Recovery HD

[Tech198]

Hi all.

What up with the new boot with Apple and Recovery ?

You can now no longer just zerodisk the recovery HD via Terminal in one go (aka /dev/disk0), since it looks like Apples now prevents the Recovery partition from being wiped..

Instead, i found out you need to wipe the partition first, reboot using usb media, and then you can wipe the Recovery HD on disk.

In DU, the volume was greyed out.

Anyone know why Apple did this ? In addition i get beach balls every time i start installer, and also take 10 times longer to even load up from usb than with Mavericks. I hope this is a bug.

Anyone else have this trouble ?

I created this usb boot media via sudo command. Apple's finally got a support article : http://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201372 , so i was expecting it to be smooth sailing.

 

[Weaselboy]

I'm a bit confused. So you command-r booted to recovery and from there wanted to erase Recovery HD. That has never been possible since you can't erase the same drive you are actually booted to. Or am I misunderstanding?

 

[Tech198]

I boot from usb, not from Recovery HD.

However, when doing this in the part, you could wipe the Recovery partition as well as the volume...

but now, if you still wish to do that, you must reboot, then u can boot back to usb and wipe the recovery that remains on hd...

What i don't get is why must u reboot just to remove recovery ? Since your booting from an external device, it won't matter since its not active.

Did Apple do this for security reasons?

 

[Weaselboy]

I boot from usb, not from Recovery HD.

However, when doing this in the part, you could wipe the Recovery partition as well as the volume...

but now, if you still wish to do that, you must reboot, then u can boot back to usb and wipe the recovery that remains on hd...

What i don't get is why must u reboot just to remove recovery ? Since your booting from an external device, it won't matter since its not active.

Did Apple do this for security reasons?

When you look at the disk in Disk Util, does it look like my screenshot?

If so, that is because on some newer Mac portables Yosemite converts the volume to a core storage volume and the partitions cannot be manipulated normally.

This command would turn off core storage then you should be able to see the actual disk brand name at the top and select that and format to erase the entire drive included the recovery partition.

diskutil cs delete "Macintosh HD"

 

[Tech198]

ok thanks..

just one quick question, maybie i'm doing it wrong, but when i run up sudo command to create Yosemite bootable media, it creates it fine, but did Apple deliberately miss he Recovery partition ?

That is, if u need to later re-intstall 10.10.1 u need usb media, since on my after holding down Option at boot i only see SSD drive.... no Recovery...

My thinking here maybie is Apple's pushing users to install via Internet Recovery instead....

Anyone else have his issue ?

 

[Weaselboy]

ok thanks..

just one quick question, maybie i'm doing it wrong, but when i run up sudo command to create Yosemite bootable media, it creates it fine, but did Apple deliberately miss he Recovery partition ?

That is, if u need to later re-intstall 10.10.1 u need usb media, since on my after holding down Option at boot i only see SSD drive.... no Recovery...

My thinking here maybie is Apple's pushing users to install via Internet Recovery instead....

Anyone else have his issue ?

If you made an installer with the create media command, that installer will create a recovery partition when you do an install.

The reason you are not seeing one is because your are trying to option key boot and that won't show recovery on Yosemite with core storage turned on.

Do a command-r boot and you should see recovery.

Or run the command below in Terminal and you should see a 650MB Recovery HD partition.

diskutil list

 

[dxmac99]

When I got my mid-2014 rMBP with the 10.9 pre-installed, I used a bootable USB with 10.10.1 to boot it and wiped out the Mac HD, using the diskutil from the USB. Now, I didn't pay too much attention but I don't recall I see a 2nd partition on it.

So now my rMBP does not have a recovery HD on it. I don't know it is really needed. I can always boot it up with a USB stick and it also frees up some space for me. Now it is just me and I admit I did try to restore the recovery partition but later I gave up and was fine with not having one.

My only problem is since I wiped the 10.9 out before I even activated the mac, I don;t get iLife and iWork for free. I am going to create a new thread to ask if anyone knows how I can get them for free now....

 

[Weaselboy]

When I got my mid-2014 rMBP with the 10.9 pre-installed, I used a bootable USB with 10.10.1 to boot it and wiped out the Mac HD, using the diskutil from the USB. Now, I didn't pay too much attention but I don't recall I see a 2nd partition on it.

So now my rMBP does not have a recovery HD on it. I don't know it is really needed. I can always boot it up with a USB stick and it also frees up some space for me. Now it is just me and I admit I did try to restore the recovery partition but later I gave up and was fine with not having one.

Are you sure you don't have a recovery partition? It is hidden, so you won't see it in Disk Utility. Try the suggestions my post above to see if you have one.

My only problem is since I wiped the 10.9 out before I even activated the mac, I don;t get iLife and iWork for free. I am going to create a new thread to ask if anyone knows how I can get them for free now....

When you get a new Mac you need to login to the App Store app and you should be prompted to "claim: your free iLife and iWorks apps. From then on they are attached to your AppleID account and you can redownload if you do a clean install.

 

[dxmac99]

Are you sure you don't have a recovery partition? It is hidden, so you won't see it in Disk Utility. Try the suggestions my post above to see if you have one..

I will try that. Thanks. I should have read your post before I replied. But why do they hide it?

When you get a new Mac you need to login to the App Store app and you should be prompted to "claim: your free iLife and iWorks apps. From then on they are attached to your AppleID account and you can redownload if you do a clean install.

I know I didn;t think of it and I just wiped the new mac HD right away... I had to open a request to the apple up-to-date program to see if they can restore it. I wish they had put a note in their packaging....

 

[Weaselboy]

I will try that. Thanks. I should have read your post before I replied. But why do they hide it?

I'm guessing it is to keep people that don't what it is from trying to delete it.

I know I didn;t think of it and I just wiped the new mac HD right away... I had to open a request to the apple up-to-date program to see if they can restore it. I wish they had put a note in their packaging....

I agree. I have seen quite a few posts from people who missed out because they did not know this.

Have you tried going to the App Store now and see if they are free for you?

 

[dxmac99]

I have tried and no luck. Apple took the receipt showing the price, model and date... I have not heard from them yet.....

Command-R boot took me to the disutil. Also diskutil shows 650MB of recovery disk... also, every disk has an EFI section, even the external HD . what is it?

 

[Weaselboy]

Command-R boot took me to the disutil. Also diskutil shows 650MB of recovery disk... also, every disk has an EFI section, even the external HD . what is it?

Sounds like everything is normal then. That EFI partition is placed on all OS X formatted drives and is used as a staging area for firmware updates.