No recovery partition, how can I fix this?

Installed from an officially downloaded copy of Lion, Mountain Lion or Mavericks, a recovery partition will always be created. So what the seller likely did was clone a drive with Mavericks on it to the Mac you purchased. That will only clone the visible boot drive, not the hidden recovery partition.

Edit: If you restart and hold down Command+R, do you not get the recovery screen? Also, you can hold down the Option key immediately after restarting. If a recovery partition exists, it will appear as a choice.

Are you sure there is no recovery hard drive? That is hidden from Disk Utility and will not show up.

Carbon Copy Cloner also clones the recovery hard drive unless the users tells it not to do so. Not sure about the latest SuperDuper.

Boot Using OPTION key:

1. Restart the computer.

2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the

"OPTION" key.

3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.

Do you see a disk called Recovery HD? If so, then you have one.

Good info to know about CCC. I know SuperDuper! doesn't. Not sure if there's an option to do that with SD. I've never looked.

Ralph,

CCC does not automatically clone a Recovery HD. It will ask whether you want to have one installed, but you must agree to do so.

On the other hand, Disk Utility clones both partitions automatically without any user interaction provided a Recovery HD exists.

SD does not and has no option to do so. The only decent tools for this are CCC and Disk Utility. The latter clones it automatically if it's present on the Source drive.

Ok, when I cloned my iMac internal to the external (more than a year ago) CCC didn't ask me if I wanted the recovery hard drive, in the list of options it was already checked.

That would not have been the latest version. I like CCC because it does a good job of picking up everything on the hard drive.

But the simplest solution really is as you said, restart using the Option key and see if there is a recovery hard drive.

Or restart holding the Command and R keys and see if it boots 🙂

SD does not and has no option to do so.

And there's the answer on that! 🙂

I've never bothered with any recovery drive. All of our current Macs came with an OS on disk. As far as reinstalling Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks, I have all three on bootable flash drives and use those for that purpose.

Though actually, I keep up to date clones using SuperDuper! for each Mac. If a drive goes south, you just replace it and clone the backup back. Way, WAY faster than reinstalling the OS and all of your third party apps, etc. from scratch. It's also far faster than reinstalling the OS with a Time Machine merge. (I don't use, and have never used TM, either).

Like you I have flash drive bootable installers. I also keep copies of the downloaded installer applications just in case. This makes reinstalling so much easier and faster. 🙂

I also keep copies of the downloaded installer applications just in case.

Yup, me too. I have all of the latest versions (Lion, ML, Mavericks) on an external drive.

Yes, just get the full installer from either your App Store's Purchases or "buy" it and run it. That will create a Recovery HD and leave your files alone.

You are very welcome...you can see you raised some very interesting discussion :-)

The first thing to do with a second-hand computer is to erase the internal drive and install a clean copy of OS X. You — not the previous owner — must do that. How you do it depends on the model, and on whether you already own another Mac. If you're not sure of the model, enter the serial number on this page. Then find the model on this page to see what OS version was originally installed.

1. You don't own another Mac.

If the machine shipped with OS X 10.4 or 10.5, you need a boxed and shrink-wrapped retail Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) installation disc from the Apple Store or a reputable reseller — not from eBay or anything of the kind. If the machine has less than 1 GB of memory, you'll need to add more in order to install 10.6. Preferably, install as much memory as it can take, according to the technical specifications.

If the machine shipped with OS X 10.6, you need the installation media that came with it: gray installation discs, or a USB flash drive for some MacBook Air models. For early MBA models, you may need a USB optical drive or Remote Disc. You should have received the media from the previous owner, but if you didn't, order replacements from Apple. A retail disc, or the gray discs from another model, will not work.

To boot from an optical disc or a flash drive, insert it, then reboot and hold down the C key at the startup chime. Release the key when you see the gray Apple logo on the screen.

If the machine shipped with OS X 10.7 or later, you don't need media. It should boot into Internet Recovery mode when you hold down the key combination option-command-R at the startup chime. Release the keys when you see a spinning globe.

2. You do own another Mac.

If you already own another Mac that was upgraded in the App Store to the version of OS X that you want to install, and if the new Mac is compatible with it, then you can install it. Use Recovery Disk Assistant to create a bootable USB device and boot the new Mac from it by holding down the C key at the startup chime. Alternatively, if you have a Time Machine backup of OS X 10.7.3 or later on an external hard drive (not a Time Capsule or other network device), you can boot from that by holding down the option key and selecting it from the row of icons that appears. Note that if your other Mac was never upgraded in the App Store, you can't use this method.

Once booted in Recovery, launch Disk Utility and select the icon of the internal drive — not any of the volume icons nested beneath it. In the Partition tab, select the default options: a GUID partition table with one data volume in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. This operation will permanently remove all existing data on the drive.

After partitioning, quit Disk Utility and run the OS X Installer. You will need the Apple ID and password that you used to upgrade. When the installation is done, the system will automatically reboot into the Setup Assistant, which will prompt you to transfer the data from another Mac, its backups, or from a Windows computer. If you have any data to transfer, this is usually the best time to do it.

Then run Software Update and install all available system updates from Apple. To upgrade to a major version of OS X newer than 10.6, get it from the Mac App Store. Note that you can't keep an upgraded version that was installed by the previous owner. He or she can't legally transfer it to you, and without the Apple ID you won't be able to update it in Software Update or reinstall, if that becomes necessary. The same goes for any App Store products that the previous owner installed — you have to repurchase them.

3. Other issues

If you see a lock screen when trying to boot from installation media or in Recovery mode, then a firmware password was set by the previous owner, or the machine was remotely locked via iCloud. You'll either have to contact the owner or take the machine to an Apple Store or another authorized service provider to be unlocked. You may be asked for proof of ownership.

If the previous owner "accepted" the bundled iLife applications (iPhoto, iMovie, and Garage Band) in the App Store so that he or she could update them, then they're linked to that Apple ID and you won't be able to download them without buying them. Reportedly, Mac App Store Customer Service has sometimes issued redemption codes for these apps to second owners who asked.

If the previous owner didn't deauthorize the computer in the iTunes Store under his Apple ID, you wont be able to authorize it immediately under your ID. In that case, you'll either have to wait up to 90 days or contact iTunes Support.

When trying to create a new iCloud account, you might get a failure message: "Account limit reached." Apple imposes a limit of three iCloud account setups per device. Erasing the device does not reset the limit. You can still use an account that was created on another device, but you won't be able to create a new one. Contact iCloud Support for more information.