#How to restore mac os x partition install
#How to restore mac os x partition software
#How to restore mac os x partition free

#How to restore mac os x partition install

Oddly, even though youвЂ™ve just chosen the installer, youвЂ™re asked to choose the OS version youвЂ™re going to install on the recovery partition. In other words, if your Mac is running Mavericks, you want to choose the Mavericks installer. Because Recovery Partition Creator will use the chosen installer to populate the new partition with the necessary OS X Recovery software, youвЂ™ll want to choose the installer for the version of OS X youвЂ™re running on your Mac. YouвЂ™ll then be asked to locate your OS X installer. You can skip this step, but I recommend letting it continue-you donвЂ™t want a utility mucking with your driveвЂ™s partition map if the drive or its directory is having problems. Recovery Partition Creator will next check your drive for errors. Next youвЂ™ll be prompted to choose the connected volume on which you want to create the recovery partition-presumably, this would be your startup drive, but you can also use Recovery Partition Creator to create the partition on a different drive. Assuming itвЂ™s some version of 10.7, 10.8, or 10.9, youвЂ™ll see the message вЂњcontinuingвЂќ click OK. YouвЂ™ll then see a dialog box indicating the version of OS X installed on your Mac.

Launch Recovery Partition Creator, read the disclaimer (which also reminds you to back up your drive-you did, right?), and click OK. Yet another reminder to back up your drive before proceeding. I didnвЂ™t experience any data issues when testing Recovery Partition Creator, but whenever you use a utility that works with your drive at such a low level, you want to be safe.

Before using the utility, you must back up your drive (and test your backup). Warning: Recovery Partition Creator alters your driveвЂ™s partition map, which isnвЂ™t a trivial action.

You just need to have a copy of your OS X installer-Mavericks, Mountain Lion, or Lion-on a connected drive.

#How to restore mac os x partition software

This app can create the partition and even install the necessary OS X Recovery software on it.

#How to restore mac os x partition free

If you donвЂ™t see a Recovery HD partition on your MacвЂ™s startup drive, you canвЂ™t use OS X Recovery.Д«ut an easier approach is to use the free Recovery Partition Creator (more info here). Locate your MacвЂ™s startup drive in the resulting list of volumes if you have a Recovery HD partition, it will show up as вЂњRecovery HDвЂќ (preceded by вЂњApple_BootвЂќ) just below the name of the startup drive. You can find out if your Mac has the Recovery HD partition-and, thus, OS X Recovery capabilities-by launching the Terminal app (in /Applications/Utilities), and then typing diskutil list and pressing Return.

The Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks installers should automatically create the invisible Recovery HD partition the first time you install one of these operating systems. The OS X installer creates an invisible, bootable, 650MB partition-a portion of a drive that the operating system treats as a separate volume-on your startup drive called Recovery HD that includes a few essential utilities for fixing problems, restoring files, browsing the Web, and even reinstalling OS X. One of the best features introduced in Lion (OS X 10.7), and available on every version of OS X since, is OS X Recovery.