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Cmd-R starts internet recovery mode, even though I have a recovery partition

M

malone

macrumors member
Original poster
Hi,

I was doing a clean install of my MBA 2011, and found that Cmd-R boots into internet recovery mode instead of the recovery partition, even though I have a recovery partition.

I am certain I have a recovery partition because "diskutil list" shows it, and the guest account appropriately reboots into the special Safari-only mode (which is found on the recovery partition).

Here was my process that led to this problem:
1. Clean install of Lion on MBA 2011 (using SD card with appropriate Lion image)
2. Updated to 10.7.3.
3. Enable FileVault 2 and Find My Mac.

Afterward, on boots, I see both my account and the Guest account (which reboots the system into the Safari-only mode). On Cmd-R, it boots into internet recovery mode instead of the recovery partition. Pressing "Alt/Option" on boot shows my OS volume, but not the Recovery HD.

Anyone have any idea why it does this, and how to resolve it?

Many thanks!
 
Last edited:
Bump! I've had the same thing happen.

What I noticed was that if I entered any network information (after holding down the Option key), it would try to do the Internet Restore the next time i did a Cmd-R. Highly annoying to say the least.

My solution was to reinstall Lion using the app from the app store (fortunately I had saved a copy before running it the first time I upgraded) and it recreates the Recovery HD and stuff.

My bigger issue is that I have a VERY slow internet connection in the country I currently live in, and after reinstalling 10.7.3 it still needs to do some software updates, which takes an agonizingly long time. I restored from a Time Machine backup but that takes forever too.

I'd like to know if there's a way to use the installer to just recreate the Recovery HD rather than go through the entire painful process again.
 
I realized this is happening to me too. I'm certain that wasn't always the case. Strange.

I can see the recovery disk with holding option before startup.
 
the recovery partition does not include the installer just the tools to allow you to to download lion aka internet recovery
 
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