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Delete Macintosh HD but keep Recovery HD

Hello!


I just installed a (**** fast) SSD as second drive to my Mac Mini 2011. I used Super Duper to restore the Macintosh HD to the SSD wich worked great. Now I boot and work from the SSD.


Since I read when I use the mac disk tool and format the Macintosh HD the Recovery HD is also lost.


Can you tell me how I can delete the Macintosh HD but keeping the Recovery HD? Maybe its just opening the finder select als folders on Macintosh HD and delete?


Greetings

Tobias

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 20, 2011 12:42 AM

Reply
36 replies

Aug 20, 2011 2:04 AM in response to saiboter

saiboter wrote:


Hello!


I just installed a (**** fast) SSD as second drive to my Mac Mini 2011. I used Super Duper to restore the Macintosh HD to the SSD wich worked great. Now I boot and work from the SSD.


Since I read when I use the mac disk tool and format the Macintosh HD the Recovery HD is also lost.


Can you tell me how I can delete the Macintosh HD but keeping the Recovery HD? Maybe its just opening the finder select als folders on Macintosh HD and delete?


Greetings

Tobias

Tobias,


I use SuperDuper! a lot. The Recovery HD is just a small (approx. 1GB) petition that has a web and Time-Machine restore utility on it. Dedicating an entire HD to recovery might be efficient if that Recovery HD was on a thumb drive. I would either petition for the Recovery HD and re-name the remaining Mini's internal as a Time-Machine, OR... your SSD's clone from SuperDuper! That way you can use the clone as a safety net in case the SSD is not connected. You could also dedicate the remaining internal Macintosh HD and rename it Media HD, just a thought.


BTW: The external SSD is not going to be as fast as it could be unless you are connecting via the new Thunderbolt cable.


Here's Apple's support page on creating a Recovery HD: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848


I have the Lion installESD.dmg on a thumb drive as my Recovery HD.


Hope that helped.

Aug 20, 2011 2:21 AM in response to saiboter

saiboter wrote:


Yes I've made already a recovery USB stick. But that really answers my question 🙂


I just want to know how to keep the recovery HD partition on the HDD but delete the HDD?

You can use Apple's Disk Utility to create a .dmg of the existing Recovery HD, open that, and copy everything to the reformatted single petitioned HDD, again using Apple's Disk Utility.


Note the image. The primary drive above any named drive has to be highlighted in order to generate the Partition Tab.

User uploaded file


Hope that answers what you are asking.

Aug 20, 2011 2:50 AM in response to Chris Hayden

First thanks for the comments!


Here is my current constalation:

- SSD

- Macintosh HD

- Recovery HD


I am currently booting and working from the SSD. I've downloaded the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. But when I start it on the SSD I get an error saying no Recovery HD is existing. I think this is because of the Recovery HD partition is on the Macintosh HD.


Any idea to keep the Recovery HD partition but just move/copy it to the SSDrive?

Aug 20, 2011 4:53 AM in response to saiboter

Sure, Macintosh HD and the original Recovery HD are 2 partitions on the same drive. To get rid of one the drive has to be reformatted. So, backup anything you have on the internal Macintosh HD temporarily to an external HD. Re-partition to one or however many partitions you'd like and clone back whatever you want to have.


Building on my previous suggestions of using the internal drive as a media or clone, you could access your USB Recovery by holding down the Option (alt) Key at startup and choosing the thumbdrive Recovery.

saiboter wrote:


First thanks for the comments!


Here is my current constalation:

- SSD

- Macintosh HD

- Recovery HD


I am currently booting and working from the SSD. I've downloaded the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. But when I start it on the SSD I get an error saying no Recovery HD is existing. I think this is because of the Recovery HD partition is on the Macintosh HD.


Any idea to keep the Recovery HD partition but just move/copy it to the SSDrive?

Hope that helped.

Aug 20, 2011 5:34 AM in response to saiboter

Hi,


I haven't tested this and therefore can't be sure, but I think that as long as you select the indented Macintosh HD "volume icon" in Disk Utility as the item to be erased, then the hidden Recovery HD partition should be preserved:


User uploaded file



Do not select the non-indented "drive icon" above it - if you do then all the partitions will be erased, including the hidden Recovery HD partition.


By way of example, in my own system I have Lion installed on a partition on an external drive. If I enable DIsk Utility to show hidden partitions, that drive looks like this:


User uploaded file




If then I select the indented Lion volume "Lac5 BetaLion" and click "Erase," I get this warning dialog:


User uploaded file



I didn't proceed with this, but that dialog suggests that the similarly indented "Recovery HD" partition would not be be affected. By contrast, if I select the upper non-indented "drive" icon and click "Erase", I instead get this dialog:


User uploaded file



Perhaps others here have actually tried erasing just an indented Lion partition, and can comment further as to whether the Recovery HD partition is preserved.


edit:

I was actually booted in Snow Leopard when I tried the above in Disk Utility - I haven't looked while booted in Lion.


Message was edited by: jsd2

Aug 20, 2011 6:50 AM in response to Chris Hayden

In the release version of Lion, the Recovery HD is a hidden partition (see grayed arrows and box in screen capture below).


Getting everything the way you want it, you could, for instance, highlight the primary drive (i.e., my case: 1 TB ST...) and use the New Image button at the top to duplicate the whole drive with Recovery HD and Macintosh HD on the .dmg. Then, use SuperDuper! to clone that .dmg to your SSD.


User uploaded file

saiboter wrote:


First thanks for the comments!


Here is my current constalation:

- SSD

- Macintosh HD

- Recovery HD


I am currently booting and working from the SSD. I've downloaded the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. But when I start it on the SSD I get an error saying no Recovery HD is existing. I think this is because of the Recovery HD partition is on the Macintosh HD.


Any idea to keep the Recovery HD partition but just move/copy it to the SSDrive?

Hope that helped.

Aug 20, 2011 8:26 AM in response to saiboter

OK, now I am really confused 😁


I shutdown the mini and started normally and now? I don't the shortly the "no parking"-sign. All seems to be ok, indeed the Recovery HD is missing.


But I think I can live with it since I do have the USB-stick, or in any other case I can use the internet recovery.


Thanks everyone for the helpful answers here!

Delete Macintosh HD but keep Recovery HD

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