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Recovery Partition OSX Update?

sransom

sransom

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 16, 2012
3
0
London, UK
Hi I'm a newbie to Apple Macbooks so please forgive my lack of knowledge.

I've ordered the Macbook Pro Retina. I understand the recovery setup is included on a hidden partition of the SSD.

At present the Macbooks are shipping with OSX Lion. But with free upgrade to Mountain Lion when it is released.

My question is.. When the I later update the OS to Mountain Lion, would it also update the recovery partition to a Mountain Lion recovery, or will it remain as Lion?

Obviously in the future if I have to restore the machine at any point, I wouldn't want to have to restore back to Lion, before having to update again to Mountain Lion.

Thanks in advance for your replies.
 
The recovery partition on the new Macs is not like that of many Windows based OEM computers with the whole OS on a recovery partition. The Mac recovery partition only contains a small set of utilities that allows you to format a disk and get online and redownload the OS. So with your new Mac the OS is not actually on the recovery partition at all.

When you upgrade to Mountain Lion, it will update the recovery partition to a new Mountain Lion version of recovery, but that still does not contain the entire OS, it will be the same utility set that allows you to get online and redownload Mountain Lion.
 
Perfect, thank you Weaselboy for your reply and extra explaination. Exactly the info I was after! :)
 
sransom said:
Perfect, thank you Weaselboy for your reply and extra explaination. Exactly the info I was after! :)
Click to expand...

The Internet recovery disk utility is a great feature. However when your HDD or SSD fails the partition can go along with it. When ML is released I would make a copy of the partition on a thumb drive using this method......http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

I'd imagine they would update the website once ML is released.
 
Irock619 said:
The Internet recovery disk utility is a great feature. However when your HDD or SSD fails the partition can go along with it. When ML is released I would make a copy of the partition on a thumb drive using this method......http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

I'd imagine they would update the website once ML is released.
Click to expand...

Good idea to make copy of he partition.
However with the MacBook pro retina, if the ssd fails it is back to apple anyway as it is soldered into the motherboard and not removable by the consumer. One would hope when they replace the ssd they would also load the os as part of the replacement?
 
sransom said:
Good idea to make copy of he partition.
However with the MacBook pro retina, if the ssd fails it is back to apple anyway as it is soldered into the motherboard and not removable by the consumer. One would hope when they replace the ssd they would also load the os as part of the replacement?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure you get a fully functional computer back from Apple, so yes, the recovery partition should be on it and the OS itself should also be loaded ready for you to get going.
 
Weaselboy said:
The Mac recovery partition only contains a small set of utilities that allows you to format a disk and get online and redownload the OS. So with your new Mac the OS is not actually on the recovery partition at all.
Click to expand...

I don't think the recovery partition contains the tool to download the OS, I think that's built into the EFI because I was able to use Internet Recovery to redownload Lion when I installed a brand new (i.e. with no recovery partition) hard drive into my MacBook Pro.
 
Jacksteruk309 said:
I don't think the recovery partition contains the tool to download the OS, I think that's built into the EFI because I was able to use Internet Recovery to redownload Lion when I installed a brand new (i.e. with no recovery partition) hard drive into my MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...

The recovery partition contains the same thing that internet recovery downloads, which is essential tools, and OS installer. internet recovery is meant as last ditch effort.


I also expect internet recovery to either be updated or start downloading ML once it's released for the RMBP, as every unit sold is eligible for a free update.
 
Jacksteruk309 said:
I don't think the recovery partition contains the tool to download the OS, I think that's built into the EFI because I was able to use Internet Recovery to redownload Lion when I installed a brand new (i.e. with no recovery partition) hard drive into my MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...

It is actually in both. If you have a pre-2010 portable, it will be on the drive only. In a 2010+ with the EFI update, it will be in firmware and on the recovery partition.

So if you have a machine like your with the recovery in EFI, you can recover even from a blank drive like you did. Older machines will require the recovery partition or a recovery thumb (USB) drive.
 
Does anyone know how to get the recovery partition for Mountain Lion? I just imaged my disk and want to enable FileVault but since I lost my Recovery Partition I cannot.

I am a OS X Developer but it doesn't look like Apple has provided us the Recovery Partition. I do have the InstallESD.dmg file if anyone knows how to extract it from there.


Irock619 said:
The Internet recovery disk utility is a great feature. However when your HDD or SSD fails the partition can go along with it. When ML is released I would make a copy of the partition on a thumb drive using this method......http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

I'd imagine they would update the website once ML is released.
Click to expand...
 
bradhs said:
Does anyone know how to get the recovery partition for Mountain Lion? I just imaged my disk and want to enable FileVault but since I lost my Recovery Partition I cannot.

I am a OS X Developer but it doesn't look like Apple has provided us the Recovery Partition. I do have the InstallESD.dmg file if anyone knows how to extract it from there.
Click to expand...

If you just reinstall Mountain Lion, it will create a recovery partition.
 
sransom said:
Good idea to make copy of he partition.
However with the MacBook pro retina, if the ssd fails it is back to apple anyway as it is soldered into the motherboard and not removable by the consumer. One would hope when they replace the ssd they would also load the os as part of the replacement?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure the SSD is still socketed in the rMBP.
 
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