Jennseay0393

Q: Accidentally deleted startup disc

My startup disc was too full and I was getting error messages and computer running slow.

I went to recovery mode startup (where you hold down command and r) and then disc utility and erased the entire thing!

There was no option to just do free space, it was greyed out.

Somehow I thought it would be ok and only erase extra.

How can I get my data back? Can this be reversed and I go back to my full startup disc and then Ican save important data first then I don't mind erasing and rejsgalling mountain lion.

I did not have a time machine backup or external backup. No backup except iCloud.  Was workin on dropbox when this all happened, but apparently did not complete all of their required steps to fully activate my account.

 

Please help!!

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Oct 12, 2013 5:03 AM

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Q: Accidentally deleted startup disc

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  • by Jennseay0393,

    Jennseay0393 Jennseay0393 Oct 20, 2013 6:21 AM in response to Tony T1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 20, 2013 6:21 AM in response to Tony T1

    Yes those are the four options.

    When I click on disc utility Mac OS X base system shows up underneath the Macintosh hd

     

    So this will not help me then ?

  • by Tony T1,

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Oct 20, 2013 6:27 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 6 (9,232 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 20, 2013 6:27 AM in response to Jennseay0393

    You have to select "Reinstall OS X" (unless you have a Time Machine Backup)

    Any data previously on your HD will be unrecoverable after this.

    (If you need to recover data on the drive you accidentially erased, Quit and use Data Rescue )

  • by Jennseay0393,

    Jennseay0393 Jennseay0393 Oct 20, 2013 10:14 PM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 20, 2013 10:14 PM in response to Jennseay0393

    Ok, this now seems to be a lot more complicated than originally anticipated 

    So after startimg internet recovery, and selecting install mac os x i still have no operating system.

    I get a message on the screen saying "could not write installation information to disk. Contact AppleCare."

     

    What does this mean? How can I get my Mac Os back? Help!!

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Oct 21, 2013 3:49 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    Oct 21, 2013 3:49 AM in response to Jennseay0393

    Startup again in Recovery mode (command + R) or if that doesn't work try forcing Internet Recovery Mode with command + option + R. Once the startup process is complete & you see the OS X Utilities screen, choose Disk Utility.

     

    Once that is running, select your internal hard drive from the list on the left (not the volume name indented below it). If you have chosen the drive (which typically has a name suggesting its capacity) you will see a "Partition" tab in the Disk Utility window. Click it. From the popup choices for "Partition Layout" choose 1 partition. Make sure the "Format" choice shown is "Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)." Click the Apply button & confirm that you want to repartition the drive.

     

    Wait for the process to complete. If it does without displaying any errors, quit Disk Utility & now try selecting Install (or Reinstall) OS X from the OS X Utilities menu.

     

    If you get any error while doing the above, report at what step it occurs & what the error is.

  • by Tony T1,

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Oct 21, 2013 6:07 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 6 (9,232 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 21, 2013 6:07 AM in response to Jennseay0393

    Jennseay0393 wrote:

     

    Ok, this now seems to be a lot more complicated than originally anticipated 

    So after startimg internet recovery, and selecting install mac os x i still have no operating system.

    I get a message on the screen saying "could not write installation information to disk. Contact AppleCare."

     

    What does this mean? How can I get my Mac Os back? Help!!

     

    Boot while holding the option key. 

    You should see Recovery HD

    Select it and try Reinstall OS X again

  • by Jennseay0393,

    Jennseay0393 Jennseay0393 Oct 21, 2013 9:38 PM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2013 9:38 PM in response to R C-R

    Yes that worked! My Macbook i installing now. I will look forward to having it back. Yay! : )

    Thank you so much! 

    By the way, it says 62 hours until done. Does it really take that long?

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Oct 22, 2013 3:01 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    Oct 22, 2013 3:01 AM in response to Jennseay0393

    Jennseay0393 wrote:

    By the way, it says 62 hours until done. Does it really take that long?

    How long it takes depends in large part on how fast your Internet connection is, since it is downloading several GB of data. However, the estimated time to completion is not very accurate. Typically, it starts off greatly overestimating the time, then counts down faster than in real time for a while, & then settles into a more accurate count until near the end when (annoyingly) the last few minutes shown can take several times that long.

  • by Jennseay0393,

    Jennseay0393 Jennseay0393 Oct 22, 2013 2:16 PM in response to Tony T1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 22, 2013 2:16 PM in response to Tony T1

    Ok so I'm in setup process now of installing Mac OS X. On the step I am on currently it is asking me if I would like to transfer information from another Mac, time machine, or another startup disk. Just checking, but I answer no correct? Since all my data was lost I don't need to get info from startup disk, cause there's nothing on startup disk?

  • by Tony T1,

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Oct 22, 2013 2:19 PM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 6 (9,232 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 22, 2013 2:19 PM in response to Jennseay0393

    Jennseay0393 wrote:

     

    Ok so I'm in setup process now of installing Mac OS X. On the step I am on currently it is asking me if I would like to transfer information from another Mac, time machine, or another startup disk. Just checking, but I answer no correct? Since all my data was lost I don't need to get info from startup disk, cause there's nothing on startup disk?

     

    As you do not have a Time Machine Backup, or a Backup on another drive or Mac, answer No.

  • by surfingbirds,

    surfingbirds surfingbirds Oct 31, 2015 12:03 AM in response to Tony T1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 31, 2015 12:03 AM in response to Tony T1

    What if there's no Recover HD?

  • by surfingbirds,

    surfingbirds surfingbirds Oct 31, 2015 12:10 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 31, 2015 12:10 AM in response to R C-R

    When I try to apply the partition, it says couldn't unmount.

  • by Godlyfranky,

    Godlyfranky Godlyfranky Aug 29, 2016 10:42 AM in response to Tony T1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 29, 2016 10:42 AM in response to Tony T1

    yea me to I erased all my data without backing up and I can do anything im stuck on that same menu you aren't I can't do anything about it what do I do now?

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 29, 2016 10:47 AM in response to Godlyfranky
    Level 9 (69,976 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 29, 2016 10:47 AM in response to Godlyfranky

    You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is a couple of years old, less people are likely to look at it. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one.

     

    Can you click continue? If you can't do anything, try a restart.

  • by Vishal2014,

    Vishal2014 Vishal2014 Sep 7, 2016 5:34 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 2 (202 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 7, 2016 5:34 AM in response to Jennseay0393

    No doubt, you did a huge mistake by restoring your Mac without a backup copy. You may get some relief by recovering 1 GB of deleted files for free but to recover more data you might have to purchase a Pro version of Mac data recovery software. Do not forget to clone or backup your files with Time Machine next time.

     

    <Link Edited by Host>

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