Need to create Lion recovery partition to enable Find My Mac

I have a MacBook Pro running Lion but I have no recovery partition so I cannot use the Find My Mac feature in iCloud. Is there way to reinstall to get a recovery partition without having to wipe the machine?

I'm glad you're buying it because you'd be running into problems down the road most likely because: the Lion license from MAS is NOT transferable - that means your seller should have wiped Lion and reinstalled the original system and give you the install disks (that is what the SLA spells out). Did s/he do that (give you the original disks)? If not, you may want to inquire about them - you may need them at some point for troubleshooting/running a hardware test/etc.
Thinking about it: hopefully you'll be able to buy/install it because MAS will most likely recognize that you have it installed already (and it was done with a different Apple ID). If it does not work, you will need to original disks to wipe the drive, reinstall the original OS and then buy Lion.

Similar Messages

How can I create a recovery partition to use Find my Mac?

I want to activate Find my Mac on my MBP. The iCloud system preference says I don't have a recovery partition that's required for it. It apparently didn't install when I upgraded to Mountain Lion.
How can I retroactively create a recovery partition? There are no other partitions on the drive (other than the Macintosh HD, of course).
Thanks.
Rob

FIRST, assuming you do not have another Mac of the same model with a working restore, I would suggest using your Lion, mountaint lion or Maverick install to create a bootable system on a flash drive. You will need a DMG image created with Disk Utility from that stick to recreate the restore partition on your mac.
Once you create the bootable USB stick, Use it to log in and follow the below process to back up the restore partition. Then, save the DMG back up anywhere and finish the walk through on your normal operating partition.
Close Disk Utility if it is open.
Open Terminal
Enter the command below
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled -bool true
Now open Disk Utility and pull down the Debug menu
Click Show Every Partition
Now, select the Recovery Partition and create a new image.
NOTE: The Recovery Partition will need to be made in Read Only format if you wish to restore the image normally with disk utility or by software such as Deploy Studio. If you take an image with Deploy Studio and want it to restore the Recovery Drive normally, you will need to adjust the Work Flow for Image Capture to use the Read Only format. It will slow things down. If you dont use the read only format, the .dmg will not scan properly. This is most likely because the recovery drive already hosts compressed files. That said, this guide WILL restore from even a compressed .dmg image. HERE IS THE WALK THROUGH FOR RESTORING A SCANNED READ ONLY FORMATTED .DMG.
Copy the Recover HD.DMG image to a flash drive
The following must be on an Administrator account
Next, Log on to the admin account of the computer you wish to restore the MLTI Recovery Partition.
Copy the Recovery HD.DMG from your Flash drive to the HD
Enter the following command in terminal
diskutil list
If there is no partition for the restore drive listed, then use Disk Utility to create a GUID Partition keeping in mind the size of the original restore partition. (19 gigs for the MLTI Version of the restore drive)
Open Terminal and enter the following command
sudo asr -noverify -source (PATH FOR DMG IMAGE HERE) -target (PATH FOR RECOVERY HD PARTITION HERE) -erase -noprompt
NOTES: You must replace the () and everything in between with the respective path. You can simple drag and drop the source (your .dmg) and your target (the drive to be restored) while you are typing in terminal.
Enter admin password
In terminal Type the following command
diskutil list
note which disk and slice is the restore partition. It should be /dev/disk0s3, but it could vary a bit.
Now, run the following in terminal
sudo asr adjust --target /dev/disk0s3 --settype "Apple_Boot"
REMEMBER: you may need to replace /dev/disk0s3 with your new restore partition's designation.
Enter Admin Password when prompted
Restart.
Don't forget to enter the following terminal command into the machine you took the Recovery HD image from.
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled -bool false

How to delete lion recovery partition

i have mac book air 13inch with 128g hdd
when i install lion, it creats lion recovery partition on my HDD
and it does not clear out and stays all the time
i want to delete the lion recovery partition and make my HDD united to only one partition
how can i do this?
it there any way to do this?
help me~~~

You could, but not recommended. The recovery partition is
there so that you can repair or re-install Lion if necessary.
I don't recall, but I think some people have had issues with
some Mac models booting Lion if a Recovery HD is not
present. Not sure if the Air is one.
First, to be safe, you should probably make a USB stick
installer or DVD for Lion should things go south on you and
have to reinstall from scratch.
Next,the simplest approach would be to clone your Lion
install to an external, bootable hard drive using either
Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper. When that is
complete boot to that volume then reformat the internal
volume, then clone the external volume back.
Don't interrupt any of the processes or you could
end up with a MacBrick.

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 install a Lion Recovery Partition

I recently installed a new Hard Drive in my Early 2011 Macbook Pro, and I was wondering if there was any way I could out the Lion Recovery Partion on it.
Thanks In Advance

CCC Carbon Copy Cloner has a utility called "Disk Center" that is included with CCC that will create a Recovery Partition for you. I understand that CCC is not free, but it does have a free 30 day trial.
The "Disk Center" in CCC Carbon Copy Cloner is not obvious or easy to find, unless you know where to look for it (in the Window menu pulldown)... it's easy to miss. Once you find it in the CCC menu system, it is a quick (<5min) turnkey way to create a Recovery HD Partition on any disk, internal or external.
I thought I should share this, since I burned several hours of pain-staking research and experimentation in search of how to create/re-create a "Recovery HD" Partition for my MacBook Retina Mavericks laptop. My journey was varietal, including:
Successfully using a manual set of instructions with Terminal to execute a multi-step approach that worked ( http://www.macworld.com/article/2056561/how-to-make-a-bootable-mavericks-install -drive.html )
As well as a utility from musings.slivertooth.us that worked for me as advertised. Only problem is that while I appreciate and respect the great utility that guy created, my risk-averse nature prevents me from using a non-commercial utility to muck with the low-level details of my boot drive. Great job, but I prefer CCC since it's backed by a commercial SW company. Here's his great uility, as referenced in Apple discussion threads like this one: ( http://musings.silvertooth.us/2012/03/restoring-a-lost-recovery-partition-in-lio n/ )
Therefore, I was relieved to discover that CCC has a utility specifically designed to do this for me.
FYI: How did I find myself in this position? I lost my Recovery HD partition because I used Super Duper to Clone my HD/SSD, and subsequently restored my MacBook at one point. Super Duper has worked awesomely well for me for several years. It clones HDs/SSDs without a glitch, and makes them bootable automatically. The only gap or lack of function I have discovered is that "Super Duper" does not Clone the "Recovery HD" Partition. CCC Carbon Copy Cloner does. So, while I like Super Duper, I'm switching to CCC Carbon Copy Cloner for my backups from now on.
Disclaimer: I don't work for CCC. I'm just an I/T Professional that needed to figure out how to create/re-create a Recovery HD Partition...

How do I install just the Lion installer via the lion recovery partition.

I am trying to bootcamp windows 7 on my new macbook pro (early 2011), the installation was successfull but i am missing drivers on the windows side and cannot access the internet until i install them. I installed all the bootcamp updates and put them on a usb to transfer to windows partition but windows kept telling me i need an earlier version of bootcamp which is not available from the update support downloads section of the apple website.
After some research i realized i needed the mac boot disc for lion, which doesnt exist so i need to create my own. I was told i could install lion from the lion recovery partition.
here is my question....If i install lion onto my mac partition that currently has lion, can i stop the download after the initial 4 gb installer and not go through with the full re-installation of lion? so that i can then take the installesd.dmg (i think thats right) file and put it on a dvd to install from the windows partition and finally get the drivers i need to get it running.
Comment: based on what i have read on how you used to bootcamp a mac, apple has made it very difficult, unneccesarily difficult it seems.

Before you do anything else, I suggest a thorough read of this:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_10.7.pdf

Can one add apps to a lion recovery partition on external hd?

OK, so Lion Recovery Disk Assistant "lets you create Lion Recovery on an external drive that has all of the same capabilities as the built-in Lion Recovery." But can I add utility/diagnostic apps to the external drive, such as Disk Warrior?

If you want to have a fully bootable and functional backup OS, clone your internal drive to a partition on an external drive. Use a utility such as Carbon Copy Cloner to do it. This clone will have all apps and docs installed and usable if you need to boot to it, current as of the date the last clone was made.

Changed hard drive: need to reinstall the recovery partition

Hi everyone. Some days ago I took my MBP to an Apple Authorized Reseller to update the hard drive to a new one and now I have a new 1TB/7200RPM hard drive.
Everything is perfect, but I think that the recovery partition is missing. If I look in the iCloud panel, the "Find my Mac" service is disabled because "recovery partition is needed".
But, if I run "diskutil list" in the Terminal, here's the result:
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Luke                    998.6 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot                         1.4 GB     disk0s3
Is the disk0s3 the recovery partition? If it's the recovery partition, why "Find my Mac" can't see it? Do I need to update or reinstall the recovery partion?
Here's a nice article I've found, but I don't know if it's right for my case: http://www.brunerd.com/blog/2012/03/21/update-create-lion-recoveryhd-partition-q uickly-without-reinstalling/
Waiting your answer. Thank you very much.

If you're referring to your disk0s3, I don't know. I don't know what that is or how it got there on your drive. I'm not sure if it should be deleted before you recreate your Recovery HD. Do a backup and then try the script and see what happens.
Not knowing what the technician did to put your system on the new hard drive, makes it difficult to tell you to delete disk0s3 before you put your Recovery HD on. I believe a normal install of ML onto a Mac OS X Extended-Journaled formatted hard drive with the GUID parition table has an EFI, Macintosh HD and Recovery partitions like below.
$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            499.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

How to rename a hidden Lion recovery partition?

I want to put a Lion recovery partition for each post Snow Leopard computer I'm supporting, but can't find a way to rename them, so that I don't have a bunch of identically named partitions to choose from. Any ideas?

First enable Disk Utility's Debug menu by entering this in Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled -bool YES
Then relaunch Disk Utility. Under the Debug menu, select "Show Every Partition". The Recovery HD will appear in the sidebar. Click it once, and then click "Mount" in the toolbar. The Recovery HD will then mount on the Desktop, where you can rename it like any other Finder item.

File Vault 2 and Lion Recovery Partition

Has anyone noticed that the Lion recovery partition disapears after enabling File Vault 2? I don't have one anymore. It's Gone!

Check out the OS X Lion: About FileVault2 kb.
Starting from the Recovery HD partition after FileVault 2 is enabled
When FileVault 2 is enabled, Recovery HD does not appear in the Startup Manager (which is accessed by holding Option during startup). However, you can select the Recovery HD by holding Command-R as Lion starts up.

Lion Recovery partition on 2011 MacBook Airs

I did a post for my blog yesterday concerning the use of the Lion recovery partition in solving the problem of turning on Find My Mac. I've had a very positive response from readers, most reporting success. But one has raised a question I cannot answer.
Here is the original article
http://www.macfilos.com/home/2011/10/16/icloud-cannot-turn-on-find-my-mac-recove ry-system-update-req.html
My reader maintains that the Lion recovery partition is not active on her 2011 MacBook Air. She has the latest OS X build and has also installed the Lion Recovery update. I can't really believe this, but I only have a 2010 Air to play with. Can someone confirm or deny?
The problem I (and many others) had was that the recovery update was not being recognised, the reason being a corrupt volume. After repairing the volume using the recovery partition it was then possible to reinstall the recovery update and subsequently turn on Find My Mac. It could be that my reader has a more intransigent version with the same cause that needs additional work.
Michael

If she enters in Terminal
diskutil list
if there is a Recovery Partition, she'll see:
Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
as the last partition.
See also: https://discussions.apple.com/message/16417843#16417843
Tony

Creating a recovery partition

Hi,
Can i create a recovery partition like the ones in the laptop of HP. If so please explain how to do it if not please can you point me to the right direction.
Thank you.

Hi,
Sadly to say, you need to replace the HDD in your machine. Hope you can retrieve your data from it. There are few tips and instructions how to replace a dead HDDon the Internet, here are few of them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRkFDFguT5A
http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f6/new-hard-disk-installation-to-replace-dead-disk-however-34...
Good luck.
BH
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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.

Will reinstalling Lion via the Lion recovery partition cause you to loose all of your applications, documents, etc or does it just replace the Lion operating system and leave everything else untouched?

Will reinstalling Lion via the Lion recovery partition cause you to loose all of your applications, documents, etc or does it just replace the Lion operating system and leave everything else untouched?

The latter. I cant tell you how many times I've reinstalled lion! all your apps will be fine!
Things that will change are system graphics if you altered them with something like candybar or did it manually.
Having said that, you should always backup your stuff with time machine incase something does happen.
This is a very important step which will insure the safety of your files while doing things like updating or installing the OS.
Please exercise caution when doing things with a Hard Drive.

Removed Lion Recovery Partition!

I have removed the Lion Recovery partition and shat should I do now to get that back again?

Download Carbon Copy Cloner and WinClone 3
Get two blank external drives, make sure they are formatted GUID and OS X extended journaled in Disk Utility (actually check Winclone for their external drive format requirments for Windows)
Use CCC to clone the OS X partition to one external drive.
Use Winclone to clone the Windows Boot Camp partition to the other external drive.
Disconnect all drives.
Now the problem is how to get Recovery HD back onto the machine.
If you upgraded 10.6 to 10.7/10.8, then hold option/alt and boot off the 10.6 disk, use it to erase the entire internal drive of everything, then install 10.6, upgrade to 10.6.8 and reinstall 10.7/10.8 from AppSore by option click on Purchases or whatever it uses, that will put the Recovery HD back on the machine.
If your machine came with 10.7 or 10.8, then hold the command option and r keys down and boot the machine on a fast Internet connection (Ethernet the router preferred) and this will load Internet Recovery from Apple's servers. Use Disk Utility there to erase the entire drive of everything and quit, then reinstall OS X from Apple's servers, it will recreate the Recovery HD partition that way, as it's assuming it's a new drive it's installing on.
When you have your machine in order, go to BootCamp and set up your partition again, then quit.
Hold the option/alt key down and boot off the OS X "CCC" clone you made, now use CCC to reverse clone OS X back onto the internal drive.
Connect the Winclone drive, run Winclone and clone that back onto your BootCamp partition.
When done, reboot and disconnect all drives, head to System Preferences > Startup Disk and set it to either OS X or BootCamp as the default boot. As you know if you change your mind to hold option key at boot to go to the other instead.

Need to create Lion recovery partition to enable Find My Mac

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