hello,
i heard mavericks is not available for downloading anymore, any other web (safe) or way i can get Mavericks to download? specially for a clean install usb - emergency reason, since i am going to attempt to install yosemite on my late 2013 mac retina, (which has mavericks already)
If i didn't prev download it with an apple ID
I appreciate any help
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), null
You can do a full backup of your existing Mavericks install - which you should do anyway before upgrading in case of any problems. Do you have another Mac that has the "Install OS X Mavericks.app" still on it somewhere - maybe a friend with a Mavericks machine does?
If you have Mavericks on your system now - you also have the Mavericks Recovery partition right? - make sure to back it up as well, since the Yosemite install will overwrite it with the Yosemite recovery.
Also, what do you mean you didn't download Mavericks with an apple id - you can't download it without getting it from the App Store - and to do that you had to use your "apple id"??? Perhaps you mean that Mavericks came pre-installed on your system and never downloaded the Mavericks installer???
Good luck...and don't forget the full backup (both regular and recovery partition) - and verify it afterwards just in case you really need it.
thanks for answering
Ok so to go over what you asked, I did not download mavericks on my account at least. that aside,
the recovery partition one should be easy to follow? if so, i guess i'll stick to that. the comp is relatively new as in i don't really need to back up anything, just maverick itself.
a regular back up is the -time machine one? like i said, i don't need to back up files or anything, just mavericks.
thank you so much!
As long as the Time Machine backup contains your System files, which normally it would, you can re-install Mavericks from Time Machine. You should have more than one backup since drives do fail. I suggest making a clone for your 2nd backup, preferably to a drive other than the Time Machine drive.
Clone - Carbon Copy Cloner (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)
Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested
Does the TRIAL make a complete clone back up? I clicked on the carbon one
the time machine ones can be done with a usb flash disk?
I've searched and i can't find one recovery partition tutorial to do without having to use a mavericks app install thingie. any help? i just need to do a mavericks backup that is installed on my mac already.
I'm not quite sure what you're asking. Can you perhaps rephrase it? Are you asking how to backup a Recovery partition or how to create one or ??? Do you know how to backup the Mavericks partition?
You might want to check out and understand these posts before proceeding:
OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support
http://www.macinstruct.com/node/147
The above are different ways to do what the "clone" type programs that Eric Root talks about - the clone products are fine for duplicating the entire disk, but I'm not very familiar about their details (don't know if they backup all partitions, including the special hidden ones, or ???) - but these clone backups won't be much help to restore individual files (easily that is) like Time Machine can (that's my opinion anyway), but are better at restoring entire disks or volumes I think.
Have you done a Time Machine backup of your system yet? Did you do it to another external disk? If you don't care about user files, a virgin Maverick's installation takes about 15GB (I'm guessing as I don't run Mavericks - 15GB is based on Yosemite virgin install I recently did), so you don't need much for it (this size estimate DOES NOT include /Users folder which can be quite large nor does it include any applications not a normal part of OS X which can also be quite large). The Recovery Partition is about 650MB total (but this is a compressed volume and expands to about twice that when you boot from it).
Try this command in a Terminal window (Terminal.app is located in /Applications/Utilities):
diskutil list
It will print out all the disks and their partitions and sizes and types on your system - shows the special hidden "EFI" and "Recovery HD" partitions along with the normal partitions like / and others that might, or might not, be a part of the system.
But make sure you understand what to do before you do anything destructive to your disk so that you can get back to what you have now - there is no longer any way to download the Mavericks Installer app from Apple, so if you want to run Mavericks at any time in the future, you need to backup your current Mavericks install before you erase the disk - and make sure you verify the backup to make sure it is readable. Would probably be a good idea to practice restoring your backup to another disk (other than the Mavericks disk you just backed up) and see if you can boot from this practice disk before attempting to install Yosemite. That way you know you have a way back if you don't like Yosemite or have big problems with it like some people have experienced.
Good luck...
Also just came across this post - apparently you can still download Mavericks - via Internet Recovery (Command + Option + R) if your machine had it installed originally and if the Mac OS disk has been erased - read and understand these posts to know more:
Can I still download Mavericks?
Look at the posts on Jan 3 and 13, 2015 from "Shiny Apples" (on the 3rd at 12:11pm) and "Baka no Kami" and "babowa" (on the 15th at 10:29pm and 1045pm)
Good luck...
i got this
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 250.1 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
paos-MacBook-Pro:~ Macmon$
So I ve been reading all the links you two have nicely provided and since i am new to it I somehow came to conclusions.
1- recovery partition can only be done with MAVERICKS installer thingie (which i don't have atm)
2- time machine backs up files too (i have none) and also mavericks on this mac (i need a 20 GB external drive right?)
3- didn't quite understand the internet recovery one (not sure where to do command-option-r) on App Store?
Bottom line is that i can only do a time machine if i get an external drive and can't download mavericks installer so can't do a partition recovery , is that correct?
probably a dummie question but lets say the YOSEMITE clean installer usb process goes wrong on this mac, shouldn't there be a way to factory reset the mac again to what it was initially? to mavericks ?
You're doing most things wrong.
Do this:
Reboot, as soon as you hear the chime press and hold the command-option and R keys, hold them until you see the spinning globe, that is Internet Recovery loading. From there you can reinstall the operating system that came with your Mac. If that was Mavericks that is what you will get.
To answer your questions:
1. That is correct
2. TimeMachine backs up all files to another disk (it can backup to the local disk also but if the disk fails you've lost your TM backups as well as the original stuff so not much good to do TM backups locally). Everyone has a different opinion of how large of a Time Machine disk you need - read this and decide for yourself
Pondini is an expert when it comes to all things related Time Machine.
3. Read my other post (from 2:00pm) - it explains that if you do the Command+Option+R right after you power up the system (and before it's booted up) you can do the Mavericks install if that is what your system came with. You need an internet connection for this to work as it downloads the version of OS X that came with the system when it was purchased. Are you the original owner? Do you remember if it came with Mavericks or ??? You will still need to have your App Store user login and password to complete the download of the real OS X. See these two articles for a good explanation of the Internet Recovery as well as the regular Recovery methods (it talks about "Lion" but think it's the same for all OS X versions with the newer recovery type installs):
http://9to5mac.com/2011/07/20/what-is-os-x-lion-internet-recovery-and-how-does-i t-work/
http://osxdaily.com/2014/12/14/reinstall-os-x-mac-internet-recovery/
4. Yes, you need an external disk to use Time Machine effectively. You can install Mavericks - IF the system was purchased with Mavericks (I've no idea how Apple knows or keeps track of this, but they do. You can try the Command+Option+R during power-on and you will see the "Starting Internet Recovery" message with a sort of revolving globe icon and a status bar showing how much time remains to download the installer. I just tried it on my old MacBook from 2010 and it looks like the Recovery Boot mode - only the download image came off the Internet/Ethernet connection instead of off the disk - much slower than booting off disk, but if you have a good internet connection speed shouldn't take too long (it's probably the same 650MB image stored on the Maverics Recovery partition (or something very similar).
All recent Apple computers can do Internet Recovery - plus a few older ones that have updated firmware. Here is a link explaining which older Apple systems can do the Internet Recovery if their firmware is updated (your Retina system is fairly new so it works with Internet Recovery without needing any firmware update):
Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery - Apple Support
Good luck - ask more questions if you wish...it's important to understand how all this fits together so you don't end up with more problems than you started out with.
dot.com wrote:
just tried it on my old MacBook from 2010 and it looks like the Recovery Boot mode - only the download image came off the Internet/Ethernet connection instead of off the disk - much slower than booting off disk, but if you have a good internet connection speed shouldn't take too long (it's probably the same 650MB image stored on the Maverics Recovery partition (or something very similar).
So after you did ''Starting Internet Recovery" , after it downloaded this image/installer, where does it show that is downloaded? this is only for installing the X OS again right? like csound1 said, if i had mavericks, i will get mavericks, no installer file possibility, right
this mac came with X 10.9 (13A2093) .. is it an earlier version of mavericks OS X 10.9.5 (13F34) ?
I can't really tell where it has put it (and I've been trying for over an hour), but in your case it won't matter, since you want to completely erase the disk and be able to install Mavericks after trying out Yosemite in case you don't like Yosemite -- right? In my case I can't risk wiping out my disk, cause it's too hard to restore everything as I have several hundred GB's of stuff - big difference in doing your 15GB of stuff and my 1TB+.
One thing I did discover is that the Internet Recover installer is the Yosemite installer (not Mavericks or Mountain Lion or Lion) for my system. Not sure if you will see the same as me as not as you have different MacBook Pro system.
Don't forget that you should erase the disk partition before doing the actual install of Yosemitte (after you have backed up the disk) - using the Disk Utility tool that is part of the recovery installer. That is why it's imperative to do a backup before this part normally (but in your case you said that your system came with Mavericks - but if I were you I would still have a full Mavericks backup before doing this in case there is a problem with Apple's servers or an internet problem or any other problem). If you don't have a backup from before doing the Yosemite install and there is a problem, then what do you do without a backup. Not much choice - SO MAKE THE BACKUPS JUST IN CASE THERE IS A PROBLEM. So backup both the Recovery partition and the OS X partition on your computer before doing the installation of OS X - just in case of problems later.
Hopefully you will like Yosemite and won't be interested in going back to Mavericks and you won't need the Mavericks backups, but just in case you don't then you have two ways to get back to Mavericks (your backup and the Internet Recovery method).
Good luck...
yes i don't even have stuff in here yet haha. So luckily i don't have to backup any files just mavericks system thing.
dot.com wrote:
So backup both the Recovery partition and the OS X partition on your computer before doing the installation of OS X - just in case of problems later.
Good luck...
I assumed that I wasn't able to do a Recovery partition backup because I need a mavericks installer file, wasn't like that?
Also, If the system has X OS 10.9, can't i go 10.9.5 after re installing mavericks? no possible, i will only get 10.9 correct?
I don't know - I would expect 10.9 and then have to update to 10.9.5 just like you have already had to do (download the 10.9.5 Combo update and it's very easy to go from 10.9 to 10.9.5
The Mavericks installer knows how to create the Recovery partition, not back it up. Sort of equivalent but not really.
You can backup the Recovery partition if you clone the entire disk (all partitions) with the programs that Eric Root talked about. I don't know the details as I don't use that software.
You can also do it if you use Disk Utility -- see this article at
http://www.econtechnologies.com/chronosync/TN-CS-recovery-partition-backup.html
Good luck...
Although Internet Recovery will reinstall the originally installed OS version - in your case that seems to be 10.9 - but it will install the most current version of it, which is 10.9.5. After booting into Internet Recovery and when you see the Utilities window, use Disk utility to erase your hard drive. When that is finished, choose to reinstall OS X. When that is finished (it is a very large file and will take a while), you should see the installer window pop open. Hit install and let it install (at that point, you do not have a choice because you erased your hard drive, so you have to system to start with). It will automatically create a recovery partition which is hidden and you won't see it.
Once that is all finished, you can create a complete bootable clone copy on an external hard drive or you can use Time Machine (also on an external hard drive). You really want to use a hard drive for these.
You can also download the installer again to have a fresh installer handy - simply go back to the app store and download it. When the download is finished, you will find a copy of it in your Applications folder. Copy it to a safe place for possible later use.
where to download OS X mavericks (trying jan/2015) for clean install
