Built right into OS X, OS X Recovery lets you repair disks or reinstall OS X without the need for a physical disc.
The OS X Recovery Disk Assistant lets you create OS X Recovery on an external drive that has all of the same capabilities as the built-in OS X Recovery: reinstall Lion or Mountain Lion, repair the disk using Disk Utility, restore from a Time Machine backup, or browse the web with Safari.
Note: In order to create an external OS X Recovery using the OS X Recovery Assistant, the Mac must have an existing Recovery HD.
To create an external OS X Recovery, download the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant application. Insert an external drive, launch the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant, select the drive where you would like to install, and follow the on screen instructions.
When the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant completes, the new partition will not be visible in the Finder or Disk Utility. To access OS X Recovery, reboot the computer while holding the Option key. Select Recovery HD from the Startup Manager.
For detailed information on this update, please visit: About OS X Recovery Disk Assistant.
Post Date: Aug 8, 2011
File Size: 1.07 MB
- OS X Lion or Mountain Lion
- A Mac running OS X with an existing Recovery HD
- An external USB hard drive or thumb drive with at least 1GB of free space
Note: This utility is not compatible with a disk that is using CoreStorage, including any disk larger than 2.2TB, any disk with FileVault 2 enabled, and all Fusion drives.
Sometimes, we break things. It’s unfortunate, but true. If you’ve somehow managed to delete or mangle your Recovery partition beyond recognition, there’s still hope. For versions of OS X and macOS from Lion 10.7 and up, there’s a script called Recovery Partition Creator that will non-destructively put a recovery partition back on your Mac without you having to reinstall macOS.
You might think a missing recovery partition means reinstalling OS X or macOS. Fortunately, there’s another way (Image Credit: fancycrave1)
A Word of Warning
These steps are not for the faint of heart. You could damage your installation and have to reinstall your Mac from a backup after this. Make sure you have a very recent Time Machine backup before proceeding.
Getting Things Ready
First things first. For this script to function properly, you need the installation image of your particular version of OS X or macOS. Head to the Mac App Store, locate your installation file in the Purchases tab, and download it.
Next, if you run OS X El Capitan or later, you will need to disable a feature known as System Integrity Protection (SIP). SIP, sometimes referred to as rootless mode, is a security feature that protects certain system files and directories against modification. This needs to be disabled for the Recovery Partition Creator to work.
First, boot into Recovery or Internet Recovery Mode. You do this by restarting your Mac and holding Command-R (Recovery Mode) or Option-Command-R (Internet Recovery Mode) when the gray screen appears. Once you are safely within the confines of Recovery or Internet Recovery Mode, click Utilities > Terminal . When Terminal launches, type the following command:
Now restart your Mac, and you’re ready to rock and roll.
