File Vault Not Turning On: *** ?

Usually, that means there is no Recovery HD on your startup drive. See the FileVault 2 requirements section in OS X Lion: About FileVault 2.

Did you get a "Some features of Mac OS X Lion are not supported . . ." message when you installed Lion? If so, see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4649?viewlocale=en_US

Given that I've got the same message and that I installed Mountain Lion on my computer by simply restoring from a Time Machine backup by using the internet recovery it looks somehow logic that my Mac does not have a Recovery partition.

The thing now is: how can I create a recovery partition on my drive? I read somewhere that it's 650MB: it will fit in my hard drive.

Streeme wrote:

Given that I've got the same message and that I installed Mountain Lion on my computer by simply restoring from a Time Machine backup by using the internet recovery it looks somehow logic that my Mac does not have a Recovery partition.

First, determine if that's really the problem. If you installed Mountain Lion by downloading and installing, the installer should have put a Recovery HD on it, or given you a message saying it couldn't. The easiest way to see if it's there is to start up while holding the Alt/Option key, per the second section of Using the Recovery HD. If you see a "Recovery 10-8" disk like the sample there, you do have one.

The thing now is: how can I create a recovery partition on my drive? I read somewhere that it's 650MB: it will fit in my hard drive.

Unfortunately, there's no way to create one out of thin air. You'll have to install a fresh copy of OSX.

And yes, it's only 650 MB, but that must be at the "end" of the OSX partition, and there are other restrictions as well. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4649?viewlocale=en_US

Thanks for replying.

I never got such a message while installing nor I saw any recovery partition on the boot menu. I'd be glad to install a fresh copy of ML, but, as far as I know I have to install Lion, make a new user, log in with my Apple ID and then upgrade to ML by downloading the OS. Is it right? I already tried to install the OS from the Internet recovery but it installed Lion instead of ML.

Is there any way to install ML and restore the TM backup?

You should be able to log on to the App Store with the Apple ID you used to purchase Mountain Lion.

Click the Purchases tab; that should show your purchase of Mountain Lion (and anything else you've bought from the App Store), with a Download button.

Downloading will take a while, of course (it's over 4 GB).

When it's done, and you're prompted to install, don't do that yet. Instead, find the Install OS X Mountain Lion app in your Applications folder, and copy it somewhere else (the one in Applications will be deleted by the installer). If you ever need to install again, you can just run that instead of having to download it again.

Then go back to the prompt and install OSX. That won't disturb anything esle; no need to erase or restore anything.

Good! I'm about to install OS X now (while showering!) as you described, after backing up the installer on an external drive. I'll keep you updated. Thanks for now.

Well done, Pondini! It worked exactly as expected: now the recovery partition is shown and File Vault could be correctly activated. (Actually the installer stayed among the other apps, but this can be easily solved!)

A nice example of quick resolution: many on this forum post a lot without really helping out beginners. Shame that I didn't start this thread: I'd like Freddie_Fred to login and give points by clicking the green button underneath the previuos Pondini's post.