Apple's software expects it. Reinstalling Monterey from recovery will probably do that for you automatically. Then you can think about restoring your data.

In the future:
1) Don't add partitions your drives. It's no longer needed with APFS. If you want to separate things logically, use APFS volumes.
2) Don't delete standard OS partitions.
3) Don't backup to the same drive. It's not going to protect you from hardware failure.
 
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Why do people add unnecessary complexity by trying to develop non-standard ways of doing what Apple makes so easy?

I agree with the others that you might not have lost your data yet, assuming your backup partition is still there. You'll need to follow Apple's instructions and boot to recovery. Then hopefully you can copy that backup data to an external drive. After you do that, you need to start from scratch and put the disk back in the condition Apple's software expects it. Reinstalling Monterey from recovery will probably do that for you automatically. Then you can think about restoring your data.

In the future:
1) Don't add partitions your drives. It's no longer needed with APFS. If you want to separate things logically, use APFS volumes.
2) Don't delete standard OS partitions.
3) Don't backup to the same drive. It's not going to protect you from hardware failure.

Stop talking like Apple likes to do. Remember, sometime in the past Jobs was talking that users do not know how to hold their iphones. People do not seek to add complexity. Some of them simply want to have separate volume for backup. Some of them want to have separate volume for their music and movies. Some of them want to have separate volume for different os for multi boot.

I've encountered the same problem today. I even had my volume in the same container as macos volumes. I deleted volume group, created new volume and selected it for install process. Ended with the same message after first reboot. I've did the second experiment then by re-creating the same partitions layout as OP. The same message after first reboot again. It seems that something has changed with monterey installer as I had no such problems with Big Sur during big sur reinstalls.

Did one more experiment. If I completely wiped my disk (which causes complete mac reset) and recreated exactly the same partition layout which causes the problem (in recovery with disk utility), installation finished without any single problem. But if I try to delete only macos volume group again - I'm stuck with the same message again.

Good example for this nonsense would be an example from windows world. Lets imagine that user has C: drive for Windows 10 and D: drive for his data. And it simply can't install windows 10 to C: without deleting D: volume at first. This is ridiculous. Was on the support call with Apple regarding this problem and they were completely lost and were not able to help:/
 
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If I understand correctly, this does not work on M1 Macs with a clean Monterey install?
1636147193269.png
 
Not only that, but the OS can see all of the data on the disk anyway. The idea that you're "keeping your data safe from the OS" doesn't make any sense.
 
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Well do a clean install with your solution, I will do it with mine.
Makes a lot of sense maybe not to you that"s all !!
 
If I understand correctly, this does not work on M1 Macs with a clean Monterey install?
View attachment 1903581

if you'll delete Mac hd volume group and create new volume for monterey install and try to do actual install, I almost sure that you'll end up with the message about manually reformatted disk after your first mac reboot.
 
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At least one M1 functionality that Intel people will not miss, because that is my Monterey setup on Intel.
 
Not only that, but the OS can see all of the data on the disk anyway. The idea that you're "keeping your data safe from the OS" doesn't make any sense.
Please understand, that there may be users, who do want to keep their data on completely separate volume from macos system. So by doing this it is possible to do quick macos reinstalls - user can simply delete macos volumegroup without thinking about its data and how to backup it before doing delete operation and install macos again. And when installation will finish, user data will still be there, mounted and ready to use. I'm even not talking about multiple macos systems on the same internal disk, where multiple volumes will be needed.
 
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Please understand, that there may be users, who do want to keep their data on completely separate volume from macos system. So by doing this it is possible to do quick macos reinstalls - user can simply delete macos volumegroup without thinking about its data and how to backup it befre doing delete operation and install macos again. And when installation will finish, user data will still be there, mounted and ready to use. I'm even not talking about multiple macos systems on the same internal disk, where multiple volumes will be needed.
Exactly brother, i am doing the same, and i am using separate partitions on same disk on my every Macbook and iMac, whenever i want to clean install macos i just format the Macos Partition and install the new one without thinking or worrying about my data, and never encountered any kind of problem ever, but this M1 macbook dont know why this thing happened
 
Exactly brother, i am doing the same, and i am using separate partitions on same disk on my every Macbook and iMac, whenever i want to clean install macos i just format the Macos Partition and install the new one without thinking or worrying about my data, and never encountered any kind of problem ever, but this M1 macbook dont know why this thing happened
I was on a calls with Apple's support yesterday and there was the same attitude - why do you need separate volume, when you can easily keep your data in macos data volume. As I'm IT engineer myself it is very very strange to hear such questions from Apple support specialists. It seems that they are not thinking at all. But I still hope that I'll be able to get some info and clarifications from them regarding this new strange bahavior.
 
I was on a calls with Apple's support yesterday and there was the same attitude - why do you need separate volume, when you can easily keep your data in macos data volume. As I'm IT engineer myself it is very very strange to hear such questions from Apple support specialists. It seems that they are not thinking at all. But I still hope that I'll be able to get some info and clarifications from them regarding this new strange bahavior.
Apple support people are of no use, before my M1 Macbook Pro i was using Macbook Gold, and my all data was on same drive, but suddenly one day that laptop doesnt turned on, i was like dead because i was not having backup of the data, i visited apple service center and they took my laptop for 3-4 days and returned back to me with the stupid answer "Sorry, your Logic Board is dead, we cant save your data, and around 1000$ will be charge of new logic board" i was so mad, i took my laptop and visited local repair person and i gave him 200$ to get my data back, he did his job and i got my all data, then i threw that laptop in garbage and bought this M1.
So basically, when apple guys cant guarantee to repair or recover data from a single SSD partition then why they are saying not to make a separate volume on a singe SSD. totally stupidity
 
Totally agree with both of you !!!
And a separate partition is also easier to recover if the system has a problem, which is not the case with the system-data partition.
 
Totally agree with both of you !!!
And a separate partition is also easier to recover if the system has a problem, which is not the case with the system-data partition.
When I contacted Apple support, their initial reaction was quite funny - "you have such unusual configuration". It seemed that these senior advisors saw such partitions layout for the first time in their lives. It seems that they are even not able to understand that there may be users who tend to keep their data in separate volumes and separated from macos system. I'm starting to think, that Apple thinks that their macos is used only by housewives who do not think at all.
 
When I contacted Apple support, their initial reaction was quite funny - "you have such unusual configuration". It seemed that these senior advisors saw such partitions layout for the first time in their lives. It seems that they are even not able to understand that there may be users who tend to keep their data in separate volumes and separated from macos system. I'm starting to think, that Apple thinks that their macos is used only by housewives who do not think at all.
hahahaha absolutely true my friend, we who using separate volume are housewives ? ? ?
 
So long story short. Apple senior advisor called and explained that such partitions layouts will not be supported anymore:/ Advisor only was able to tell "not supported" and thats it, no articles, no clarifications, nothing. This Apple support is pathetic:( So, I guess, at least for now, we may say bye bye for dual boot systems on the same internal disk:/
 
I like to adopt the KIS principle. Keep it simple.

The nice thing about macOS disk management is it's so flexible. That's also the worst thing about it.

If the OS does not flag problems when you're trying to set something up that you think should be obvious (but it wasn't designed for) your only satisfaction will come from putting down Apple support people, whose fault it is not. Give it another few years and they'll have it figured out so we can't break it.

I learned to be careful while running beta Monterey on one dynamic volume and production Big Sur on the other, all under OCLP. Sooner or later something had to break, and it did. KIS principal.
 
I like to adopt the KIS principle. Keep it simple.

The nice thing about macOS disk management is it's so flexible. That's also the worst thing about it.

If the OS does not flag problems when you're trying to set something up that you think should be obvious (but it wasn't designed for) your only satisfaction will come from putting down Apple support people, whose fault it is not. Give it another few years and they'll have it figured out so we can't break it.

I learned to be careful while running beta Monterey on one dynamic volume and production Big Sur on the other, all under OCLP. Sooner or later something had to break, and it did. KIS principal.

Yes, my dear friend, I want to keep everything simple, but not in the way Apple decided for all of us. Will remind you situation with Windows. User has Windows installed on C: drive and his data on D: drive. Time has come to reinstall Windows and now Microsoft is saying, you must detete D: drive to be able to install Windows on C: drive:/ See logic somewhere, I don't?

As for mac, separate partition or volume with my data lets me to do quick reinstalls without worrying to remember to make backup, to restore it after reinstall, etc. And I call it KIS. Its sad that Apple decided that it knows better what their users want, AGAIN.
 
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