I have turned on FileVault and firmware password. How does that affect the recovery partition? I cannot use Option at boot to choose it which I have read is expected behaviour. Cmd+R should work, but when I use that key combination and after typing in my firmware password, it starts Internet recovery and asks me to connect to a wireless network. I do not get the recovery UI, tools and options.
MacBook Pro (17-inch), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
Thanks. Lots of information there, but not sure if and how it applies to my situation. DHCP service is ok. The firmware update was installed a while ago. I don't want Internet recovery, it just starts automatically. Does that mean that the recovery HD is damaged or not present? How can I check that? If damaged, how do I repair it? If not present, how do I add it? If neither, how can I boot into it? Is it incompatible with a firmware password? I should maybe point out that there is nothing wrong with my main partition and OS installation. I just wanted to try booting into the recovery HD to have a look at it.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
The above is how you would do that - boot the recovery hd. Unless you have a bootable Lion installer handy Internet Recovery is the only way to reinstall Lion.
As far as I know there's nothing you can do to fix a damager Recovery HD partition beyond repartitioning the drive and reinstalling Lion.
Pressing Option does not show the Recovery HD, but I read online that this is just the way it is with FileVault enabled. Pressing Cmd-R is exactly what I do, and this starts internet recovery after typing the firmware password. Now I've turned off the firmware password, but the result is the same.
Here's all I know about this with FileVault 2.
Recovery partition, FileVault and firmware password.
