How do I create a recovery partition when restoring from Time Machine?

I am planning to replace the HDD in my Macbook Pro with an SSD. I've used Time Machine to backup my HDD (running Mountain Lion) but am trying to find the best way to restore my Time Machine backup to the new SSD once installed.
Given that the new SSD will not have a bootable OS X Recovery partition, I have created a bootable OS X Recovery drive on a USB thumb drive using OS X Recovery Assistant.
In order to ensure that the new SSD has the OS X Recovery parition, should I:
(1) reinstall Mountain Lion on the SSD then recover my data from Time Machine; or
(2) can I simply use the Restore from Time Machine option in OS X Recovery to do it all at once.
I can't seem to work out whether option (2) will create the OS X Recovery partition on the new SSD or just recover the system partition.

Turns out the OS X Recovery partition is only created on a fresh install of OS X. Restoring via Time Machine will not do the trick.

Similar Messages

Default admin user when restoring from time machine backup in setup assistant

Hello,
Apologies if this has already been answered elsewhere.
I will soon take delivery of a new iMac running Mac OS Mountain Lion, and I will want to restore my full Time Machine backup which was made on a MacBook Pro (which was my main machine, but is now faulty - it was running Snow Leopard).
On the MacBook Pro I had 2 user accounts. Mine which was the default admin account (named Ian Johnson), and my wife's which was a standard user account.
Now, I know that I should use SetUp Assistant to restore user accounts etc from the Time Machine backup, but I'm wondering whether during that process I will be asked to create another admin user account when I first run SetUp Assistant. Ideally I would like to end up with exactly the same user accounts as on my old MacBook Pro.
The reason I'm asking in advance is that I believe it's hard to "undo" whatever default admin user account you set up on first use of a new Mac, so want to be prepared.
Any help appreciated, thanks.
Ian

I'm wondering whether during that process I will be asked to create another admin user account when I first run SetUp Assistant.
You won't be, provided you go straight into Setup Assistant the first time you boot the new machine.

Grey Screen when restoring from Time Machine Backup

I was having some issues with my Macbook (circa 2008, aluminum) so I thought restoring from a Time Machine backup might solve the problem. The restore goes fine, always, but unfortunately, now whenever I start it up, it goes straight to the Gray Screen and goes no further. When checking the error logs, I see somewhere around 60% (I'm guessing, based on the time) the error:
bookmark failed to issue extension for item /com.apple.recovery.boot/BaseSystem.dmg
And a few other errors. Is there something I should be doing to fix this? Someone recommended reinstalling Lion, but as I have no wireless internet at home (only a plug-in USB 3G thing) it can't verify the installation.

Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store.

How do I Restore from Time Machine after I have reinstalled my system software (Snow Leopard and then Lion) ?, How do I Restore from Time Machine after I have reinstalled my system software (Snow Leopard and then Lion) ?

I have never done this before, so can someone explain in detail how I reintall my system software and then restore from Time Machine please ?

Your profile indicates that you currently have an older version of Snow Leopard (10.6.2). In order to install Lion, a prerequisite is the latest version of Snow Leopard (10.6.8). Perhaps a few more details would be helpfull in solving your problem. ex. If all you want to do is to upgrade to Lion, a restoration of data is unneccessary. Download the latest version of Snow Leopard and then download (purchase) and install Lion. User data will remain intact.
If I am missing something, please elaborate.
Ciao.

How do I create 2 Recovery partitions: one for Lion and one for Mountain Lion?

Well that is basically the question:
How do I create 2 recovery partitions: one for Lion and one for Mountain Lion?
Reason is that I would like to keep the option to return to Lion, or even better, have a seperate partition for eacht?

can I access my programs from the other partition, so I can save space ...
No, as far as I know, each one is completely separate - especially if you're dealing with two different versions of OS's.
is it possible to safely make an extra partion on a running drive (it is my main computer ...) The disk is large enough ...
how large would this have to be
I've personally never done it on a running drive - have read it's possible, but don't want to suggest it since I've never done it and wouldn't be sure about the steps. This is how I got to two partitions on my iMac:
Originally, I had just one partition with Snow Leopard. I used CCC to clone that to an external drive. Booted into that drive and used DU to partition and erase the internal. I then cloned the new clone back. Also cloned the same thing to the other partition which I then upgraded to Lion. So I had two OS's - SL and Lion. I've now decided to clone my SL to an external drive for occasional use and installed ML on that partition - so now I have Lion and ML.
There are two ways to get a "fresh" install: either download the OS again and install it on a partition of your choice or, as I've done as well, copy the installer to a safe place so you don't need to download it again. It does include whatever apps/software is included in the OS. I've designated two smaller partitions on externals as my "fresh" installs of both Lion and ML for emergency or reinstall purposes (this is my way of dealing with not having install DVDs) - I took the time to install it there and then slowly add fresh installs of my important apps (either via download or install CD) - don't bother with the little/less used stuff, a current copy of that can be downloaded if and when I need it. I don't really update those two - that can also be done if/when I need it since that'll always change.
So, yesterday, I decided I wanted to start fresh with ML - booted into my fresh install of Lion (on external), wiped the SL partition on my internal and installed Lion. Decided to download a fresh copy of the ML installer and installed that. Then ran Software Update. After that, repaired permissions. Then I methodically opened every third party app and checked for updates - installed those where necessary. After all that, I simply copied (drag 'n drop) my entire Documents folder (which contains all my important data,, photos, etc) over from another backup.
This took a while, but mostly because of the long download times; the installs weren't all that bad. I should be running a really clean system now, especially since nothing was ported over except my Documents folder.

How do I create a recovery partition on an HP EliteBook 2760p using Windows 7 64-bit Professional

I have an HP EliteBook 2760p using Windows 7 - 64-bit Professional
My original problem is that I couldn't create the Repair Disc
I found out that the problem was with a file that was on the recovery partition
I backed up the recovery partition from the same make and model computer
I reformatted the partition and recovered the backup to the reformatted partition
It didn't work
How do I create the recovery partition I have the 2 disks that came with the tablet PC

If you do a factory restore using HP recovery discs it will put everything back including recovery partition. I don't know if any way to manually re-create the recovery partition.
NOTE: back up your files as Factory Restore wipes ALL data.

Can't restore from Time Machine using recovery partition

I came up with the idéa to put in an extra disk (SSD) into my mid 2009 13" Macbook Pro running Mountain Lion and create my own fusion drive.
In order to make sure not to lose all of my data I made sure to back up all my files using Time Machine so that simply could restore my entire system to the new drive.
Careful as one should be when about to wipe the entire drive on a computer I wanted to check so that I could make a proper restore from my TM backup disk. So I booted into recovery mode and choose to restore from Time Machine and then I selected my external drive, but then nothing. Where the list of my latest backups should be there was nothing.
I've tried to format the disk several times, changing disk permissions etc.
Does anyone have a clue what could solve this? Is it possible that it has something to do with the fact that I'm (probably) running 10.8.3 and that my recovery partition is 10.8.2?

Is the TM backup complete? When you Enter Time Machine, do you have snapshots going back in time?
See here for info on a problem Pondini has found with Time Machine that may have affected you:
UPDATED: Serious Time Machine bug on Mountain Lion (Updated)
You may just have to restart your TM backups to get those folders backed up.
If you do have that issue, please post at his link. He is trying to get enough background info to pass to Apple to solve the problem.

HT4413 When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, only some files and applications and setting are transferred, not all of them. In my latest back up I have them all. How can I fix that?

When migrating from time machine to a new hard drive, not all is transferd, only partial documents, applications , settings etc. How can I migrate the latest back-up with all the content.

sohs wrote:
When migrating from time machine to a new hard drive, not all is transferd, only partial documents, applications , settings etc. How can I migrate the latest back-up with all the content.
If you want to use Time Machine to recover the contents of one of its a backups to a new drive, follow the instructions in Mac OS X 10.6: Recovering your entire system. Note that you must select the "Restore System From Backup" option from the Utilities menu of the Installer disc to do this.
Also note that if you are transferring files to a hard drive to be used with a different computer, you should use Migration Assistant instead. This intentionally will not copy everything because some settings, applications, etc. are not compatible computer-to-computer. Migration Assistant will copy everything that is.

HT201250 When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, it migrates the first back-up I made several years ago. How can I migrate the latest back-up ?

When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, it migrates the first back-up I made several years ago. How can I migrate the latest back-up ? I need time machine to migrate the latest back-up. Should I delete the older back-ups ?

As noondaywitch says, it should use the latest backup.
Where are your backups (external HD, Time Capsule, etc.)?
It sounds like there are two separate sets, and you're not connected to the right set.

When attempting a restore from Time Machine I get error code -8004. What is this and how can I correct it? Thanks

when attempting a restore from Time Machine I get error code -8004. What is this and how can I correct it? I use OX 10.9.3
Thanks

Run it in compatibility mode and input the credentials.
Mylenium

How to restore from Time Machine WITHOUT install discs using a second Mac

It's a question that is asked repeatedly all over the web by Mac users like me that bought in to Time Machine (TM) on the assumption that if their computer died one day it would be a piece of cake to restore from it, only for that day to come and then to be told "ahh, okay the first thing is to get your computers install discs..." (loud crashing sound of world falling around ears).
I've never been able to afford a new Mac and both of my machines were bought second-hand. Neither came with Leopard (both have Tiger and have been upgraded to Leopard via the net). This was never supposed to be a problem as I've been backing up with TM. However it appears that Tiger discs are as much use as an inflatable dart board when it comes to using TM. So I've been faced with the possibility of having to spend £130 (about two hundred Pres Sheets, Yankees) on the Leopard install discs just so that I can have the option of restoring from TM. Bonkers.
However after much nashing of teeth, a very long weekend learning all sorts of things about 'Target Mode', 'Single User Mode', 'Verbose Mode', 'Open Source 9' etc the following solution has worked without the need to go out and buy those over-priced discs...
What you will need:
1 broken Mac requiring restoration
1 second donor Mac running Leopard (or Snow Leopard so long as the broken Mac can run it)
1 firewire cable with the correct fitting at either end to attach both Macs together
1 Time Machine backup
Note: The following is for when you have given up trying to boot from your hard drive. In my case I couldn't boot in to Safe Mode etc. so was forced to format my drive and re-import everything. If you've read this far I'm assuming your at the same point as well and have tried everything else that's out there first.
Also - both my Macs are Power PC's so can't run Snow Leopard, so I can't say 100% this will work with SL (Intel) machines. From what I've read Snow Leopard will work with this procedure too, but if you've found differently please feel free to add your experiences below...
STEP ONE: Format the corrupt Hard Drive or replace with a fresh HDD
*Link the two computers with a firewire.
*If you're replacing your HDD, remove your corrupted hard drive from the 'broken' machine and insert a new one.
*Power up the broken Mac whilst holding down the 'T' key. This will start it up in Target Mode and you'll get a nice firewire symbol floating around that machine's screen.
*Power up the second 'healthy' Mac. This will be our 'donor' machine. When it starts up after a few seconds you will see the hard drive of the broken Mac appear on the donor Mac's desktop.
*Using your donor Mac's 'Disc Utility', format the broken Mac's hard drive (now's the time to partition it etc. if you want to).
STEP TWO: Clone your donor Mac
Your broken Mac is no longer broken and now needs a new OS. But you don't have the discs, right? Well get this... you can clone your donor mac on to your machine, even if they are totally different i.e. a laptop on to a tower.
*Again using Disc Utility, click on your donor Mac's hard drive. The restore tab appears as an option.
*Click on restore and drag the donor Mac's hard drive that contains the operating system in to the Source box.
*Drag the newly formatted hard drive on the broken Mac in to the Destination box.
*Click restore. Your donor Mac's hard drive will now be 'cloned' on to your no-longer-broken Mac. Once this is done, eject the first Mac's hard drive from your donor Mac's desktop. You no longer need the donor Mac.
Ta daa! Your machine now starts up happy and smily again. Time to restore all that stuff that's been sat on your Time Machine drive...
STEP 3: Restore from Time Machine using Migration Assistant
This is the really clever part that prompted me to write this piece in the first place. Time Machine IS accessible without those Leopard install discs you don't have. You need to use something called 'Migration Assistant'.
*Start up your machine as normal and you'll see it is an exact clone of the donor machine. Weird huh?
*Attach your Time Machine hard drive. It will show up as an icon on the desktop and because of it's size, you'll be asked if you want to use it as a Time Machine backup. Err, NO YOU DON'T! Click 'cancel'.
*Open Migration Assistant (if you can't find it just type it in to Finder and click). There are three options, the middle one being to restore from TM or another disc. Yup, you want that one.
*Migration Assistant will now ask you what you want to restore in stages, firstly User Accounts, then folders, Apps etc. It will even import internet settings
And that's you done. Let Migration Assistant do it's thang... altogether I had about 140gb to restore, so it wasn't exactly speedy. This wasn't helped by the fact that my TM hard drive is connected via USB (yes, I know). Just leave it alone and it'll whirr happily away...
Before I go - you don't have an option of when to restore from, and will restore from the last Time Machine save. At least then you should be able to access TM and go 'backwards' if you need to.
Also - for a Mac expert, the above will be up there with 'Spot Goes To The Farm' in terms of complexity. However, for the rest of us the above is only available in fragments all over the net. By far the most common response to 'how do I restore from Time Machine without install discs' is 'you can't'. If I'd found the above information in one place I could have saved a lot of hair pulling and swearing over the last couple of days, so forgive me for sharing this workaround with the rest of the world. Meanwhile your expertise will come in very handy for the inevitable questions that will get posted below, so please feel free to help those people that won't be sure if this solution is the right one for them. I'm no expert, I just want to help people that were stuck in the same situation (and looking at the web, there's a LOT of them).
Hope this is of use to someone, thanks and *good luck*!

Most maintenance and repair, restore and install procedures require the use
of the correct OS X install DVD; be it an original machine-specific restore/install
disc set or a later retail non-specific general install disc set.
By having an unsupported system, perhaps installed via an illegal download or
other file-sharing scheme, where no retail official discs are involved and the
initial upgrade was done by other means outside of the License Agreements,
you are asking us to discuss a matter of illegal installation and use of a product.
There are no legal complete OS X system download upgrades online; only bits
that are update segments to a retail or as-shipped machine's original OS X install.
+{Or an installation where a previous owner had correct retail upgrade discs, &+
+chose to not include them with the re-sale of the computer it was installed in.}+
However, to answer the initial question. To get and use an externally enclosed
hard drive in suitable boot-capable housing, and get a free-running Clone
Utility (download online; often a donation-ware product, runs free) you can
make a bootable backup of everything in your computer to an external HDD.
This is the way to make a complete backup to restore all functions to the computer.
The Time Machine has some limits, in that it can restore only that which it saves.
It does not make a bootable clone of your entire computer system with apps and
your files, to an external drive device. A clone can. And some of the clone utility's
settings can also backup changes to an external drive's system; if that other drive
is attached to the computer correctly.
Carbon Copy Cloner, from Bombich Software; and also SuperDuper, another of
the most known software names you can download and use to clone boot-capable
system backups of your computer's hard disk drive contents, are often cited.
However you resolve the matter of the running OS X system in your computer,
derived from what appears to be questionable means, is part of the initial issue.
Since you do need to be able to fix an existing installation by unmounting the
computer's hard disk drive and run the computer from the other (install disc or
system clone) while it is Unmounted; and use the correct Disk Utility version to
help diagnose and perhaps be able to fix it. You can't use a Tiger version Disk
Utility to fix a Leopard installation, and so on.
So, the situation and replies as far as they can go (since the matter does
constitute an illegal system, if it was arrived at without correct discs) is a
limited one. And file sharing of copied Mac OS X (and other) software is
also considered illegal.
And, one way to get odd malware and unusual stuff, is to get an unauthorized
system upgrade from an illegal source online. You never know what's inside it.
The other reply was not a personal attack; the matter is of legal status and as
you have a product with a questionable system, the answer is to correct it.
And if you want to save everything in your computer, make a clone to a suitable
externally enclosed self-powered boot capable hard disk drive. With older PPC
Macs, that would best be to one with FireWire and the Oxford-type control chips.
However that works out...
Good luck & happy computing!

I cannot able able to start my macbook and then i started my mac in a recovery mode now mac os X utility window opens with 4 options 1. Restore From Time Machine Backup 2. Reinstall Mac OSX 3. Get Help Online 4. Disk Utility if i try to restore my mac wit

i cannot able able to start my macbook and then i started my mac in a recovery mode now mac os X utility window opens with 4 options 1. Restore From Time Machine Backup 2. Reinstall Mac OSX 3. Get Help Online 4. Disk Utility if i try to restore my mac with time machine no option appears if i reinstall from Mac OSX error comes and cannot able to recover from disk utility please help how can i reinstall mac OSX

Guitar21,
your MacBook Pro has booted into its Recovery mode. From the OS X Utilities menu, select Disk Utility. On the left-hand side of the Disk Utility window, select your internal disk’s boot partition (typically called “Macintosh HD”). On the right-hand side, press the Verify Disk button if it’s not greyed out; if it is greyed out, or if it reports that errors were found, press the Repair Disk button. Once the verification/repair is completed, exit Disk Utility and select Restart from the Apple menu to restart in normal mode. Does it get to the login screen now?

My MacBook Pro recently shut down on me all of a sudden. When I restarted it, it popped up with a gray box with 'OS X Utilities,' then listed various options such as 1. restore from time machine backup, 2. reinstall OS X, etc. what do I do now?

My MacBook Pro recently shut down on me all of a sudden. When I restarted it, it popped up with a gray box with 'OS X Utilities,' then listed various options such as 1. restore from time machine backup, 2. reinstall OS X, 3. get help online and 4. disk utility. what do I do now? I have not backed up to Time Machine in a few days, so I'm not sure I should restore from time machine backup, is there something else I can do? Help!

Guitar21,
your MacBook Pro has booted into its Recovery mode. From the OS X Utilities menu, select Disk Utility. On the left-hand side of the Disk Utility window, select your internal disk’s boot partition (typically called “Macintosh HD”). On the right-hand side, press the Verify Disk button if it’s not greyed out; if it is greyed out, or if it reports that errors were found, press the Repair Disk button. Once the verification/repair is completed, exit Disk Utility and select Restart from the Apple menu to restart in normal mode. Does it get to the login screen now?

Do I need to remove Bootcamp Partition before restoring with Time Machine

Hello - anyone familiar with this scenario.
I have used TIME MACHINE from the very first day I had my iMac. So it was started almost immediately after the initial boot of a brand new iMac case I ever needed to restore my Mac to that initial Day 1 state.
That day has come, but it's now two years, and in that time I have installed BOOTCAMP, Parallels and Windows 7. That process created another partition, and created the required 'links' between my OSX and Windows via Parallels etc.
So my question is this - can I do a 'Restore from Time Machine' over the top of the new partioned set up of my iMac OR or will it be now totally confused because of the changes I have made to my system in that time, and do I firstly need to remove Windows, Bootcamp, and erase the partitions I created back to one.
So in summary - will Time Machine do this when it restores, or do I need to do it before I restore?
I also have a CARBON COPY CLONE from Day 1 too. Am I better using that instead - and if so, same question - will i need to remove Windows, and my Bootcamped partion first?
(My system is iMac late 2012 still running OSX Mountain Lion if that makes any difference)
Thanks

popsynic wrote:
Hi - thanks for responding
"Is Parallels using the BC partition as a VM, or is it a separate VM with its own virtual disk?"
I don't know - basically I have a BOOTCAMP partition and Windows is installed on that (using these instructions from the Parallels website) I can then either open up Windows from in OSX Moutain Lion while keeping my mac running (and windows will run in its own little window - but within OSX. OR I can also choose to boot dircetly wi windows when I tuen on my MAC - and then it runs independently of my OSX.
You are using the BC Windows and running it as VM. There is no separate VM with virtual disk.
"Are you planning to erase the internal drive(s)?"
I wasn't sure - I want to restore my iMac like it was on the day I had it, before I partitoned BOOTCAMP and installed windows. So my question is, will the TIME MACHINE restore get rid of WINDOWS and the BOOTCAMP partition for me as part of its restore - or do i have to that, and then restore using Time Machine
It is much simpler to run BC Assistant and use the last option - "Remove Windows". It is a bit cleaner.
"If the backup on TM which started on Day 1 has continued as you have made changes, including BC/Windows/Parallels, it has continued to backup OS X and partition information. I suggest you backup Windows using Windows Backup to a separate external drive formatted as NTFS, and also consider Winclone or CampTune for a OS X compatible BC backup, if you run into any issues."
As above, I am not bothered about keeping Windows or the BOOTCAMP partition, I want to resore my iMac to the DAY 1 status - when I did my first full Time Machine backup - which was before I created a Bootcamp partition or installed Windows.
I suggest removing Windows via BCA and backing up to Time Machine. You will keep you OS X intact and keep all your files on the OS X side.

How to restore from time machine different OS

I am going back to snow leopard (from OS 10.8 back to 10.6) using my mac book pro (mbp). I backed up my data using time machine then loaded the orig OS from disk (leopard). This erased my HD on my mbp. I loaded the orig OS successfully (leopard). When I tried to restore data and apps from time machine, it said I could not because the time machine was backed up using 10.8 (and I needed to upgrade if I was going to restore from time machine). The point is I dont want to upgrade (I am downgrading away from 10.8 back to 10.6). Another option is restore from another mac. I have another mac (mini) running 10.6 and I transfered the time maching data from my mbp to the mac mini. Now I am trying to restore data and apps from the mini to the mpb (using a firewire). Is there any easier method??

You made a mistake: create a Time Machine backup on Mountain Lion. Doing this, you can't restore the backup on older versions, so if you want to downgrade, you will have to restore the files manually, taking so much time, and you will have to reinstall all your applications.
To transfer your files from your Mac mini to the MacBook Pro, you can use FireWire without any problem (furthermore, it's the fastest way). Connect the FireWire cable, open Migration Assistant on both computers and follow the steps

How do I create a recovery partition when restoring from Time Machine?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for