Q: Trying to restore to Mavericks factory settings, it downloads Yosemite

That has nothing to do with Recovery, it's just the startup manager, I want to see the Recovery screen that shows when you hold down cmd-opt-R.

If you are starting from that screen shown above you are not using Internet Recovery!

Do this: Restart your Mac, as soon as you hear the startup chime press and hold the Command, Option and R keys, keep them pressed until a spinning globe appears in the middle of the screen.

Then post back.

Standard Recovery uses the OSX version that was on the machine, so if you installed Yosemite it will restore Yosemite. Internet Recovery will download whatever version of OSX came with the machine when it was new.

I do not believe that you have tried Internet Recovery yet.

I currently have Mavericks installed on my Macbook, if I do the Standard Recovery it reinstall Yosemite. Why?

Is it because I installed Yosemite to test it, then went back to Mavericks with time machine?

Yes.

If you had reinstalled Mavericks you would have a Mavericks Recovery Partition, but you didn't reinstall, you restored the Mavericks partition from a backup, and left the Yosemite Recovery Partition as it was.

If you dual-boot (say Mavericks and Yosemite) at any point in time, there are two Recovery HDs created, one for Mavericks and one for Yosemite. Alt or Command+R uses local recovery as documented in OS X: About OS X Recovery .

Which version of OS X is installed by OS X Recovery?

• If you use the Recovery System stored on your startup disk to reinstall OS X, it installs the most recent version of OS X previously installed on this computer.
• If you use Internet Recovery to reinstall OS X, it installs the version of OS X that originally came with your computer. After installation is finished, use the Mac App Store to install related updates or later versions of OS X that you have previously purchased.
  

If the Yosemite Installer App is moved to another machine for installation, it follows the dual-boot rules and the differences between Local Recovery and Internet Recovery.

If Mavericks is erase to install Yosemite, there is no Recovery HD for Mavericks, but just Yosemite.

It can be verified how many Recovery HDs you have by running diskutil list in Terminal.

Testing on two different machines, Command+Opt+R does what is documented.

In App Store purchases, Yosemite is listed as a purchased item, and can be re-downloaded, if necessary.

Time Machine restore can be done in different ways, if the option to erase/install is used TM will wipe the disk and put the machine back to the chosen backup state.

TM can also restore Applications, User Settings, etc, also, which can leave the OS alone. If Command+Opt+R (Internet Recovery) offers Yosemite, it indicates a possible bug in App Store.

@Csound1... I get the original shipped OS with Internet Recovery, not Yosemite.

@Csound1... I get the original shipped OS with Internet Recovery, not Yosemite.

Yup, so do I, and that is how it is supposed to be. Something is missing from this story.

colombolele wrote:

the screenshot I posted some hour ago proves that when I try the Standard recovery, it reinstall OSX 10.10 (Yosemite)

No one is arguing about that, it is what is supposed to happen. The last version of OSX that was installed on your Mac was Yosemite, that is why you have Yosemite recovery partition. Then you restored the Mavericks partition but did not replace the Yosemite Recovery Partiton with one for Mavericks. That is how you got yourself here.

But you also stated that when using Internet Recovery you get Yosemite, and I do not believe that.

Depending on your internet speed. An Internet Recovery can take a few minutes to over 30 minutes to "boot up".

I just tried to do the Internet Recovery and when the option screen came up to reinstall Mac OS X, use Time Machine, Disc Utility and what not. I would choose Reinstall Mac OS X. When I did that, it would inform me that I'll be installing Mt Lion, because I am on a 2012 Mac Mini. Which originally came with Mt Lion.

Now my iCloud account has Snow Leopard, Lion, Mt Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite attached to it as downloaded/install Mac OS X. However, when connecting to Internet Recovery, my iCloud account is Not used in the process. I just wanted to put that out there that I have all those assigned to it. And that when IR is done properly, only the OS that was shipped with the Mac is present for IR.

KOT

That is accurate, Internet Recovery is for the Mac, it is not associated with an account. It is in effect the replacement for system disks, that's all.

I know it's not associated with the account. There was some reasoning why I said that.

KOT

That would explain why I was agreeing with you.

Oh I'm sorry, I read accurate as inaccurate. I'll go hide in the corner now. :-)

KOT