Q: does OS X Internet Recovery wipe off my datas

No, unless a problem occurs or you specifically choose to erase the internal drive. Back it up first if possible.

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Connect an external drive, start up from the recovery partition, and use the Disk Utility's Restore or Image function.

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Clone Yosemite, Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility

Boot to the Recovery HD:

Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.

     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue

         button.

     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.

     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.

     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it

         to the Destination entry field.

     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to

         the Source entry field.

     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

If you've hooked up an external drive, that's correct.

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So this method (Explained by Kappy), if I'm understanding this correctly, will clone the MacBook's hard drive onto an external hard drive? Will anything be erased on the MacBook?

And can you use a drive that is not FireWire? I have a Seagate Drive (which is USB) that I use with my Mac already for small files. The External Drive is 2TB and my MacBook is 500GB. Will the Seagate Drive work with this method?

The more info on this method the better.

I'm just REALLY worried about losing my data on my MacBook. I'm in the same situation where my mac will not boot past the grey screen with the apple logo. And want to try the reinstall OSX using the Utility.

Thanks so much,

1. Yes, it will.

2. No, it won’t.

3. Yes, you can use the Seagate drive.

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Will reinstalling OSX using the disk Utility erase my MacBook's files? I heard that it won't but I just want to make sure. That's also why I'm backing up, just in case.

It won’t unless a problem occurs; it’s impossible to say in advance whether one will. Note that the Disk Utility doesn’t install an OS; the Installer does that.

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Ok I see, thanks so much for your help. And so I'm just going off of this video I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_cTHBUDCNM    Skip to 1:37 that's when he does it. The Mac OSX Utilities is what he uses.

Also, is there a possibility with Kappy's explanation that my data will accidentally be erased on my MacBook?

And is what that kid does in that video true?

Sorry, one more thing, when I do the clone to the external hard drive, will it erase what I already have on the external hard drive? Or will it just create a folder that contains the Mac backup?