Let's assume for a moment that bootable backups are no longer an option and we have (a) many third-party licensed applications, (b) many third-party licensed plug-ins, (c) lots of project files, data files, etc.
We know that:
- macOS system files are installed in their own APFS sealed volume.
- All of our applications, plug-ins, project files, data files, etc. are stored on the "data" volume.
We can:
- Make full and incremental backups of the "data" volume freely.
- Understandably, this is the 'stuff' that's most important to us.
In the event of a system crash or other major or minor disaster:
- We can reformat the internal SSD and reinstall macOS from scratch.
- We can then clone our backed-up "data" volume to the internal "data" volume that is located in the same volume groupas the newly installed macOS.
- Question 1: Is this viable?
- Question 2: If not viable, then we can clone our backed-up data volume to a new APFS volume created on the internal SSD.
- We can then go to System Preferences --> Users & Groups --> Advanced and point our home directory to the restored data volume.
So total recovery time would be:
- Time to install macOS from scratch
- Time to clone backup "data" volume to new internal data volume
Does anyone see a technical glitch in this scenario?