Need to remove recovery partition el capitan

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Level 1

64 points

Need to remove recovery partition el capitan

I'll bet the subject line drew you in amazement, but its not what you think.

I have a Mac Mini as my HTPC system with a normal 160GB HD as the boot drive.

I decided to change the boot drive to an SSD for more more performance so I bought a 128GB SSD and set it up with El Capitan.

The SSD is working great and now I want to change the 160GB HD back to a normal storage drive.

But I can't get rid of the Recovery Partition on the HD.

I've tried to erase the drive and tried to partition drive, but the Recovery Partition won't go away.

Is there some way to do this on a secondary drive??

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), 8GB 128GB SSD 160 HD Dual 4TB RAIDs

Posted on Mar 23, 2017 11:43 PM

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Answer 1

dialabrain

Level 10

136,127 points

Mar 24, 2017 12:35 AM in response to Doug Evans

FWIW, make sure you have a good back up first. You can try Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Mac. They have a trial version. It most likely will allow you to delete the Recovery partition but use at your own risk.

https://www.paragon-software.com/home/hdm-mac/

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Answer 2

Doug Evans Author

Level 1

64 points

Mar 24, 2017 6:59 AM in response to dialabrain

I don't need a backup as the drive itself is empty... and I've been doing erasing and partitioning to get rid of the recovery partition. I'll take a look at Paragon.

This was really simple before El Capitan... just repartition the drive. Has Apple dumbed down Disk Utility???

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Answer 3

dialabrain

Level 10

136,127 points

Mar 24, 2017 7:03 AM in response to Doug Evans

I meant back up your main drive in case something goes wrong while you are trying to erase the Recovery partition.

As far as Disk Utility, some people think so. It was simplified to hopefully prevent the masses from getting into trouble is my thought.

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Answer 4

Doug Evans Author

Level 1

64 points

Mar 24, 2017 7:24 AM in response to dialabrain

Paragon worked perfectly.

It's sad that one has to resort to a third-party utility to get something done that used to be built in.

Apple is making very bad software decisions... all in the name of IOS compatibility.

Pretty soon we'll lose macOS and have too put up with IOS... and then we'll be unable to get anything done.

First iTunes... then Final Cut Pro... then iWorks... now Disk Utility... what next???

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Answer 5

dialabrain

Level 10

136,127 points

Mar 24, 2017 7:31 AM in response to Doug Evans

Glad it worked for you. I knew it would. I use it myself but I didn't want to sound like I was endorsing it.

As far as Apple, like I said I think they are trying to create products for the "masses" and not for "power" users.

That's one drawback being a long time Mac user. One expects certain applications to work the way they did. New users have no such expectations.

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Answer 6

Doug Evans Author

Level 1

64 points

Mar 24, 2017 7:43 AM in response to dialabrain

Actually, I don't expect them to work like they did... I expect them to work better!

Yet every new release of an Apple has dozens to hundreds of "features" deleted... working worse!!

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Answer 7

dialabrain

Level 10

136,127 points

Mar 24, 2017 7:47 AM in response to Doug Evans

Not worse, different. 😁

But I feel your pain. 😎

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