Level 1

1 points

Recovery partition on OS X Mavericks!

Hey guys,

So i downloaded the mavericks installer from the app store today, and created a usb bootable pen drive containing mavericks! I did a clean install from the pen drive, but now i'm unable to find a recovery partition on boot! Just my mac hd! I can access recovery features such as "recover through time machine" from the USB pen drive, and ofcourse also install os x mavericks normally from the pen drive...

What have i done wrong? Why is there no longer a recovery partition?

PS: I followed a guide on macrumours on how to created the "Base system dmg" bootable, thats how i was able to make a bootable mavericks usb pen drive!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 22, 2013 7:47 PM

53 replies

Oct 26, 2013 2:59 PM in response to Gabo-Arg

I tried several times without success. In the end, I connected my MBP to another mac in target disk mode. I used iPartiton software on the other mac to delete the recovery partition on the MBP and extend the Macintosh HD partition to fill up the space (I CREATED A FULL BACKUP OF THE WHOLE DRIVE FIRST AS A DISK IMAGE!!!).

Then I re-ran the installer from the app store and it worked, and re-created the receovery partition.

This issue seems to happen for people who were originally on Lion, upgraded to Mountain Lion at some point, then now try to upgrade to Mavericks. This issue did not occur on 2 other macs I tried.

Shammoza89 Author

Level 1

1 points

Oct 26, 2013 3:07 PM in response to alexgrainger

Nice! I was gonna suggest for you to create a bootable mavericks drive, and boot fresh, but it seems you're attached to your apps 😀! Can't blame you though when you have tons in there! Interesting method though, the target disk mode! Never tried it...

Shammoza89 Author

Level 1

1 points

Oct 26, 2013 3:09 PM in response to alexgrainger

You can create a post, explaining to people what you did to solve the issue, if they happen to face it. There will be alot of people who had lion to begin with, then upgraded to ML, then to mavericks!

Oct 27, 2013 1:11 PM in response to Shammoza89

Glad this solved your issue too. This only happened on one of my macs, so it may not occur every time someone upgraded from Lion to ML to Mavericks, but I read a few posts where people were in the same position. I wanted to upgrade rather than clean install or formatting since I have loads of apps and config and didn't want to risk losing them (many not available on app store!).

Ok here were the steps I followed (some of which I obtained from various other people on the web who I would like to thank!):

1. When originally trying to upgrade to Mavericks on my MBP using the App Store download I got the error "the recovery system cannot be created. The system rebooted and went back to Mountain Lion.

2. I connnected my MBP to another mac in target disk mode (using Thunderbolt) - holding down 'T' on startup

3. I opened disk utility and created a backup disk image of the whole Mountain Lion drive on my MBP (which includes the Mountain Lion Recovery Partition).

4. I mounted the backup image and verified using the terminal that it indeed contained the recovery partition in case anything went wrong (using the command 'diskutil list')

5. I opened iPartition to delete the recovery partition on the MBP and extend the 'Macintosh HD' partition to use up the extra space (this should not delete any data, but I didn't trust this, hence the backup I created!).

6. I then disconnected the MBP and restarted it. I opened terminal and checked 'diskutil list' again and verified the recovery partition was indeed gone.

7. Then I tried to upgrade to Mavericks again. This time it worked, and the installer created a new Mavericks partition, which I verified after upgrading

Hope this helps!

socajam2

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2013 7:58 PM in response to alexgrainger

Hi all, has anyone tried using the "createinstallmedia" from within Mavericks ?.

From this link here the USB install can be done with the recovery partition using that

method..i have not tried any yet..!!🙂

http://www.macworld.com/article/2056561/how-to-make-a-bootable-mavericks-install -drive.html

Thanks for the feed back.

Shammoza89 Author

Level 1

1 points

Nov 22, 2013 2:09 PM in response to socajam2

Yea, i did that and it works! What i originally did after i found out that my recovery partition was missing, was revert back to a working version of mountain lion through time machine, then installed mavericks as an upgrade and NOT a clean install. Once i had mavericks and the new updated recovery partition 10.9, i used the create media method to create a bootable pen drive, and did a clean install!

I definetly think this post was quite helpfull to many users who did a clean install as soon as mavericks hit the app store, and found themselves missing a recovery partition! The feedback from experienced users helped quite alot aswell

Jan 15, 2014 12:28 PM in response to William Lloyd

Installing from an external drive is perfectly acceptable even with 10.9 Mavericks. There are no issues with the install process when done from a USB/FireWire drive. This may change in the future, but it is still a good way to do a clean install or even an update.

Apr 30, 2014 11:51 AM in response to Shammoza89

I had this today. Easy solution, first format the drive with one partition ensuring that GUID is selected under options.

It will then restore from time machine backup.

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Recovery partition on OS X Mavericks!