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No recovery device/partition shown

I received my new iMac just over 1 week ago.


I've been reading that there is supposed to be a Recovery partition shown when you hold down Option key. But when I do this there is only the Macintosh HD shown?


Is there no recovery partition now on the new iMac's or is there something not right with my OS?


Thanks in advance 🙂

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), iPad (3rd Gen) 32GB iPhone 5 32GB

Posted on Feb 1, 2013 12:16 PM

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32 replies

Feb 1, 2013 12:18 PM in response to tal1971

I have read that Late 2012 iMacs don't include a Recovery HD on the hard drive, so you can only access to Internet Recovery. However, if you press Command and R keys while your Mac is starting, it should be fine.


If you want a Recovery HD, you can try reinstalling OS X, so it should be created. Press Command and R keys while your Mac is starting and reinstall OS X

Feb 1, 2013 12:24 PM in response to tal1971

If you are holding down the option key when you start to get to the Recovery Disk I've found it can be a bit hit and miss. For me, there doesn't seem to be an optimum moment to hold the key down to get to the startup manager.


Another way you can check you have the Recovery HD is to try and boot into it by restarting and holding down Command+R. It should take you to a screen with four choices. After checking it out restart as normal from the Apple menu.

Feb 1, 2013 12:43 PM in response to Paul_31

Paul_31 wrote:


If you are holding down the option key when you start to get to the Recovery Disk I've found it can be a bit hit and miss. For me, there doesn't seem to be an optimum moment to hold the key down to get to the startup manager.


Another way you can check you have the Recovery HD is to try and boot into it by restarting and holding down Command+R. It should take you to a screen with four choices. After checking it out restart as normal from the Apple menu.


When I hold down Command+R at startup, I get a window appear (OS X Utilities) with four choices which are:



1: Restore from Time Machine backup


2: Re-install OS X


3: Get help online


4: Disk Utility

Feb 1, 2013 12:47 PM in response to mende1

mende1 wrote:


I have read that Late 2012 iMacs don't include a Recovery HD on the hard drive, so you can only access to Internet Recovery. However, if you press Command and R keys while your Mac is starting, it should be fine.


If you want a Recovery HD, you can try reinstalling OS X, so it should be created. Press Command and R keys while your Mac is starting and reinstall OS X


If its not something that is on the 2012 iMac's then that's OK, I just thought that I was missing something that was supposed to be there. I don't fancy re-installing OS X has I'm a new Mac user (only had my iMac 1 week) and there is no guarantee that it would make the Recovery HD appear.


You mention about internet recovery, what key combination needs to be pressed to access this option please?


Thanks everyone for the help, its much appreciated 🙂

Feb 1, 2013 12:51 PM in response to mende1

mende1 wrote:


That's Recovery. Do you see a globe while Recovery is charging? If you don't see it, your Mac is starting into Recovery HD, but your iMac doesn't show it when you press the Option key because of an unknown reason


Thanks for the help 🙂


Excuse me for being a bit thick, but what do mean "Do you see a globe while Recovery is charging"?

Feb 1, 2013 1:27 PM in response to mende1

mende1 wrote:


That's Recovery. Do you see a globe while Recovery is charging? If you don't see it, your Mac is starting into Recovery HD, but your iMac doesn't show it when you press the Option key because of an unknown reason


When I was pressing just the Command+R I just got the (OS X Utilities) window appear with four choices which are:



1: Restore from Time Machine backup


2: Re-install OS X


3: Get help online


4: Disk Utility



When I pressed the Command+Option+R I got the spinning globe, then the exact same OS X Utilities window with the four choices appearing.

Feb 1, 2013 1:31 PM in response to mende1

mende1 wrote:


While Internet Recovery is starting, your iMac will ask you to choose a Wi-Fi network to connect to and then, you will see a world and a loading bar below


I got the spinning globe, but I am connected to the internet via Ethernet cable so no wifi prompt. I did get a loading bar which showed 5 (5 minutes) then I got the 4 options that I've mentioned above.

No recovery device/partition shown

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