Changed hard drive: need to reinstall the recovery partition

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Level 1

9 points

Changed hard drive: need to reinstall the recovery partition

Hi everyone. Some days ago I took my MBP to an Apple Authorized Reseller to update the hard drive to a new one and now I have a new 1TB/7200RPM hard drive.

Everything is perfect, but I think that the recovery partition is missing. If I look in the iCloud panel, the "Find my Mac" service is disabled because "recovery partition is needed".

But, if I run "diskutil list" in the Terminal, here's the result:

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Luke 998.6 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot 1.4 GB disk0s3

Is the disk0s3 the recovery partition? If it's the recovery partition, why "Find my Mac" can't see it? Do I need to update or reinstall the recovery partion?

Here's a nice article I've found, but I don't know if it's right for my case: http://www.brunerd.com/blog/2012/03/21/update-create-lion-recoveryhd-partition-q uickly-without-reinstalling/

Waiting your answer. Thank you very much.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2), 15-inch, Late 2008

Posted on Mar 11, 2013 11:57 AM

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Answer 1

Ciarals Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 12, 2013 7:08 AM in response to keg55

I hope too 🙂 I'll let you know... Yes, 1.4GB are nothing in a 1TB hard drive... But you know, it's 1.4GB not used, and I don't like it too much 😉

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Answer 2

Ciarals Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 12, 2013 12:09 PM in response to Ciarals

Here I am with good news!

I've executed the script: it downloaded also the RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg but then everything worked fine.

Here I am with some related questions:

1) At the end of the process, these are the last messages from the script:

Creating recovery partition: finished

Error (async): Couldn't attach disk image (-69736)

hdiutil: eject failed - No such file or directory

hdiutil: eject failed - No such file or directory

logout

Then, when I first run "diskutil list" there were 2 disks instead of 1:

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 998.6 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *588.7 MB disk1

1: Apple_partition_map 30.7 KB disk1s1

2: Apple_Driver_ATAPI 2.0 KB disk1s2

3: Apple_HFS Mac OS X Lion Recove... 588.6 MB disk1s3

So I rebooted and everything now is OK:

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 998.6 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

So, just to understand better: everything is normal and it had to do like this or maybe there was some error during the creation of the partition?

2) I've already tested the Recovery HD and it works fine. I used Disk Utility while on the Recovery HD and I noticed the "Mac OS X Base System" disk: what is it? Is the Recovery HD expanded?

3) Unfortunately, there was no way to restore the 1.4GB deleted in the past process. Is it possible? Isn't there a way to recover that space? Since the main partition size ha remained the same (998.6GB) I think that the Recovery HD has used part of these 1.4GB... So maybe there are 750MB free and not partitioned, if I'm not wrong 🙂

Thank you very much for your answers.

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Answer 3

Mar 12, 2013 12:09 PM in response to Ciarals

You should use

diskutil resizeVolume

to recover the freed up space.

Just issue the above command to see the syntax.

If you specify R as size the partition will be expanded at its maximum size.

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Answer 4

Ciarals Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 12, 2013 12:14 PM in response to Alberto Ravasio

Thanks for your answer, I didn't know that command. But using "diskutil resizevolume disk0s2 limits" it seems that no free space is available:

For device disk0s2 Macintosh HD:

Current size: 998.6 GB (998560907264 Bytes)

Minimum size: 513.2 GB (513221799936 Bytes)

Maximum size: 998.6 GB (998560907264 Bytes)

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Answer 5

Mar 12, 2013 12:19 PM in response to Ciarals

You can't now, because you just created the Recovery Partition.

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Answer 6

Ciarals Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 12, 2013 2:21 PM in response to Alberto Ravasio

Understood. So you suggest me to delete the recovery partition, use the command you reported and then recreate the recovery partition?

Can you please explain better how exactly I have to use the "diskutil resizeVolume" command?

Thanks for your kind answer.

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Answer 7

Ciarals Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 12, 2013 2:43 PM in response to Ciarals

Maybe I've found the complete command. Is this one?

$ diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 R

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Answer 8

Mar 12, 2013 3:06 PM in response to Ciarals

Understood. So you suggest me to delete the recovery partition, use the command you reported and then recreate the recovery partition?

That is up to you. But if you absolutely want to recover the free space, that's the way to go.

Be sure to have a copy of your important data before playing with partition.

Can you please explain better how exactly I have to use the "diskutil resizeVolume" command?

I'll make you an example with my external USB hard disk. It's a 20GB, formatted with GUID partition scheme, HFS+ Jurnaled.

It has a 10GB volume called TestDrive

diskutil list /dev/disk1
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *20.0 GB    disk1
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS TestDrive               10.0 GB    disk1s2

and ~10GB of free space

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk1s2 limits
For device disk1s2 TestDrive:
        Current size:  10.0 GB (10001940480 Bytes)
        Minimum size:  5.4 GB (5406945280 Bytes)
        Maximum size:  19.7 GB (19659907072 Bytes)

Now I am going to expand the 10GB volume to the maximum available

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk1s2 R
Started partitioning on disk1s2 TestDrive
Verifying the disk
Checking file system
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume
Checking extents overflow file
Checking catalog file
Checking multi-linked files
Checking catalog hierarchy
Checking extended attributes file
Checking volume bitmap
Checking volume information
The volume TestDrive appears to be OK
Resizing
Finished partitioning on disk1s2 TestDrive
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *20.0 GB    disk1
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS TestDrive               19.7 GB    disk1s2

That's it.

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Answer 9

Ciarals Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 12, 2013 5:54 PM in response to Ciarals

Here I am again. Everything gone fine! I'll recap all the things I've done.

First I've deleted the Recovery Partition on disk0s3. Then, in Terminal, I've used the "diskutil resizevolume disk0s2 limits" command and it ended up with finally 999.9 GB of Maximum Size. So, following Alberto advise, I've resized the volume:

diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 R

And this was (finally) the result:

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 999.9 GB disk0s2

So all the free space was now on disk0s2. Then I've re-launched the script from keg55: the result was better than the last time, when some "eject failed" errors came out. These are the last lines:

Creating recovery partition: finished

"disk2" unmounted.

"disk2" ejected.

logout

So I checked the partition and everything was finally fine:

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 999.3 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

I've launched Disk Utility from the Recovery HD, checked the disk0s2 and all was OK, so I think we're finally done with this!

I think that I've done everything, but please, tell me if I need to do something else.

I've just 2 last questions that are more for my personal curiosity:

1) [Asked before] As I said, I used Disk Utility while on the Recovery HD and I noticed the "Mac OS X Base System" disk: what is it? Is the Recovery HD expanded?

2) When I boot and press the alt key, the label under the main drive is correct ("Macintosh HD") but the label under the Recovery HD is "Recovery-10.8.2". Is it normal or maybe the script I've used has changed it?

Thanks again!!!

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Answer 10

Mar 13, 2013 12:09 AM in response to Ciarals

1) Yes it is.

2) Yes. It is normal.

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Answer 11

Ciarals Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 13, 2013 12:25 AM in response to Alberto Ravasio

Thanks Alberto!

If I can ask you one last thing, what is that "Choose Network" option you have on boot screen? Is there a way to "activate" it?

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Answer 12

Mar 13, 2013 12:37 AM in response to Ciarals

OS X Internet Recovery

"If you happen to encounter a situation in which you cannot start from the Recovery System, such as your hard drive stopped responding or you installed a new hard drive without OS X installed, new Mac models introduced after public availability of OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion, automatically use the OS X Internet Recovery feature if the Recovery System (Command-R method above) doesn't work. OS X Internet Recovery lets you start your Mac directly from Apple's Servers. The system runs a quick test of your memory and hard drive to ensure there are no hardware issues.

OS X Internet Recovery presents a limited interface at first, with only the ability to select your preferred Wi-Fi network and, if needed, enter the WPA passphrase. Next, OS X Internet Recovery will download and start from a Recovery System image. From there, you are offered all the same utilities and functions described above."

Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery

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Answer 13

Ciarals Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 13, 2013 1:18 AM in response to Alberto Ravasio

Thanks for your answer Alberto. That's why I don't see it: my MacBook is a Late 2008.

Well, everything is clear now. I thank you all for the help!

And Alberto, since we are both italian, grazie mille e a presto! 🙂

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