Clean install of Mavericks from Recovery Partition

Can you do a clean install of Mavericks from the Recovery Partition (cmd+R on boot)? Or do I need to put in the DVD that came with the 2010 MacBook Pro, boot to that, reformat drive, and install/upgrade from there?
Yes, I know you can make a USB boot drive (which I don't have). Can I boot to the recovery partition, reformat the drive, and then install Mavericks from there? Or will there be other issues? I do not want to restore from a Time Machine drive (which is also on the fritz), I want a clean install. Thanks.

To 'clean install' you need to erase the partition for OS X…
Boot into recovery mode.
Select Disk Utility from the options list.
Select your boot disk in the left sidebar and then find the desired partition (these are indented below the disk icon).
In the erase tab, erase the OS X volume and format the new partition as a 'Mac OS Extended (journaled)' volume.
Quit Disk Utility & select the installer from the main screen.
I'd strongly suggest you backup all the other OS's before you begin since it is possible to erase the wrong partition!
The installer will be downloaded from Apple so you should use a wired connection if possible - wifi can be slow & unreliable, it will save time if your internet connection is faster than wifi.

Similar Messages

Lion Clean Install - No Disc Required - Recovery Partition Solution

There is a way to run a Lion clean install without unpacking the installation onto a new disc or thumb drive. It can be accomplished via a slightly longer, two-step upgrade process, which requires wiping your hard drive after you've upgraded to Lion. You must be able to connect to the internet for this option to work, as it will require downloading the install package again.
As always, be sure to back up your data before performing any sort of wipe of your hard drive.
STEP 1 - Initial Upgrade
Perform a normal Lion upgrade through the App Store. This will install Lion on top of your current configuration. It will also create a Recovery Partition, which is a new feature of the Lion OS. It is this Recovery Partition that you will use to perform the clean install.
STEP 2 - Wipe and Clean Install
Restart your computer into Recovery mode. This can be done by either holding down CMD-r during boot up, or holding down the Option key during bootup and selecting to boot from the Recovery partition.
Select the Disk Utility option from the main menu. Here you can select the main partition, click on the Erase tab at the top, and completely erase the partition. Once you've done this, quit Disk Utility Option, and you will return to the main menu.
Select the Lion Installation option. It will ask you to connect to the internet if you have not done so already (if wireless, you can do this via the Wi-Fi icon in the top right corner). It will also ask you to input your Apple ID login and password in order to verify that you've already purchased the software. The installation will take as long as it requires to download the package again. Once downloaded and installed, Lion will walk you through initial set up.
This solution worked for me, but I make no guarantees that it will work for others.

I've created a boot disk (several actually) following the methods outlined in this guide.
http://www.eggfreckles.net/tech/burning-a-lion-boot-disc/
I've also saved the installer dmg in several backup locations so it can be burned again fresh or transfered to bootable USB thumb drives.
The Lion install disk boots up and operates just like the Recovery Partition (Disk Utiltiy and all) with one giant benefit, you don't have to log into the MacAppStore with all it's complications or require a lenghtly internet download to install Lion.
So you won't see this annoying screen and have to wait a few hours if the servers are overloaded.
The boot disk also installs considerably faster. Two giant benefits actually.
Also once Lion is installed, Bootcamp can be used to partition the drive, then the Recovery Partiton > Disk Utiltiy used to change the BOOTCAMP partition to HFS+ journaled and then 10.6 can be installed or cloned from a external drive onto the BOOTCAMP partition.
Dual boot Snow/Lion is possible with a large enough boot drive.

What to migrate after clean install of Mavericks?

Hi,
I just did a hard drive wipe and a clean install of Mavericks from a thumb drive installer onto my iMac. I'm not sure which things to select in Migration Assistant. I'd like to know what kinds of things are restored if I migrate from the checkbox options: 1) it has my name, 2) other files and folders, 3) computer and network settings. I'm presuming I shouldn't migrate anything from my applications folder.
Also, before the clean install I backed everything up on an external hard drive, which has a couple of TB of info. Will the migration assistant, if I select other files and folders grab everything else on that hard drive and attempt to install it on my iMac?
What's missing is Messages history, mail acccounts, etc.
And I have had itunes set up on an external drive. When I open itunes, it doesn't show any of my podcasts or music, just my apple purchases. I selected the folder name on that hard drive in itunes preferences, quit and reopened itunes, but still nothing.
And I'm not sure how to get my iPad syncing info activated in itunes.
Thanks very much for any help with any of this

How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac.
The above should help you out with using MA. Also, see Using Migration Assistant on Lion or Mountain Lion.

I need to do a clean install of maverick on my 2010 mbp what disk do i use and how do i move certain files from an external hard drive

I want to do a clean install of maverick on my 2010 mbp. I need to know what disk to use and also how i take certain files off my external hard drive and put on my computer. When I was having problems with my airport they did a clean install and they pulled files of my time machine.   however they forgot to put the partition back in for a windows side. Originally I had Parellels on my computer. After my external hard drive got corrupted i called apple and they fixed the problem but didn't have me set up the time machine except for the external hard drive. Now my only back up is from the external not from the laptop.    I am not sure how to do any of this. I am not computer savvy...PLEASE I NEED HELP>

First, you need to make a backup of your MBP onto your external drive. I suggest you start by cloning your MBP drive to the external drive:
Clone Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
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.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
This clone is fully bootable and also contains a clone of your Recovery HD.
Second, you need to do a clean install of OS X onto your MBP as follows:
Install or Reinstall Mavericks or 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.
OS X Mavericks- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Erase and reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should accomplish your goals. You will have a clean install of OS X on your MBP and a bootable clone of your old system and all your files on the external drive.

Install from Recovery partition after upgrade from 10.9

Hi all, on my MacBook 13" nov. 2012 I upgraded from Mavericks to Yosemite using the standard upgrade.
After a couple of days I decided to perform a clean install:
- formatted "Macintosh HD Partition"
- rebooted with cmd+R
- reinstalled from recovery partition.
Is this really a clean install or my recovery partition contains pieces of the old Mavericks?
Thanks in advance for answering
Paolo

paolo_italy wrote:
First I upgraded from Mavericks to Yosemite (with no erase). Then I booted from recovery partition, erased Macintosh HD partition and installed Yosemite.
My question is: did I perform a really clean install or to be sure I had to erase the entire disk and recover from the Internet?
Paolo
You performed a clean install of OS X Yosemite.
You were in the Yosemite Recovery HD.
You erased the Macintosh HD which erases the previous OS install, user accounts and data files -- everything! Then you reinstalled JUST OS X Yosemite.

Mavericks won't install after accidentally deleting recovery partition on 10.6.8

I have been searching for hours for a solution and found none.
Essentially, I was running 10.8 on my MBA which originally came with 10.6. Wishing to perform a clean install of Mavericks, I accidentally deleted the recovery partition. Installing Mavericks would then always crash midway; so eventually I reinstalled my original OS from the bootable disc from apple. Then I figure I had to create a bootable disc for Mavericks, which I did, and the result is the same, the installation crashes midway.
Any other way I could install 10.9?
Thanks

Mavericks creates a recovery partition while installing.
So, no previous recovery partition needed.
But playing whith partitions could be a mess.
Try a clean reinstall.

Restore from time machine after clean install of Mavericks

I decided to do a clean install of Mavericks to get rid of all the very old files hiding in my system folders. I made a startup disk following online instructions, rebooted from the USB drive and wiped the drive and reinstalled Mavericks. Then I plugged in my Time machine backup drive and tried to recover particular folders from the latest backup. However, I am getting a permission error that prevents me from going into the old user folder from that backup. It has a red circle/line icon on the folder. How do I get around this so I can select what to restore?

You might be able to view in System Preferences > Users & Groups.
Time Machine - Troubleshooting by James Pond is the best source around for Time Machine help.
I'm not seeing your issue listed. It's possible you will need to do a full Time Machine restore to another drive so you can actually boot from the drive then log into the user. If you have enough space on internal you could partition to restore there without polluting your current new install.
Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions 18. How can I copy my TM backups to a different location?
I backup to Time Machine but I also use a clone and use it over Time Machine when I'm trying to restore a User like youare trying to do. Hopefully someone else will have a better suggestion other than doing a full restore.

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks. I know the data is there but seems unaccessable because I may have changed the Computer or Owner name. Is there any way to fix that now?

Hi Linc,
my back-up data is managed by Time Machine; the actual data is on a second internal Hard Drive with a capacity of 1TB - not partitioned. I am using Time Machine and have access to all data backed up since Mavericks Clean Install but not the data prior to this date.
When I open the 1TB drive in Finder I can see a folder "Backups.backupdb/Sigi's Mac Pro/ followed by many folders of backup dates going back to 2010-09-20-103441 and up to 2014-02-07-142414 all followed with folder Macintosh HD. February 7th 2014 was the date of the clean install.
These Backups are followed by backup date folder 2014-02-08-075554 with a subfolder of MacPro-320GB (this is the name I assigned to my Boot Drive during formatting; I suspect I should have assigned the same name as before ie. Macintosh HD) and 2014-02-11 with a subfolder Macintosh HD, these are the ones I get access to by way of Time Machine > Restore.
Weird thing is on Febr 11 when I relised my possible mistake and renamed the Bootdrive back to what it was initially ie. Macintosh HD despite this I have access to all backup data since the Clean Install in both folders MacPro-320GB as well as Macintosh HD but not to any data prior to the Clean Install.
Is there something that Time Machine knows and prevents access or is it simply a matter of renaming the subfolder 2014-02-08-07554/MacPro-320GB to ........./Macintosh HD?
I like to restore selectively and not everything - It was hard work reinstalling apps that were supposed to be the troublemakers (ref my discussion on Maverick problems) but I now need to get onto data specific to some of these apps as well as other data I may have missed. Long story? Yes and sorry.
Sigi

Why do you need a usb bootable drive to do a clean install of Mavericks (or any other OSX)?

I have had a few minor bugs with Mavericks, and I finally got an external hard drive, so I decided to do a clean install of Mavericks.
Every single tutorial I've found online has suggested making a usb-bootable drive to reinstall the os with. However, I simply backed up the things I wanted to save on my external hard drive, restarted holding Cmd+R and went to disk utility, erased my Macintosh HD in the correct format, then went over to the install Mavericks tab on the recovery mode screen. Now, I understand it takes a little longer to do it this way, but it's only got about an hour left, and I started the reinstallation about 20 min's ago.
Besides the much longer time to wait for the OS to reinstall using my method, without a USB drive, what is the disadvantage of simply doing it all through the recovery mode boot screen via wifi? I know I could have done the bootable drive on my external hd, but I'd rather not mess with partitions on this drive...it's just got my documents, music, movies...etc, and I'd like to keep it that way.
Any info would be appreciated.

Besides the time difference and the data used on your network connection they are the same.
Actually there is one difference depending on when the USB installer was made the software you load might be out-of-date. When you download from a Apple you know you are getting the latest versions. So if you do use a USB stick to install make sure you run a software update before doing anything.

Can't boot from recovery partition in Mountain Lion

I've installed Mountain Lion on two different boxes so far: a 20" iMac at home and a Mac Mini at work. Both had up to date Lion installations prior to the upgrade. After installing Mountain Lion I am not able to boot in to the recovery partition on either one. Whether I hold down Command-R to go directly to the recovery parittion, or simply hold down Option to get a choice of boot devices, I am taken directly to the login screen.
The recovery partition is there on both boxes, and I can mount it and examine it using 'diskutil' from the command line. I created a USB image of the recovery partition on the iMac, and the Startup Disk control panel allowed be to select it as a boot device, but the box (both boxes, actually; I also tried it on the Mini) booted directly to the login screen.
I honestly don't know whether I could boot to the recovery partition prior to upgrading to Mountatin Lion or not. When I first installed Lion on the iMac I did not get a recovery paritition, but Apple sent me a USB drive and after cleaning up the disk (getting rid of an unused Boot Camp partition) I was able to get a clean install with a functioning recovery paritition. However I never booted from it after confirming that it worked.
Anyone else see anything like this? Or have an idea how to fix it?
- Larry

Ok but you can get the Option key to work.
There is a utility to Rebuild the recovery HD partition.
Look here first.
Removing and rebuilding a malfunctioning Recovery HD partition « Der Flounder
Then in that article a link to download or find the Recovery HD utility on the Apple website.
But that was originally for Lion. So you may have to rebuild the Lion R-HD then Reinstall Mt Lion over the top of your current install of Mt Lion for it to make the Mt Lion R-HD.
Depending on the age of your Mac's you may also be able to use the Online (Internet) Recovery HD system. To get to that with a R-HD partition on the system, even if that R-HD partition sin't working, you hold down Command+Option+r keys when starting the system (And yes with the USB keyboard attached).

How can I wipe hard drive and do a clean install of Mavericks?

I have a 2012 MacBook Pro that is terrible sluggish, probably from upgrades and semi-deleted Symantec software. I want to wipe the hard drive and do a clean install of Mavericks. I have all files backed up, and can reinstall software.
I think there is a way to do this with Disc Utility? But don't know how. Advice welcome

If you have Yosemite installed and want to reinstall it, do a backup, preferable 2 separate ones on 2 drives. Boot to the Recovery Volume (command - R on a restart or hold down the option/alt key during a restart and select Recovery Volume). Run Disk Utility Verify/Repair and Repair Permissions until you get no errors. Reformat the drive using Disk Utility/Erase Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then click the Option button and select GUID. Then re-install the OS.
OS X Recovery
OS X Recovery (2)
When you reboot, use Setup Assistant to restore your data.

After upgrading to OS X Mavericks, the recovery partition boot return with error

After upgrading to Mavericks, i tried to boot from recovery partition, but when it's booting error message coming up that i can not boot and show me options to view the log but only for 1 sec and then the mac reboot automaticly and i could not view the log. How can i fix the recovery partition?

Thank you, please check the output:
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            120.5 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *157.3 MB   disk1
   1:                  Apple_HFS TeamViewer              157.2 MB   disk1s1
   Device Identifier:        disk0s3
   Device Node:              /dev/disk0s3
   Part of Whole:            disk0
   Device / Media Name:      Recovery HD
   Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)
   Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)
   File System:              None
   Partition Type:           Apple_Boot
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 PCI
   SMART Status:             Verified
   Volume UUID:              4C353E82-8BCC-335F-BD06-8A2AB21222BA
   Total Size:               650.0 MB (650002432 Bytes) (exactly 1269536 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
   Ejectable:                No
   Whole:                    No
   Internal:                 Yes
   Solid State:              Yes

Clean install vs. time machine recovery after installing new HDD

Hello All,
I have got actually two questions, but I think I only can do one issue at the time. Anyway: Here are my specs and question:
1. I have got a 2010 MacBook Pro with a 320 Gb HDD which seems to be on its way to lala land (crashes almost once every quarter year)
2. I have backed up my Mac with TimeMachine to uptodate
3. I have created a boot disk and purchased a new 1 Tb HDD to be installed
4. I plan to install new HDD in a bit
So here is the question:
Shall I make a clean install of Mavericks (and if so, how do I get all my e-mail and other data onto the new HDD), or should I just go with the latest TimeMachine update?
(Also: If I partitioned the HDD and designate one only for apps and the other only for data, how would I do that?)
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. ... thanks, theo

Thank you for your swift responce and help
So this solution would remove the "clutter" and restore performace?

Clean install of Maverick on my iMac

Hi,
I have an early 2009 24" iMac and ever since my initial purchase, I upgraded my OS to the latest version, and now I have Mavericks. But my machine is performing slower and slower (even before Mavericks). Even for simple tasks like browsing a page with Safari, it takes minutes ! I'm not sure if my machine is adware free, because many ads popup, or are build in the html page.
Anyway, I decided to start all over again with a clean install of Maverick, and only restore the necessary files and apps I need and not the stuff I downloaded during the past 5 years, and never used it again. I also want to add an extra 4GB RAM up to 8GB.
I already did some research and build a bootable Maverick on USB, so I'm prepared to do the clean install.
But before going on, I want to be absolutely sure, I can restore the things I need.
So what is the best method, to take a backup of :
1) My iTunes files (music, apps, videos, books,...)
2) My personal data (documents, ....)
3) My software (most of them I don't have the installation files anymore)
4) My iPhoto library
I also took a backup on my Time Machine, but I read somewhere that this is not ideal for restoring after a clean install, because Time Machine won't recognize the new machine anymore.
So before plugin in my bootable USB drive , please help me out on choosing the right way to backup (and restore) the things I want..

For your iTunes stuff, photos, and documents, you can just navigate to the media files or documents on Time machine and restore them to your new installation.
For the software, I'd get updated versions of good installers, either on disc, or from new downloads, and make sure they are compatible with Mavericks. Just dragging the app over won't work very well.
I wouldn't reinstall any "crapware", such as MacKeeper or CleanMyMac, or anything else that purports to "optimize", "clean", "accelerate", "monitor", or "protect" your Mac. If you have this stuff on your Mac, that is probably what is making it slow in the first place.
Antivirus software, also problematic, and not that useful on Macs; I wouldn't install it.
For any peripherals, look for updated versions of drivers or other software from the manufacturer and install those. Old drivers and kernel extensions are not going to play well with Mavericks.
I just did a clean install. I found it useful to make a list of everything I wanted to move, and wrote down passwords, network settings, and email settings.

How to make a clean install of Mavericks over 10.4.11

Hey everyone,
I would like to make a clean install of Mavericks on mid-2007 MacBook Pro ([email protected], 2GB RAM) which currently runs 10.4.11. I already made bootable USB of Mavericks, which i downloaded with my MacBook Air.
When I insert USB and restart the computer the screen with the option "Install OS Mavericks" comes up but when I click on the icon nothing happens and computer just proceeds to boot into 10.4.11. If I try to run it from the desktop it says that Mavericks is not supported on this version of OS which doesn't surprise me. I've been searching around forums for a way to go about this problem and the general solution seems to be to buy some newer version of Mac OS and then proceed with the upgrade from there. But from what I can tell the reason why people are mainly recommending this option is because only then you can download Mavericks via AppStore, which I have already done.
So what I'm really asking is whether I can somehow install Mavericks without buying intermediate version of Mac OS first, given that I already have Mavericks downloaded? Would it be possible to just delete the whole hard drive with 10.4.11 on it and then make a clean install of Mavericks?

To install Mavericks, you need one of these Macs:
iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),
MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
Xserve (Early 2009)
Your Mac also needs:
OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 already installed
2 GB or more of memory
8 GB or more of available space
I would, STRONGLY, advise that you install more RAM into your MBP.
Also, while the minimum RAM spec for Mavericks is 2 GB. This is a minimum and NOT ideal working amount of RAM to be running OS X Mavericks.
To run Mavericks with some success, you need to install, at least, 4 GBs of or greater.
Your MBP year and model can take a total of 6 GBs of RAM max.
i advise purchasing and installing the full 6 GBs of RAM.
Correct and reliable Mac RAM can be purchased from online Mac RAM sources Crucial memory or OWC (macsales.com).
This RAM kit can be found here.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/MacBook/Pro/Core2/
Good Luck!

Clean install of Mavericks from Recovery Partition

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