Recovery partition vanished after restore.

cj38 · 10-12-2012, 07:34 AM

Upgraded a Lion system to Mountain Lion, or tried. It failed claimed there was a disk error. After a run around trying to get it rebooted I had to zap the NVRAM and finally booted a Lion DVD I had made and restored from my backup. System is now back up on my Lion install HOWEVER the Recovery partition no longer shows up in an Option Key boot. Disk Utility does have a blue band at the front of the disk partition scheme. So I think/hope the Recovery partition is still there. But I have no idea why the Option Key boot isn't seeing it. I'm guessing the MBR might be mucked up. Not sure here.

Any idea how to a) verify the Recovery partition is still there and b) how to get it seen as a bootable partition again?

Tnx.

cj38 · 10-12-2012, 08:13 AM

BTW, here's a diskutil list and a df -l. I would appear the Recovery partition is still there, I think.

=====
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 999.3 GB disk0s2
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk1
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage 2.0 TB disk1s2
3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk1s3
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: CD_partition_scheme *804.4 MB disk2
1: Apple_partition_scheme 700.4 MB disk2s0
2: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB disk2s0s1
3: Apple_HFS WD SmartWare 237.5 MB disk2s0s2
/dev/disk3
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_HFS magick's Time Machine *2.0 TB disk3
magick:~ chrisj$
magick:~ chrisj$
magick:~ chrisj$
magick:~ chrisj$ df -l
Filesystem 512-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2 1951845968 160108784 1791225184 9% /
/dev/disk2s0s2 463792 463792 0 100% /Volumes/WD SmartWare
/dev/disk3 3904362408 352121432 3552240976 10% /Volumes/magick's Time Machine

DeltaMac · 10-12-2012, 09:06 AM

No
The Recovery partition will be approximately 650 MB
I don't see any recovery partition (other than the "Boot OS X" on your 2 TB drive - but that one is too small... )

Boot to your Lion installer DVD, and run Disk Utility. Choose Repair Disk (not Repair Disk Permissions) on your boot hard drive. Do you get errors when you run that Repair Disk? If not, Quit Disk Utility, and reinstall OS X. That will not erase your hard drive, and will reinstall a fresh system. Assuming that you get no errors from that install, your Recovery partition should be recreated.
If not, then you should erase that hard drive, and try the restore/install again.

As an alternate, you still have the equivalent of a Recovery partition with your Lion installer DVD, so it's not a big issue for you, is it?

cj38 · 10-12-2012, 09:19 AM

I did a repair and fsck and both read as ok. Weird. I'll try again. Hopefully a you say it won't zap anything and will fiix the recovery partition issue. Very annoying.

Tnx.

NaOH · 10-12-2012, 12:40 PM

Apple has the Recovery Disk Assistant for creating the Recovery partition on an external disk (I don't know if it can be created this way on an internal disk).

Download: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

Support Document: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848

chabig · 10-12-2012, 07:52 PM

To recreate the recovery partition on an internal drive you just rerun the Mountain Lion installer.

10-12-2012, 07:34 AM	#1
cj38 Triple-A Player Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 56	Recovery partition vanished after restore. Upgraded a Lion system to Mountain Lion, or tried. It failed claimed there was a disk error. After a run around trying to get it rebooted I had to zap the NVRAM and finally booted a Lion DVD I had made and restored from my backup. System is now back up on my Lion install HOWEVER the Recovery partition no longer shows up in an Option Key boot. Disk Utility does have a blue band at the front of the disk partition scheme. So I think/hope the Recovery partition is still there. But I have no idea why the Option Key boot isn't seeing it. I'm guessing the MBR might be mucked up. Not sure here. Any idea how to a) verify the Recovery partition is still there and b) how to get it seen as a bootable partition again? Tnx.

10-12-2012, 09:19 AM	#4
cj38 Triple-A Player Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 56	Recovery partition vanished after restore. I did a repair and fsck and both read as ok. Weird. I'll try again. Hopefully a you say it won't zap anything and will fiix the recovery partition issue. Very annoying. Tnx.

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10-12-2012, 08:13 AM	#2
cj38 Triple-A Player Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 56	BTW, here's a diskutil list and a df -l. I would appear the Recovery partition is still there, I think. ===== /dev/disk0 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme 1.0 TB disk0 1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 999.3 GB disk0s2 /dev/disk1 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme 2.0 TB disk1 1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1 2: Apple_CoreStorage 2.0 TB disk1s2 3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk1s3 /dev/disk2 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: CD_partition_scheme 804.4 MB disk2 1: Apple_partition_scheme 700.4 MB disk2s0 2: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB disk2s0s1 3: Apple_HFS WD SmartWare 237.5 MB disk2s0s2 /dev/disk3 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: Apple_HFS magick's Time Machine 2.0 TB disk3 magick:~ chrisj$ magick:~ chrisj$ magick:~ chrisj$ magick:~ chrisj$ df -l Filesystem 512-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on /dev/disk0s2 1951845968 160108784 1791225184 9% / /dev/disk2s0s2 463792 463792 0 100% /Volumes/WD SmartWare /dev/disk3 3904362408 352121432 3552240976 10% /Volumes/magick's Time Machine

10-12-2012, 09:06 AM	#3
DeltaMac League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 7,996	No The Recovery partition will be approximately 650 MB I don't see any recovery partition (other than the "Boot OS X" on your 2 TB drive - but that one is too small... ) Boot to your Lion installer DVD, and run Disk Utility. Choose Repair Disk (not Repair Disk Permissions) on your boot hard drive. Do you get errors when you run that Repair Disk? If not, Quit Disk Utility, and reinstall OS X. That will not erase your hard drive, and will reinstall a fresh system. Assuming that you get no errors from that install, your Recovery partition should be recreated. If not, then you should erase that hard drive, and try the restore/install again. As an alternate, you still have the equivalent of a Recovery partition with your Lion installer DVD, so it's not a big issue for you, is it?

10-12-2012, 12:40 PM	#5
NaOH Hall of Famer Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 3,649	Apple has the Recovery Disk Assistant for creating the Recovery partition on an external disk (I don't know if it can be created this way on an internal disk). Download: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433 Support Document: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848

10-12-2012, 07:52 PM	#6
chabig Hall of Famer Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 2,944	To recreate the recovery partition on an internal drive you just rerun the Mountain Lion installer.