rMBP Recovery Partition Clarification

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Level 1

35 points

rMBP Recovery Partition Clarification

Ok I'm more of a System 7 kind of guy and recently upgrading my Mac and OS coming from 10.6.8 so I'm new to this whole recovery partition thingamajig.

Can someone just confirm the recovery partition is on the firmware or SSD and is it hidden? (Mid-2012 rMBP)

I just want to make sure I can safely boot from a USB, use Disk Utility to wipe the SSD and reinstall Mac OS and I will not lose the recovery partition because in Disk Utility I can only see the one partition so I'm afraid if I wipe it it wipes everything including recovery.

Any insight would be much appreciated, thanks.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jul 28, 2015 2:45 AM

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Answer 1

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dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Jul 28, 2015 6:17 AM in response to Iron Monkey

The recovery partition is a hidden partition on the SSD. If you already have the current OS X installer on the external drive, or if you intend to migrate from the external (or clone it to the internal) then go ahead and boot from the external and then you can safely erase the internal hard drive without damaging the recovery partition. However if you intend to erase the internal and download the new OS then you might was well boot with the Recovery Partition since that’s why it exists. Once you’ve booted into the Recovery Partition you can use Disk Utility and then download and install the OS.

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Answer 2

Iron Monkey Author

Level 1

35 points

Jul 28, 2015 5:41 PM in response to dwb

Great, I just wanted to be sure Apple made it Iron_Monkey-proof so I can't accidentally erase the recovery partition unless I actually know how to erase the recovery partition, which I don't, so I don't have to worry. Out of sight out of mind I suppose.

I'm currently in China so I didn't want to download Mac OS through recovery because 1) unstable internet connection that cuts off every now and then and 2) didn't want risk getting a "special" version of Mac OS for the Chinese market (if such a version exists, really don't know) so I opted to download the installer through my home country's app store and made a bootable usb.

Thanks again for clearing that up for me.

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