Recovery disk assistant for Maverick

I installed Maverick without a hitch. I have Time Machine working. I want to create a Recovery Disk on a USB. I had previously done this under Mountain Lion using the Recovery Disk Assistant. When I open this program to create a new Recovery Disk (for Maverick) the program says
"The Recovery Disk Assistant creates a disk that you can use to recover your Mac OSX Lion system".
Since I no longer have OS X Lion, will this program still work?
Thanks
Doug

http://www.macworld.com/article/2056561/how-to-make-a-bootable-mavericks-install -drive.html
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/how-to-make-your-own-bootable-os-x-10-9-mav ericks-usb-install-drive/
The latest version of Diskmaker X app, available here

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Recovery Disk Assistant Under Mavericks Says "Lion"

Problem: Mac Pro with soft RAID died. I think it got a hosed up OS update. Since it has a soft RAID, it does not have a recovery partition.
Apparent solution: We also have MacBook Pro that was, until yesterday, still running Lion. I upgraded it to Mavericks.
On the MacBook Pro, now running Mavericks, I am following the instructions in OS X: About Recovery Disk Assistant to create a Mavericks recovery disk on a USB thumb drive ("jump drive," "USB stick," or whatever you want to call it).
Everything went fine until I ran the Recovery Disk Assistant, which seems to be claiming that it's creating a Lion recovery disk rather than a Mavericks recovery disk. Two possible explanation come to mind:
The recovery partition on the MacBook Pro it's copying onto the jump drive is still a Lion recovery partition, despite having upgraded to Mavericks, and it really is in fact creating a Lion recovery disk.
The Recovery Disk Assistant has outdated graphics and boiler-plate text, so despite what it says, it really is creating a Mavericks recovery disk.
Anybody know which is the case?

Hmmm... Looks like it may not ultimately matter, because when I boot the Mac Pro with the option key down, it doesn't seem to see the USB drive anyway...
Nevertheless, if any of you know the answer, I'd be interested to know, just in case it comes in handy elsewhere.

Did Recovery Disk Assistant change for Mavericks?

I'd like to put Recovery on a thumb drive. The page for Recovery Disk Assistant ( http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1433 ) refers only to Lion and Mountain Lion, and the download link doesn't work. What's the story?

Best way to put a recovery partition on the thumb drive is to use the Disk Center in Carbon Copy Cloner (http://www.bombich.com)
Or you can create a full OS X installer on an 8GB flash drive using Diskmaker X (http://liondiskmaker.com)

Recovery disk assistant

I'm making a recovery thumb drive with Recovery Disk Assistant and have a couple of questions.
1. I have a mac running Mavericks and another running Mountain Lion.   Can I use the same recovery disk with both?   Should I create separate partitions on the USB and run recovery disk assistant on each mac in turn creating a separate recovery disk in each partition?
2. I've tried it out and testing is a bit of a mystery.   When you boot up with Command-R how do you know you have then booted with the USB recovery disk and not the internal recovery on the Macintosh HD ?
Thanks

1. No. A Mountain Lion Recovery HD and a Mavericks one are different. You will need one for each
2. You boot from a Recovery USB disk using OPTION, not COMMAND-R:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
      "OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the desired disk icon from which you want to boot.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.

How do I format an external HD with Recovery Disk Assistant on?

Hi,
I have seen a couple of threads on this, but I'm still not "Compos Mentis" with how to format an external drive with the Recovery Disk Assistant on.
I have a 320GB which has my recovery disk assistant on - "Don't ask!" - Anyway it goes without saying that I want it all back, but I'll be damned if I can get there. I have managed to view (after a lot of faffing) what I thought was the External Drive, but now realise that it's not...this is what I am now seeing - are these removable via partition (disk0s1 & Recovery HD) as I have been merrily trying to erase them in he belief that they were the external HD and as far as I can see nothing has changed...only my annoyance!
Anyway in short, I need this
A) view the external drive and
B) Format it back to 320GB
Can anyone spoon feed me a way out?
Thanks

I don't understand what you mean by, "how to format an external drive with the Recovery Disk Assistant on."
You don't need to use the Recovery HD to format an external drive. Just use Disk Utility:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

Recovery Disk Assistant created USB not a valid start-up disk

Booting from Recovery Disk Assistant created USB drive gives me a slashed circle with an eternally spinning grey wheel. Googling forums for the meaning of that symbol (and the fact that the machine never boots) leads me to believe that my recovery USB is somehow corrupted. This is repeatable -- erasing the USB key, repartitioning, re-downloading and re-installing using the Recovery Disk Assistant leads to the same error. I've verified that the USB drive is fully functional. I'm curious if there's anything obvious that I'm doing wrong here? Has anyone else experienced this?
The particulars are as follows.
- I followed the instructions here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848
- I have a 16 GB Corsair flash key, on which I have two GUID partitions: one 2 GB and one 14 GB
     * intially, the 2 GB partition (the to-be recovery partition, even though the recovery files are ~650 MB) is formatted as a non-encrypted, Mac OS Extended (journaled) format
     * the 14 GB partition is ExFat
- the Recovery Assistant finishes normally
- as expected, the recovery partition is not visible in Disk Utility, but exists:
$ diskutil list
...{snip}...
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *16.0 GB    disk2
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk2s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data Feigenbaum              13.7 GB    disk2s3
- to test the recovery disk, I reboot, holding `option' and choose to boot from the recovery partion on my USB drive
     * I'm using a non-retina, 2012 MBP with OS 10.8.5, if that matters
- normal start-up splash: apple icon
- boom: spinning wheel & slashed circle

Thanks for the suggestions! I didn't give this a go with a single partition, but I have resolved the problem.
Before finding the solution, I tried making a bootable clone of the MBP's recovery partition:
- enable Disk Utility's debug option from the terminal: defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1
- mounted the recovery partition in Disk Utility
- restored from the recovery partition to the desired partition on my USB drive
- made the partition bootable from the terminal: sudo bless --folder /Volume/{path}/System/Library//CoreServices
- rebooted from the new partition
I got the same result: slashed circle and a spinning wheel
Creating the USB recovery partition on my Mac Pro worked. I verified that it works on both machines before I saw R C-R's suggestion. What's really weird is that the MBP *will* start from its own recovery partition. Maybe the MBP's recovery partition is corrupted in a way that allows it to boot but not be copied? Maybe I've made an error elsewhere? Who knows. In any case, my problem is solved now and hopefully, this thread helps some other poor soul.
Thanks again for the suggestions! Much appreciated.

HT4848 How do I get the Recovery Disk Assistant?

Reading 'OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery Disk Assistant' at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848?viewlocale=en_US . My 1 day old macbook pro would not let me or root login (after resizing the os partition with diskutil to install fedora linux) and I need to restore the OS. Now this paper and support engineer tells me to recover the OS I need a working OS to prepare the recovery USB disk. Isn't this a catch 22 situation? Why wouldn't Apple sent a $1 CD with the $2400 macbook? To save $1? I had OSX 10.6 from my mini and tried to boot from that - no go - the most expensive macbook MD386LL/A starts beeping in the middle of the boot and crashes.
Since apple does not have Lion 10.7 CDs anywhere on the applestore.com I will have to nicely pack it and sent it back to Amazon and get at new one so I can start with Lion Recovery Disk Assistant fist.
If only there was a notebook on the market with 1920x1200 screen...

Thanks for the link - good summary. I managed to recover the EFI partition 2 with system restore and I am running it now - I have a +1MB/s internet connection and the estimate is ~2h of download of some new software. I wonder how long this total internet recovery without the data on local disk would take - described in that link you sent? I will try this next with a spare SATA drive
This is not an improvement over a local CD image. There must be some explanation for this "enhancement". My guess it is to protect Apple from lost revenue and stop their customers form upgrading Apple computers for free.

Can I use a SD Card rather than a USB stick when using Lion Recovery Disk Assistant

I'm using a MB Pro 2010, can I use a SD Card in the SD Card slot rather than a USB stick when using Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. I would like to use the 16GB chip with a single 1GB partition so I can dump a bunch of other backup stuff into the same chipper.

Yes, you could certainly do that, provided you have a card reader or an SD card slot available on both Macs and what you are copying is smaller than the capacity of your SD card.
But that's an awfully slow way to transfer GB's of files. 32GB SD cards cost anywhere from about $20 to $90 and of course the cheaper cards will be the slowest cards. Also need to consider that your iPhoto, iTunes and especially iMovie libraries may be larger than your SD card's capacity, and there is no easy way to 'split' them to save partial libraries and reassemble them on your new Mac.
A better solution is an external hard drive connected via FW or USB2. Much faster and without the capacity limit of an SD card. For example, you could get a 500GB OWC Mercury Elite Pro mini drive (5400 rpm) for $115 and after you are done using it for file transfer it would be a nice backup drive. Or build your own with an OWC mini case and a 500GB WD Scorpio 7200 rpm drive for about $120. Both support eSATA, FW400/800 and USB2.
Or you could just network the two Macs together and use the Finder to transfer files that way. Cheap, fast, and it works.

Having problem with Recovery Disk assistant. Help

Hi apple community.
I am having trouble with Recovery Disk Assistant.
I want to re-install my mountain lion to restore all settings to default without deleting my personal data (e.g. Movies, documents, pictures, downloads, dowloaded programs like Photoshop cs6 and other downloaded apps)
I want to make a bootable usb for mountain lion.
so i am using the Recovery Disk Assistant.
And when i open the Recovery disk assistant, i was expecting that the OS that will go onto the usb was Mountain lion. But i get OS X Lion instead.
Of course i dont want to downgrade my mountain lion to its previos version of OS X which is Lion.
How should i do this? Thanks.

RDA simply copies your Recovery partition to the flash drive. If you're sure you have a Lion Recovery system, but you're running ML, then you need to download the ML installer from the App Store and run it.

How to stop lion recovery disk assistant from downloading?

Since I planned to upgrade the stock disk on my macbook pro I created a USB stick backup of the Lion OS using Lion recovery disk assistant. It built a bootable copy of my Lion OS. I replaced the drive, booted from the USB stick Lion, formatted the new drive with disk utility with one OSX partition, and bunch of Linux partitions for the planned dual/triple/etc. boot. I then used the recovery disk menu to reinstall OSX on the new disk. It took off and started the download just like while booting with R key or from the recovery partition AGAIN!. This is a 2 hour proposition and is totally ridiculous. I need to be able to reinstall without downloading Lion every time. Any ideas on how to stop this new Apple invention from doing this download?

If you read the Disk Recovery Assistant documentation all that it does is put a copy of the Recovery HD onto the flash drive. There is no OS on it to reinstall, hence the reason for the Internet download.
If you wish to have a true bootable installer flash drive for your system, then here's what is involved. Start by going to this link: Downloading Hardware Specific Lion Installers. Follow the instructions very, very carefully because this can be a bit tricky.
Once you have the installer application:
Make Your Own Lion Installer
1. After downloading Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Lion application. After Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Lion installer. Move the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes installing Lion.
2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
3. Locate the saved Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.
4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility.
Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Drag the InstallESD.dmg disc image file into the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable Lion installer that you can use without having to re-download Lion.

Reinstalling from Recovery Disk Assistant help?

When booting to the Recovery Disk Assistant (cmd+R) and selecting the option to "Reinstall OS X", is this a clean install or are there files and settings still left on the hard drive? thanks

Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

I wanted to create two partitions on my iMac w/ Lion using a Recovery USB i created using Lion Recovery Disk Assistant but I keep getting Partition failed message saying "couldn't unmount disk"

I have this recently purchased iMac that comes with a Lion but I wanted to have two partitions on the hard disk. I know that the Recovery HD partition is on the same hard disk so I downloaded the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant and created a Recovery disk using a USB. I boot up the system using the USB Recovery disk and run Disk Utility to create 2 Partitions on the hard disk but I get a Failed partition message saying "couldn't unmount disk". What could be the problem here?

admench wrote:
Thanks for your continued help Tony. Do you mean normal boot into the regular operating system setting i.e. no keys held down in bootup? I think I have tried this, with the same result.
Yes, that's what I meant. If that doesn't work, verify that you have a G.U.I.D. partition scheme (you probably do):

HT4848 Lion Re-install _ Recovery Disk Assistant

i want to re-install my macbook's Lion OS. I initiall had SnowLeopard, then upgraded to Lion, from App Store. if I use the recovery assistant disk, will i still need to connect online in order for Lion to be re-downloaded, like before?

Yes you will. The Recovery Disk assistant download/program is for Making a USB thumb drive of the Recovery HD files. It does Not include the OS Re-Install files. You also need to use that program when there is a Recovery HD partition on the Mac you are using it on. That download does not have the Recovery HD files. It is only a Utility for Creating a thumb drive of the Recovery HD.
You can Save the OS X Lion download and make a Install USB thumb drive. There are many site that have instruction on doing that. Once saved use this program to create the Lion Install USB thumb drive.

Recovery disk assistant question

I just downloaded Lion recovery disk assistant and placed it on a flash drive. I have two Macs a Pro & Air will the flash drive work for both or is it computer specific?

It will work for both.
The only requirement for using it to create a Lion Recovery HD on a thumb drive is to run it on a Mac that has a working Lion Recovery HD.

Tried to run Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, and now cannot access my external USB disk...

Greetings all,
I run the app after downloading it from Apple but it failed with a message that it could not use that drive. From then on, the drive is inaccesible. Disk Utility cannot repair it, it reports "incompatible filesystem". If someone has an idea on this I would be grateful as I have rather important personal and family info on this drive... It is a Lacie external USB drive of 1TB.

When did the file assistant fail saying it couldn't use the drive? If it's suddenly inaccessible, I can only assume it started the erase process before it failed?
So you know for future reference, review this link.
Excerpt from the above link:
System requirements
A Mac running OS X Lion with an existing Recovery HD
An external USB hard drive or thumb drive with at least 1GB of free space
How to use Lion Recovery Disk Assistant
The Lion Recovery Disk Assistant will erase all data on the external drive when creating the Recovery HD. You should either backup your data before running the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, or create a new partition on the external drive.

Recovery disk assistant for Maverick

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