Bahkai
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Difficulties restoring internal hardrive

I have the Macbook Air, purchased last year, the version that did not come with any USB or disk containing the OSX software. Apparently in this version, the solution to restoring Mac OSX lies within the actual mac, there being a partition or something for this purpose. I saw this online, and if this really is the case, i'm quite sure i accidentally deleted it. Sigh.

I have an external hard drive i have copies of all my data on it luckily with 500gb that i use as a start up disk a lot because of the extra memory. I created this using the disk utility method. I was trying to get the boot camp program running on my internal hard drive, and ran into the ol' "need atlas 10gb of free memory space" no matter what i deleted. I copied and pasted all the important things onto my external and restarted my Mac on it. I heard the solution was to simply back up your data, wipe it, download boot camp, then restore everything. Unfortunately i simply wiped my Macintosh HD internal hard drive, and my computer no longer recognises it as a start up disk! Whenever i try to start up using it, i simply get a blank screen with a question mark. When i look at its contents using my external, theres absolutely nothing there. I was up all night online looking for a way to fix this, and nothing seemed to be working, I can remote install it, but i can only get hold of another computer to do this next week and i'd like another alternate solution.

I'm pretty sure i removed Mac OSX from my internal hard drive. The thing is, my mac runs off of my external just fine, so this must have OSX running ok. I'm wondering if i can somehow use this to fix up my internal. The solution i want is to simply be able to run my mac book with out my external hard drive; this being currently impossible.

I've messed up my Mac pretty bad, i know. But any help would be massively appreciated! Thank you!!

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jun 6, 2012 4:17 PM

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Bahkai

Q: Difficulties restoring internal hardrive

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jun 6, 2012 4:25 PM in response to Bahkai
    Level 10 (271,794 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 6, 2012 4:25 PM in response to Bahkai

    If you still have a Recovery HD you can find out by trying to boot from 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.


    If this does work then you can reinstall Lion as follows:

     

    Install or Reinstall Lion from Scratch

     

    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.

     

    Erase the hard drive:

     

     

    1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
    2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.

     

    Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Install button.

     

    Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.


    You will need an active Internet connection for this to work. I recommend Ethernet if possible because it's faster than wireless.

     

    If the above doesn't work:

     

    Computers that can be upgraded to use Lion Internet Recovery

    OS X Lion- About Lion Recovery

    Using Lion Recovery when no DHCP service is available



  • by SP Forsythe,

    SP Forsythe SP Forsythe Jun 6, 2012 4:37 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 5 (5,399 points)
    Jun 6, 2012 4:37 PM in response to Kappy

    Your Recovery Partition should have remained intact, even though you erased the Startup Drive. Use the instructions that Kappy outlined, unless you have difficulty booting to the Recovery Partition.

     

    If for some reason the Recovery Partition is unable to restore your system, use Internet Recovery. (see the section on this document).

     

    Of course, in any case you will need a good Internet connection as also outlined in the above linked document. Using the Recovery Partition just lessens the process a bit.

  • by Bahkai,

    Bahkai Bahkai Jun 6, 2012 5:04 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2012 5:04 PM in response to Kappy

    I've tried that before as well, the hold option key thing. Weirdly, all that happens is that they ask me for my internet network password, and once i connect, nothing happens. All i see is the name of my network. So the Recovery HD thing doesn't seem to be there. I'd like to download it from the internet, can i do this from my external hard drive and download straight to my internal one to get it up and rnning again?

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jun 6, 2012 5:14 PM in response to Bahkai
    Level 10 (271,794 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 6, 2012 5:14 PM in response to Bahkai

    How do you know nothing is happening? What exactly does that mean in context? Remember we're not there with you. Downloading the installer can take a long time. It's a 4 GB file coming through via wireless if you don't have an Ethernet connection.

     

    If your computer came with Lion pre-installed then you can only download it via Internet Recovery. See the links provided earlier. Or you go to an Apple Store and buy the $69.00 Apple USB Flash Drive Lion installer.