Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

restoring to a reformatted hard drive

I have two partitions on my hard drive and would like to reformat the disk with a single partition since I really don't need two any more. The boot drive is running 10.9.5. As I (think) I understand it, the way to go is to boot with an external drive, reformat the disk and restore from Time Machine. However, I'm unable to boot from a recovery disk (booting and holding cmd-R just gives me my normal login screen); holding option as I boot likewise only offers 10.9.5. I had understood that the disk that holds the Time Machine backup (it's an external Iomega drive) should have a bootable system, but apparently not - startup disk preference pane only offers my 10.9.5 partion


I'm assuming I can create a bootable system on a USB drive (for example: and I would be grateful for tips on how to do this), but will this have a version of Time Machine that I can then use to restore an exact copy of my backup once I've reformated my hard drive?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on May 5, 2016 8:52 AM

Reply
5 replies

May 5, 2016 9:03 AM in response to Leo Bloom

Are you using the Apple supplied keyboard?


Time Machine backups are not bootable.


You can create a bootable external drive by either installing a system to it using the system installer, or by using a cloning tool to do a special kind of copy of the files to it. Disk Utility can do this.


The Restore function of Disk Utility included in OS X. Kappy's directions - http://discussions.apple.com/thread/1863436?answerId=8799711022#8799711022

May 5, 2016 2:22 PM in response to Leo Bloom

I seem to have a couple of problems. My optical drive seems to be faulty, and isn't reading my original install dvd; so I have no alternative boot disk. And, both as a test and in order to try and solve this, I restored the original (10.7.5) system to my smaller partition and it won't boot. It shows up as a startup drive in the startup preferences pane, but if I select it, the pane won't close, and if I try to choose it by holding option at startup, the computer shuts down immediately. Quite what's wrong I don't know, but at the moment I can't reformat my drive anyway.

May 9, 2016 7:42 AM in response to Eric Root

Yes, the 10.9 partition is fine, and at the moment I'm not touching anything ("if it ain't broke...). I didn't realise I could remove the other partition without reformatting the disk, but I've now done that. But I will try Recovery Partition Creator since I clearly need some way of booting if the disk fails.


And where I said above that I was trying to boot from the Time Machine drive, what I meant was I believe there is supposed to be some sort of option whereby the Time Machine drive allows for a restore. This seems to be corrupted too: I get the choice of the Time Machine drive as a startup when I hold down the option key, but then when I choose it, the computer just shuts down again. So if everything did fail I can't even restore from Time Machine.

restoring to a reformatted hard drive

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.