Q: Recovery partition missing on OS X El Capitan

Useful thread. I have the same problem but I don't think its been answered yet: How do I install the recovery disk?

I have a 2015 Mac Pro running 10.11.2. It doesn't show the recovery disk when I hold alt on reboot and CMD-R goes straight the internet recovery. (confirming that there is no recovery disk - I also checked in diskutil )

The reason I'm looking to install the recovery disk is that this machine is going onto a work network with no internet connection.

Ideas?

It doesn't show the recovery disk when I hold alt

And, it never will, by design. That's why you need to use Command-R.

Sorry Lanny, I don't think you are following the discussion (or I'm not being very clear):

Command-R : Boots into the Recovery partition

     If no recovery partition exists then it attempts internet-recovery

Command-Option-R : Specifically starts internet recovery

I don't want internet recovery - I want to reinstall the recovery partition.

I'm following it.

But I want to make sure that you understand, that even if you have a Recovery partition on your hard drive, you will not see it as choice when restarting with the Option key held down.

After using Deploy Studio or even Filewave to reimage a computer, it no longer has the recovery partition. I was able to install a recovery partition using a utility I found. After that I can see that I have one by typing "diskutil list" in terminal, but it doesn't show up in Disk Utility or in the boot menu when I option boot. I can boot to it using Command-R.

That is all normal.

The Recovery partition is hidden, so it won't show up with Disk Utility.

The Recovery partition no longer shows up as a selection when starting up using the Option key.

You access it by Restarting holding down Command-R.

From: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204417

See also: https://discussions.apple.com/message/26853650#26853650

Ah, that's great you found that! That should be a good explanation for some whose Recovery HD isn't in Startup Manager.

The one question I have is why? What changes to the OS did Apple make to make some Mac models' Recovery HD disappear from the Startup Manager?

It's just a curious question that I thought of.

Most likely related to whether your Mac is using Core Storage. If it's not broke, leave it alone.

http://awesometoast.com/yosemite-core-storage-and-partition-woes/

Ah, thanks for the article! I'm not sure whether my Mac is running Core Storage or not, but it could be the problem. It's no inconvenience to just press Cmd-R, anyway, so I won't do anything about it.

So to answer what I saw as the original question.  When you boot and press Command-R there is no recovery partition, it goes straight to network recovery.  To resolve this if you re-install El Capitan it will re-create the recovery partition as well.  You can re-install over the top of what you have and not lose anything.

Command-R does not work for me. I've tried it several times. There is no recovery partition listed in Startup or disk Utility or terminal.

It went away after a recent clean install. it was there before. ???l What next?

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be direct, but I'm not sure that's what the question is about, unless I misunderstood your post. For the person that started the thread, their Recovery Partition existed, it just didn't show up in Startup Manager. Using Command-R boots into the Recovery Partition, just as if you entered it through Startup Manager. The Internet Recovery boots when you hold Command-Option-R.

I assume you tried the command "diskutil list" in Terminal? If it doesn't show up (as "Apple_Boot Recovery HD"), then you might want to try entering Internet Recovery by holding down Command-Option-R on startup. Then you can reinstall OS X from there (it's not a clean install, it just reinstalled the operating system features themselves. But it might work.)

[El Capitan]

I have the same problem after using the Disk Utility to resize my main parition.

I reduced the size of the partition and applied my changes whereupon Disk Utility reported a success.

When I opened finder and checked the info of the drive, the size was not reduced.  I tried a few more times but the partition would not be resized.

So I decided to try using the Recovery version of Disk Utility and rebooted.  To my surprise, after pressing Alt-R (I mean Command-R), I was presented with the Internet Recovery mode.

Booting into El Capitan again, and running diskutil list from the terminal, there indeed was no Recovery partition any longer.

How can the Recovery partition be recreated and loaded with the necessary software in such a case?

Just reinstall OS X El Capitan. Open the App Store then the Purchases tab and download El Capitan. When the download finishes you'll get a screen with a Continue button, press it. Installing El Capitan over itself will not touch your user accounts, apps or data. This will create the Recovery HD also. BUT back up your system first!