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

Mar 11, 2013 12:02 PM in response to Ciarals

Apple Recovery Partition is marked as Apple_Boot Recovery HD and is 650.0 MB in size.

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Answer 2

Ciarals Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 11, 2013 12:08 PM in response to Alberto Ravasio

This is not the first time I change the hard drive, it's the second. The first time I updated the original 320GB hard drive with a 500GB: it was august 2011. I took the Mac to a different Apple Authorized Reseller but the result was the same: the Lion recovery partition wasn't there any more.

At that time I used this guide: http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/removing-and-rebuilding-a-malfunctio ning-recover-hd-partition/

Maybe this explains the different name? But not the size....

By the way, in that link they suggest to use the new procedure I've linked on my first post.

So, since I don't want to mess with my Mac, I'm asking you what is the best to do...

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Answer 3

keg55

Level 6

11,743 points

Mar 11, 2013 12:47 PM in response to Ciarals

There is a way to recreate the Mountain Lion Recovery HD but you have to have the OS X Mountain Lion.app in your /Applications folder. I don't have the link right now.

So, you may as well just redownload and reinstall ML on top of itself so the Recovery HD can be created. You won't harm your data or apps.

EDIT: I found the link.

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Answer 4

Ciarals Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 11, 2013 1:15 PM in response to Ciarals

Thanks for your answer. Unfortunately I don't have the installer any more in the Applications folder...

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Answer 5

keg55

Level 6

11,743 points

Mar 11, 2013 1:30 PM in response to Ciarals

Right, so you have to redownload it. Assuming your Mac has Internet Recovery capability, restart and hold/press the Command-Option-R keys until you see a spinning globe. This will boot you into Apple's servers so you can use their Recovery HD and you can select the Reinstall OS X option from the OS X Utilities menu.

If you purchased Mountain Lion from the App Store you can redownload the OS X Mountain Lion.app by launching App Store, hold the Option key down while selecting the Purchases tab. You should see in your list of apps to DOWNLOAD Mountain Lion. After the download you can quit the app, copy it to another folder so you have it for future use, use the link I provided to recreate your Mountain Lion Recovery HD or just run the app to reinstall Mountain Lion on top of itself.

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Answer 6

Ciarals Author

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Mar 11, 2013 1:32 PM in response to Ciarals

Thanks for your answer.

I'm re-downloading the installer using the Mac App Store. So: wouldn't it be easier to use the script linked on your previous post, the Recovery Partition Creator v2.0.5?

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Answer 7

keg55

Level 6

11,743 points

Mar 11, 2013 1:49 PM in response to Ciarals

Ciarals wrote:

So: wouldn't it be easier to use the script linked on your previous post, the Recovery Partition Creator v2.0.5?

Yep. Since you purchased it from the App Store you're half way there to recreating the Recovery HD. I've use that script along with the OS X Mountain Lion.app in /Applications and it works great.

Just remember to copy the OS X Mountain Lion.app file to another folder somewhere like your Downloads folder so you have it for future use.

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Answer 8

Ciarals Author

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9 points

Mar 11, 2013 1:50 PM in response to keg55

Thanks. I think tomorrow I'll do the trick. The only thing that I just don't know is why the size (and the name) are different from the default... Do you have an idea?

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Answer 9

keg55

Level 6

11,743 points

Mar 11, 2013 2:10 PM in response to Ciarals

If you're referring to your disk0s3, I don't know. I don't know what that is or how it got there on your drive. I'm not sure if it should be deleted before you recreate your Recovery HD. Do a backup and then try the script and see what happens.

Not knowing what the technician did to put your system on the new hard drive, makes it difficult to tell you to delete disk0s3 before you put your Recovery HD on. I believe a normal install of ML onto a Mac OS X Extended-Journaled formatted hard drive with the GUID parition table has an EFI, Macintosh HD and Recovery

partitions like below.

$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 499.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

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Answer 10

Ciarals Author

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9 points

Mar 11, 2013 2:06 PM in response to keg55

Yes, I was referring to it... Maybe it will updated with the script... Will let you know...

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Answer 11

Ciarals Author

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Mar 12, 2013 1:31 AM in response to Ciarals

I've decided to delete the "strange" recovery partition before using the script you linked. The result is the following:

/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

I've followed this guide: http://mac.tutsplus.com/tutorials/security/the-os-x-recovery-partition-what-it-i s-why-its-there-and-how-to-remove-it/

I've decided to do this because, since the script recreate the recovery partition, there's no need to mess with another partition that maybe is there by mistake. As you can see, disk0s3 has correctly disappeared but the 1.4GB space hasn't been merged with disk0s2 (and that wasn't the purpose of the guide). Do you know how to merge this space that was originally taken by the partition?

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Answer 12

keg55

Level 6

11,743 points

Mar 12, 2013 4:39 AM in response to Ciarals

You may only need the merge command below but I included the delete also. So, open Terminal from /Applications/Utilities to do the commands.

To delete partition disk0s3:

$ diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ ErasedDisk /dev/disk0s3

To merge the space into disk0s2:

$ diskutil mergePartitions HFS+ MacHD disk0s2 disk0s3

MacHD identifier is used to give the partition a new name but your existing boot drive name shouldn't change.

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Answer 13

Ciarals Author

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Mar 12, 2013 5:14 AM in response to keg55

Thanks for your answer. As I imagined, this is the error:

Could not find disk for disk0s3

And it's normal that disk0s3 can't be found. The procedure I followed in the link I previously posted from tutsplus.com, made me delete the recovery partition. So the partition is no more there, but the space that was used by the partition is still there. And I can't see it in the Partitioning section of Disk Utility.

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Answer 14

Ciarals Author

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9 points

Mar 12, 2013 6:11 AM in response to Ciarals

Maybe I can't see the free space from Mac OS. So I think I'll create the Recovery Partition with the script you've suggested, then from the Disk Utility launched from the Recovery Partition I'll see what I can do with the free space.

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Answer 15

keg55

Level 6

11,743 points

Mar 12, 2013 6:25 AM in response to Ciarals

Good luck! Hope it works out for you. I don't think you'll miss the 1.4GB if it doesn't. You appear to have enough space. 🙂

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