How to restore missing recovery partition on internal SSD running Big Sur 11.5

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Level 1

68 points

How to restore missing recovery partition on internal SSD running Big Sur 11.5

I have spent hours searching for a solution. Somehow, my recovery partition on my late 2015 27" iMac disappeared a while back. I think it may have happened when I installed Windows with Boot Camp under Catalina.

I've been having issues with my iMac lately with Safari beach balling or taking at least 45 seconds to load ANY website, as well as crashes with multiple apps, so I decided to make a bootable thumb drive installer, startup from that, completely erase my internal drive, install Big Sur, then migrate documents and apps and settings from a Carbon Copy Cloner backup. (I also have a RAID 5 Time Machine backup just in case.)

But still no recovery partition. When I startup using CMD R it goes right to Internet Recovery which is unacceptable. My internet goes out from time to time (Comcast!) so I need the Recovery Partition without the internet in case of emergencies.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

iMac 27″, macOS 11.5

Posted on Aug 5, 2021 2:38 PM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

59,768 points

Aug 6, 2021 7:06 AM in response to Mudflap

Try running the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected. If your iMac can still boot (normally or into Safe Mode), then run DriveDx to check the health of the hard drive and/or SSD since the diagnostics don't detect many types of drive failures. Post the report(s) here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. To look for possible software issues you can run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper as well.

If your bootable macOS USB installer is not booting, then try using another USB stick since the quality of USB sticks is extremely poor and Macs can be very particular about the disks used for booting. Make sure to follow the instructions in this Apple article for creating a bootable macOS USB installer as other methods have an extremely high failure rate:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

Sometimes Macs will only boot into Internet Recovery Mode to the oldest macOS online installer which originally shipped with your Mac regardless of the keys used to access Recovery Mode. FYI, the recovery partition is no longer a separate partition, but just another special APFS volume that sits alongside the other macOS APFS system volumes in the same Container on the drive.

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

59,768 points

Aug 6, 2021 4:21 PM in response to Mudflap

There is a Recovery volume on the drive. If there is an issue with the files on the local Recovery volume, then reinstalling macOS overtop of itself should/may be the easiest way to fix the issue. You would need to point the Big Sur installer to the "Macintosh SSD" volume.

However, if you have a Carbon Copy Cloner image of the drive, then you may be able to use CCC to restore the recovery partition. I know it is possible when using CCC to clone the drive to an image file since CCC would create a separate image of the recovery partition and store it within the larger .dmg image of the rest of the drive. Since CCC must now use Apple's own imaging technology with Big Sur I'm not certain if CCC will have restored the local recovery volume.

In theory you should be able to clone just the recovery volume from the backup to the main drive.

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Answer 3

Mudflap Author

Level 1

68 points

Aug 6, 2021 12:16 PM in response to PRP_53

Thank you. Here you go.

I have 8 HDDs in 2 Thunderbay RAID 5 enclosures, my internal startup drive, an external Windows drive that stopped working and en external copy of my internal drive created with Carbon Copy Cloner.

diskutil list

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Answer 4

Mudflap Author

Level 1

68 points

Aug 6, 2021 12:20 PM in response to HWTech

Thanks for responding.

I have no problems booting regularly or using safe mode. EtreCheck tells me nothing. The thumb rive installer I created boots fine. My Mac has been able to boot into revery mode for years — it just stopped working after the OS that converted my startup SSD to APFS. (Can't remember if that was Catalina?)

I have no other issues at all after wiping and reinstalling from scratch. The only problem I have is not having a recovery partition.

There is a script on GitHub that will create one for you up to Catalina, but not for Big Sur.

Super frustrating. I'll try Apple Diagnostics today and report back. Thanks again.

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Answer 5

Mudflap Author

Level 1

68 points

Aug 9, 2021 12:22 PM in response to HWTech

Duh, I just noticed Recovery in the Diskutil list. Sorry for missing that. I was just so flustered. I have restored from recovery multiple times. I just have no idea why it goes right to internet recovery when I hold down CMD + r. I have triple checked the keys and that is the correct combo for my iMac.

I'll check out CCC. I love that app. Two mac apps I can't live withoutL Carbon Copy Cloner and Default Folder. I've had them for decades.

Thanks!

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Answer 6

HWTech

Level 9

59,768 points

Aug 9, 2021 5:49 PM in response to Mudflap

Sometimes no matter what keys you use a Mac will just boot into Internet Recovery Mode for the oldest online installer which shipped with the Mac from the factory. I've also seen some Logic Boards stop recognizing the startup keys properly on a few of our organization's Macs. If the system slowness is/was caused by a failing drive, then perhaps the boot files on the local recovery partition/volume are bad or the drive is not going ready soon enough when trying to use local recovery mode. You never did post a copy of the EtreCheck or DriveDx report.

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