How to Create an OS X Recovery Disk on Any Drive
Create Your Own OS X Recovery HD on Any Drive
When you install OS X (Lion or later), it automatically creates a Recovery HD volume, hidden on your startup drive. In an emergency, you can boot to the Recovery HD and use Disk Utility to correct hard drive issues, go online and browse for information about the problems you're having, or re-install OS X.
Apple also created a utility called OS X Recovery Disk Assistant that can create a copy of the Recovery HD on any bootable external drive you have connected to your Mac.
This is good news for the many Mac users who would like to have the Recovery HD volume on a drive other than the startup volume. However, the utility can only create the Recovery HD volume on an external drive. This leaves out all of the Mac Pro, iMac, and even Mac mini users who may have multiple internal hard drives.
With the help of a few hidden OS X features, a little bit of time, and this step-by-step guide, you can create a Recovery HD volume anywhere you like.
Published: 8/10/2011
Updated: 2/17/2015
In order to create a copy of the Recovery HD volume, you must first have a working Recovery HD volume on your Lion startup drive, because we're going to use the original Recovery HD as the source for creating a clone of the volume.
If you don't have the Recovery HD volume on your Lion startup drive, then you won't be able to use these instructions. Don't worry, though; instead, you can create a bootable copy of the OS X Lion installer, which happens to include all of the same recovery utilities as the Recovery HD volume.
You can find instructions for creating a bootable Lion Installer disk here:
Create a Bootable Flash Drive With OS X Lion Installer
and here:
Create a Bootable DVD Copy of OS X Lion Installer
With that out of the way, it's time to turn our attention to what we need to create a clone of the Recovery HD volume.
The Recovery HD volume is hidden; it won't show up on the desktop, or in Disk Utility or other cloning applications. In order to clone the Recovery HD, we must first make it visible, so that our cloning application can work with the volume.
The easiest way to do this is to use a hidden feature of Disk Utility. Disk Utility includes a hidden Debug menu that you can use to force hidden partitions to be visible in Disk Utility. This is exactly what we need, so the first step in the cloning process is to turn on the Debug menu. You can find instructions here:
Enable Disk Utility's Debug Menu
Follow the guide to make the Debug menu visible, and then come on back and we'll continue the cloning process.
Published: 8/10/2011
Updated: 2/17/2015
Now that we have the hidden Debug menu in Disk Utility working, we can proceed with the cloning process.
You can create the Recovery HD clone on any volume listed in Disk Utility, but the cloning process will erase any data on the destination volume. For this reason, it's a good idea to resize and add a partition dedicated to the new Recovery HD volume you are about to create.
The Recovery HD partition can be very small; 650 MB is the minimum size, although I would make it slightly larger. Disk Utility probably won't be able to create a partition that small, so just use the smallest size it can create. You'll find instructions for adding and resizing volumes here:
Disk Utility - Add, Delete, and Resize Existing Volumes With Disk Utility
Once you have the destination drive partitioned, we can proceed.
A few additional notes:
Creating the new recovery HD volume this way doesn't set the visibility flag to hidden. As a result, the Recovery HD volume will appear on your desktop. You can use Disk Utility to unmount the Recovery HD volume if you wish. Here's how.
If you have multiple Recovery HD volumes attached to your Mac, you can select the one to use in an emergency by starting your Mac with the option key held down. This will force your Mac to display all available bootable drives. You can then pick the one you want to use for emergencies.
Published: 8/10/2011
Updated: 2/17/2015
When you install OS X (Lion or later), it automatically creates a Recovery HD volume, hidden on your startup drive. In an emergency, you can boot to the Recovery HD and use Disk Utility to correct hard drive issues, go online and browse for information about the problems you're having, or re-install OS X.
Apple also created a utility called OS X Recovery Disk Assistant that can create a copy of the Recovery HD on any bootable external drive you have connected to your Mac.
This is good news for the many Mac users who would like to have the Recovery HD volume on a drive other than the startup volume. However, the utility can only create the Recovery HD volume on an external drive. This leaves out all of the Mac Pro, iMac, and even Mac mini users who may have multiple internal hard drives.
With the help of a few hidden OS X features, a little bit of time, and this step-by-step guide, you can create a Recovery HD volume anywhere you like.
Published: 8/10/2011
Updated: 2/17/2015
In order to create a copy of the Recovery HD volume, you must first have a working Recovery HD volume on your Lion startup drive, because we're going to use the original Recovery HD as the source for creating a clone of the volume.
If you don't have the Recovery HD volume on your Lion startup drive, then you won't be able to use these instructions. Don't worry, though; instead, you can create a bootable copy of the OS X Lion installer, which happens to include all of the same recovery utilities as the Recovery HD volume.
You can find instructions for creating a bootable Lion Installer disk here:
Create a Bootable Flash Drive With OS X Lion Installer
and here:
Create a Bootable DVD Copy of OS X Lion Installer
With that out of the way, it's time to turn our attention to what we need to create a clone of the Recovery HD volume.
The Recovery HD volume is hidden; it won't show up on the desktop, or in Disk Utility or other cloning applications. In order to clone the Recovery HD, we must first make it visible, so that our cloning application can work with the volume.
The easiest way to do this is to use a hidden feature of Disk Utility. Disk Utility includes a hidden Debug menu that you can use to force hidden partitions to be visible in Disk Utility. This is exactly what we need, so the first step in the cloning process is to turn on the Debug menu. You can find instructions here:
Enable Disk Utility's Debug Menu
Follow the guide to make the Debug menu visible, and then come on back and we'll continue the cloning process.
Published: 8/10/2011
Updated: 2/17/2015
Now that we have the hidden Debug menu in Disk Utility working, we can proceed with the cloning process.
Creating the Recovery HD Clone
Prepare the Destination Volume
You can create the Recovery HD clone on any volume listed in Disk Utility, but the cloning process will erase any data on the destination volume. For this reason, it's a good idea to resize and add a partition dedicated to the new Recovery HD volume you are about to create.
The Recovery HD partition can be very small; 650 MB is the minimum size, although I would make it slightly larger. Disk Utility probably won't be able to create a partition that small, so just use the smallest size it can create. You'll find instructions for adding and resizing volumes here:
Disk Utility - Add, Delete, and Resize Existing Volumes With Disk Utility
Once you have the destination drive partitioned, we can proceed.
- Launch Disk Utility, located at /Applications/Utilities.
- From the Debug menu, select Show Every Partition.
- The Recovery HD volume will now be displayed in the Device list in Disk Utility.
- In Disk Utility, select the original Recovery HD volume, and then click the Restore tab.
- Drag the Recovery HD volume to the Source field.
- Drag the volume you want to use for the new Recovery HD to the Destination field. Double-check to be sure that you're copying the correct volume to the destination, because any volume you drag there will be completely erased by the cloning process.
- When you're sure that everything is correct, click the Restore button.
- Disk Utility will ask if you really want to erase the destination drive. Click Erase.
- You will need to supply an administrator account password. Enter the requested information, and click OK.
- The cloning process will begin. Disk Utility will provide a status bar to keep you up to date on the process. Once Disk Utility completes the cloning process, you're ready to use the new Recovery HD (but with any luck, you'll never need to use it).
A few additional notes:
Creating the new recovery HD volume this way doesn't set the visibility flag to hidden. As a result, the Recovery HD volume will appear on your desktop. You can use Disk Utility to unmount the Recovery HD volume if you wish. Here's how.
- Select the new Recovery HD volume from the Device list in Disk Utility.
- At the top of the Disk Utility window, click the Unmount button.
If you have multiple Recovery HD volumes attached to your Mac, you can select the one to use in an emergency by starting your Mac with the option key held down. This will force your Mac to display all available bootable drives. You can then pick the one you want to use for emergencies.
Published: 8/10/2011
Updated: 2/17/2015
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