When I hold alt during boot and get the different boot options, the recovery disk says 10.9, even though I'm running 10.10. Is this the same for everyone? I also have a windows partition if it matters. Furthermore, the background is black. I can't remember what it was before, but it wasn't black.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Recovery disk says 10.9, not 10.10
- Thread starter Snookerman
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I can't see recovery partition on mine. It just comes up with 'Macintosh HD' and some Wi-Fi options 
Edit:
You said you held the 'Alt' key, which is clearly the wrong key to get in to the recovery mode.
I tried pressing CMD + R at boot up and got into the recovery mode. It is giving me the option to reinstall Yosemite.
Edit:
You said you held the 'Alt' key, which is clearly the wrong key to get in to the recovery mode.
I tried pressing CMD + R at boot up and got into the recovery mode. It is giving me the option to reinstall Yosemite.
Last edited:
I can't see recovery partition on mine. It just comes up with 'Macintosh HD' and some Wi-Fi options
Edit:
You said you held the 'Alt' key, which is clearly the wrong key to get in to the recovery mode.
I tried pressing CMD + R at boot up and got into the recovery mode. It is giving me the option to reinstall Yosemite.
I hold the alt key and get three boot disks: Macintosh HD, Recovery 10.9 and Windows. I think holding cmd-r goes directly into recovery.
Alt enables you to boot from whatever bootable discs you have attached. Including Recovery. Or you can use CMD-R to go directly into Recovery.
If you did an upgrade from 10.9 to 10.10 then the Recovery options remains as it was, pre-upgrade. I understand that it makes no difference in performance of the console. However, if you clean installed 10.10, then the Recovery option will be listed as 10.10.
I hope that explains it.
Thanks! So if I ever want to recover, I'll go back to 10.9? Can I make it 10.10? Will it change to 10.10 when I upgrade to 10.10.1?
I don't think you can make it 10.10 without clean installing. Although, I might be wrong. There may be a way using Carbon Copy Cloner 4...
If you do need to use the Recovery Console in it's current setting (10.9), as far as I understand it will still work as intended. It should not take you back to 10.9. It will use the internet to download a copy of the OS X installer, and currently that is 10.10. I've never used it myself as a recovery tool as I always keep a USB installer to hand for such emergencies and I always clean install a new OS.
I suppose if you had the time to spare you could back up all of your own personal data, and then wipe and install Yosemite. This will give you the 10.10 OS and 10.10 Recovery. But, it can take time depending on whether you are OCD about your settings and personal configurations.
The choice is yours.
Well, OP should go into Disk Utility, Debug > Show Every Partition and make sure that's checked, then see what's listed on the HDD/SSD.
Good install will list the OS partition, EFI, Recovery HD, and possibly a second OS partition (if FileVault on).
So, from my understanding, holding option key when booting should list the OS partition, Recovery HD, and any USB attached bootable volumes.
Command-R will drop you into one of the recovery partitions, depending on age of machine. If internet recoverable, and you have the Recovery HD partition, it will boot that (and should be latest OS), otherwise defaults to the internet recovery which defaults to OS system came with. You can install that, then you download/install latest OS.
Can verify the Recovery HD partition version by mounting it in Disk Utility, then select it on desktop/Finder and do a "Get Info". Will tell you OS version it is.
I've got an too old a Mac to see how internet recovery shows things, so, wondering if the system is displaying the internet recovery version number or is it really the Recovery HD partition at 10.9
Good install will list the OS partition, EFI, Recovery HD, and possibly a second OS partition (if FileVault on).
So, from my understanding, holding option key when booting should list the OS partition, Recovery HD, and any USB attached bootable volumes.
Command-R will drop you into one of the recovery partitions, depending on age of machine. If internet recoverable, and you have the Recovery HD partition, it will boot that (and should be latest OS), otherwise defaults to the internet recovery which defaults to OS system came with. You can install that, then you download/install latest OS.
Can verify the Recovery HD partition version by mounting it in Disk Utility, then select it on desktop/Finder and do a "Get Info". Will tell you OS version it is.
I've got an too old a Mac to see how internet recovery shows things, so, wondering if the system is displaying the internet recovery version number or is it really the Recovery HD partition at 10.9
I think we don't know with you at this point.
If you have a 10.9 recovery partition, a command-r reinstall will give you 10.9. A 10.10 recovery volume will give you 10.10.
Thing is I am wondering if you have a 10.10 recovery volume that is just named 10.9 because of some odd history/method of installs you did?
The sure way to tell is do a command-r boot to recovery and look at the appearance of the bubbles at the top left. If they are the new flat Yosemite bubbles like in my screenshot you have a Yosemite recovery partition, regardless of what it is named.
If it shows the old Mavericks 3D bubbles, then you know you still have a Mavericks recovery partition on there.
If you just redownload Yosemite from the App Store and install it over top of your existing install without erasing anything it will get you a Yosemite recovery partition.