Formatting disks and Recovery Partition

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Level 6

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Formatting disks and Recovery Partition

I have not personally shifted to running Lion ... I am going to keep SL as my primary.

But my sister-in-law's parents are abandoning their 2006/2007 (could not discover which) Macbook Core2Duo instead of upgrading the memory and HD.

The candidates are 15 in or 17 in MBP ... whichever suits their personal "cost vs screen-size" calculation.

But they live 400 miles away, so I need to start learning Lion so I can help my nephew who is local to them administer the Lion system.

I have a 16 GB thumb drive to make a "local Lion installer", and an 8 GB to start with "portable Recovery Partition".

I am downloading Lion right now ... somewhere between 45 and 60 minutes left. I will follow Kappy's instructions on copying the InstallESD.dmg onto the 16 GB thumb drive, and install Lion on an external USB 320 GB drive.

The thing that I want to know, as I move into this new world ...

Recovery Partition is "hidden" to DU. Supposedly even surviving a format by DU. Sorry for any overlap in the questions ...

1> Is this true, that the Recovery Partition cannnot be removed permanently by DU format?

2> Is DU blocked by a built-in "filter" to not kill the Recovery Partition, or what other mechanism prevents it?

3> If one *wanted* to re-base a disk to SL-only, how would one remove the hidden Recovery Partition?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Macmini 10.6.8

Posted on Dec 29, 2011 9:23 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Dec 29, 2011 11:35 PM in response to steve359

I suggest sending the Lion—Missing Manualto the nephew or inlaws as an Xmas present. Basically, teaching them how to fish.😉

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Answer 2

steve359 Author

Level 6

17,169 points

Dec 30, 2011 6:17 AM in response to baltwo

I am not wired that way ... nor are my brother's in-laws. "Recovery Partition" is too much work, as the 2006/2007 MBP has only *now* caused them enough issues to replace it ... they prefer "magic" -- call me "Merlin".

But I will send on the manual anyway to my nephew ... he seems keen to learn "everything Mac" from me or any source.

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Answer 3

softwater

Level 5

5,556 points

Dec 30, 2011 6:31 AM in response to steve359

Recovery partition is hidden in DU and Finder but you can make it unhidden, like this:

1. Open Terminal.app and paste this command:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1

Press 'Return'.

2. Open Disk Utility.app (restart it if it was alread open). Choose the 'Debug' menu from the menu bar and click 'Show Every Partition'

3. You can now see the Recovery Partition both in DU and in Finder. In DU, you can mount/unmount it, or delete. In Finder, you can have a look inside it (but don't mess with it if you're planning on using it... 🙂 ).

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Answer 4

Dec 30, 2011 6:39 AM in response to steve359

Their new mac will probably come with Lion pre-installed so the only thing for you is to learn how to use it, if need be. New macs will support Lion and only Lion, the transition generation (the first one with Lion preinstalled) may possibly support SL as well. If your mac is older, it will support of course both SL and Lion. if you have the SL install DVD, booting from it and running Disk Utility from there will allows to reformat the disk and thus erase Recovery partition. RP includes a minimal system and, for full recovery, it requires internet connection so as to download the rest of files needed for the system to run.

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Answer 5

steve359 Author

Level 6

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Dec 30, 2011 7:47 AM in response to Cattus Thraex

Cattus said: "allows to reformat the disk and thus erase the Recovery partition".

That is helpful.

Softwater gave a method to "unhide" RP, thus making it managed under DU.

That is helpful.

The natural follow-up question is "How to hide it again?". I can try to figure it out, assuming "unhide" is just a variant of the "hide" command.

All the rest is playing with format/reinstall/etc to be ready to help them. I have stayed with SL to avoid this, but cannot any longer ...

Now ... points allocated ...

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Answer 6

softwater

Level 5

5,556 points

Dec 30, 2011 8:03 AM in response to steve359

steve359 wrote:

The natural follow-up question is "How to hide it again?".

EDITED ANSWER:

Like this:

Uncheck 'Show Every Partition'. That will hide RD. If you want to hide the debug menu then the reverse command is:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 0

Message was edited by: softwater

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Answer 7

steve359 Author

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Dec 30, 2011 9:19 AM in response to softwater

Thanks ... saved me the work for tonight

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Answer 8

steve359 Author

Level 6

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Dec 30, 2011 3:05 PM in response to steve359

And it just gets stranger and stranger ...

My nephew suggested and they accepted the idea of an early 2010 hi-res anti-glare 15 in model (dual-core i7 and 4 GB memory will serve them well for less money) ...

Lion is no longer dictated anymore ...

oy vey ...😮

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Answer 9

softwater

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Dec 30, 2011 8:04 PM in response to steve359

That, I think, will turn out to be a blessing in disguise (I'm no fan of Lion myself). 🙂

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Answer 10

steve359 Author

Level 6

17,169 points

Dec 30, 2011 8:07 PM in response to softwater

But I have a copy, now (How can I return an App Store purchase I do not want anymore???????) 😝

Still, I should make lemonade out of this and learn *something* about the "new cat", even if Snow Leopards are sooooo much prettier than Lions.

Thanks for your information.

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Answer 11

softwater

Level 5

5,556 points

Dec 30, 2011 8:10 PM in response to steve359

You can get a refund — many people have reported successfully doing so, but I'm not sure how you do it. Probably have to call AppleCare or something.

Or you could just keep it and install it on an external disk to play with.

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Answer 12

steve359 Author

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Dec 30, 2011 8:12 PM in response to softwater

That is my plan ... play with it. My bus-powered 320 GB drive will do nicely for a sandbox.

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Answer 13

Dec 30, 2011 8:15 PM in response to steve359

See Mac App Store: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This from the page:

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Answer 14

steve359 Author

Level 6

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Dec 30, 2011 8:19 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

I am not a "use it, then return it" person. I knew the bed I was making, and it is only $29. Besides, I have been curious about Lion, so I will keep it and learn something. Even ds store, one of the loudest anti-Lion voices, at least is familiar with it so he knows why he does not like it.

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Answer 15

softwater

Level 5

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Dec 30, 2011 8:26 PM in response to steve359

And there's plenty to learn to dislike...I just found another inconsistency today.

I have to say however, I have had good value for money out of $29. Lion sits in a 40GB partition and gives me no end of entertainment poking it and pulling its tail when I've got no real work to do on Snow Leopard. 😁

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