What physical storage does Internet Recovery use if my internal drive is broken? I got the flashing folder with a question mark on my 2014 MacBook Pro, running High Sierra. Internet Recovery looked like my only option. The recovery version of the OS loaded and I was able to get to Disk Utility. Unfortunately, all I can see is OS X Base System:



There is only one disk image visible and here is some of the info:


Volume name: OS X Base System 
BSD device node: disk0s1 
Volume capacity: 2.01 GB 
Available space: 721.2 MB 
Bootable: No 
Disk number: 0 
Partition number: 1 
Ejectable: Yes 
Parent disks: disk0


It seems, most likely, I have an issue with the SSD or the physical connectors to the SSD. If that is the case, where is this OS X Base System being stored? Is it stored on my SSD somehow or is it using RAM or is there some hidden storage somewhere that I don't know about?
The installer creates a RAM drive (a disk container in the systems memory) that can mount like a normal file system.