Where is my Recovery Drive?

doubledee · Oct 14, 2013

My new MBP has been sitting collecting dust since this Summer.

Now I am trying to get my head back into Macs and OS-X and so on, and there are some gaps in my knowledge and what I had mostly done this Summer...

My new MBP has Mountain Lion on it, and I used CCC to make a "clone" of the Factory HDD before I did anything as far as new Apps or any Data.

The logic being, if anything ever happened to my HDD, then I would have a way to get things back to their "out-of-the-box" state.

Here is one thing that is foggy to me since July...

I thought that then when I booted up my MBP and held down the "Option" key, that I should see both my "Bootable Volume" (e.g. "MBP01") *and* I would see the Factory "Recovery HDD" as well, but I do not see that...

All I see is an icon of a HDD labeled "MBP01" and an arrow pointing up to it.

What is up with that???

Furthermore, when I used CCC to clone my Factory HDD, I am 99% certain that I cloned both the "Bootable Volume" and the "Recovery HDD".

So, it is my memory from July, that when I would boot up my MBP with my Recover Thumbdrive plugged in, and while holding down "Option", that I would see the following...

Code:

- Factory Bootable Volume (i.e. "MBP01")
- Factory Recovery HDD/Partition

- Cloned Copy of Factory Bootable Volume (i.e. "MBP Factory Clone 2013-07-01")
- Cloned Copy of Factory Recovery HDD/Partion

Instead, all I see is...

Code:

- Factory Bootable Volume (i.e. "MBP01")

- Cloned Copy of Factory Bootable Volume (i.e. "MBP Factory Clone 2013-07-01")

BTW, I am running FileVault2 to give my FDE protection.

Maybe that has something to do with things??

Hope all of this makes some sense?!

Sincerely,

Debbie

doubledee · Oct 14, 2013

Where is my Recovery Drive?

In the past, when I booted up my new MBP and held down the Option key, I would see two icons...

1.) MBP01 (name of volume holding OSX and data)

2.) Recovery Partition (or whatever it is called)

Now when I do that, all I see is #1...

What happened??

BTW, I have FileVault2 turned on...

Sincerely,

Debbie

Bear · Oct 14, 2013

FileVault 2 happened. It uses the recovery partition for booting. On your Mac you can use internet recovery since you no longer have access to the recovery partition.

doubledee · Oct 14, 2013

Bear said:
FileVault 2 happened. It uses the recovery partition for booting. On your Mac you can use internet recovery since you no longer have access to the recovery partition.

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying...

Debbie

Bear · Oct 14, 2013

doubledee said:
I'm not sure I understand what you are saying...

Debbie

When you enable FIlevault 2, it modifies the recovery partition to be part of the boot mechanism for the encrypted system disk and is no longer useable as a recovery disk.

doubledee · Oct 14, 2013

Bear said:
When you enable FIlevault 2, it modifies the recovery partition to be part of the boot mechanism for the encrypted system disk and is no longer useable as a recovery disk.

Why in the hell doesn't Apple tell people that???

Debbie

aristobrat · Oct 14, 2013

doubledee said:
Why in the hell doesn't Apple tell people that???

Debbie

Starting from the Recovery HD partition after FileVault 2 is enabled

When FileVault 2 is enabled, Recovery HD does not appear in the Startup Manager (which is accessed by holding Option during startup). However, you can select the Recovery HD by holding Command-R as Lion starts up.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4790?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

doubledee · Oct 14, 2013

aristobrat said:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4790?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

But from my own Googling, doing that takes you to Internet Recovery which is totally what I want to avoid?!

Debbie

aristobrat · Oct 14, 2013

doubledee said:
But from my own Googling, doing that takes you to Internet Recovery which is totally what I want to avoid?!

Oh, you wanted to avoid that? Sorry, didn't catch that part of your OP.

Doesn't booting any way other than normally skip the part where you can unlock your drive? If so, what would be the point of booting to a Recovery Drive, if it can't read anything on your unlocked drive?

doubledee · Oct 14, 2013

aristobrat said:
Oh, you wanted to avoid that? Sorry, didn't catch that part of your OP.

No apologies. I didn't mention it.

Sorry, I'm just starting to get really *pissed off*...

Let me back up and explain what I WANTED...

I just got a new MBP in March, and finally got around to setting it up in July.

I spent like 3 frickin weeks on here learning about clones and CCC and all kinds of security crap, and one of my goals was to make sure I had a Bootable Recovery Disk before I touched my new MBP...

So I bought CCC and I created a "clone" (including Recovery Partition) and life was good.

And as a final act - before all of this got put on hold again - I used FileVault 2 to encrypt *both* my HDD and my Bootable USB Recovery Disk.

And now it is sounding like I * * * * ed everything up!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't ever want to need to use Apple's dumbass Internet Recovery!!! (For more on that, try searching for my views on this on MacRumors...)

aristobrat said:
Doesn't booting any way other than normally skip the part where you can unlock your drive?

If so, what would be the point of booting to a Recovery Drive, if it can't read anything on your unlocked drive?

Ah ha....

Good question!!

Why exactly do I care about a "Recovery Partition" in the first place?!

I am thinking I screwed up my Bootable Thumbdrive - will have to look at that tomorrow - but my MBP works fine.

So *when* and *how* would you normally use the hidden "Recovery Partition" anyways?? (I never seen to understand this?!)

And assuming that I didn't FUBAR my "Bootable USB Drive", do I really care that Mountain Lion just trashed my "Recovery Partition"??

Sincerely,

Debbie

benwiggy · Oct 15, 2013

Debbie:

I don't quite understand. Are you mad that you don't have a Recovery Partition, or mad that you do? What is your objective?
As said, you can boot into the Firmware Recovery Partition if you need to reinstall the OS. This is your last hope for reinstalling the OS if you replace the hard drive or accidentally completely wipe all the partitions on it.

Secondly, reinstalling the OS should be very rarely necessary.

I don't understand why you want to create an ENCRYPTED USB boot disk. If it just contains the Apple installer, then it doesn't have your sensitive data on it.

You can always make a USB bootable volume from the installer app downloaded from the App Store.

Just tell us what you're trying to achieve, and maybe there is a solution. Then again, may be there isn't.

aristobrat · Oct 15, 2013

doubledee said:
So *when* and *how* would you normally use the hidden "Recovery Partition" anyways?? (I never seen to understand this?!)

Personally, other than playing around with it, I've only ever used it twice. Once was on a system that needed "Repair Disk" run when the OS wasn't booted, and the other was to do an OS re-install on a work MBP where I didn't mind waiting 20 minutes for it download the latest patched OS X.

And assuming that I didn't FUBAR my "Bootable USB Drive", do I really care that Mountain Lion just trashed my "Recovery Partition"??

For me, not having that partition doesn't pose any problems.

I've got an external USB 3 drive where I created a small bootable partition that has the Mountain Lion installer on it. I also have a Time Capsule, so my MBP is backing up any of my changed personal data on a regular (hourly?) basis.

If I dorked up the OS so that it wouldn't boot, my recovery would be to plug in my external USB 3 drive, reboot the Mac holding the OPTION key down, and choosing the bootable Mountain Lion installer. I'd use the Installer's Disk Utility to format the drive, then I'd reinstall Mountain Lion. Then I'd use Time Machine to put all of my personal data back.

IMO, there are "restore" workflows that folks have been using for years before the Recovery Partition became part of OS X, so I don't think you're at any huge disadvantage by not having it.

Weaselboy · Oct 15, 2013

It looks different because you have FileVault turned on. What you are seeing is normal on a FileVault enabled system. The main OS volume is now a encrypted core storage volume that can only be seen when unlocked after booting to the recovery partition. A default boot on a FileVault system is a boot recovery where you see the login screen. After entering login info you are handed off to the now unlocked main volume.

doubledee · Oct 15, 2013

This is going to be a week from H-E-L-L... I just know it!!

First off, I apologize for being a dumb Apple user. I am trying so hard to learn all of this stuff, and become a guru like you guys, but there is just so much to learn, and I keep seeming to struggle with Apple's new "paradigm" of how Operating Systems work?!

Okay, HANG ON, this is going to be a LONG response!!!

benwiggy said:
Debbie:

I don't quite understand.

Are you mad that you don't have a Recovery Partition, or mad that you do?

What is your objective?

I am mad because I fear that I just destroyed my new MBP and about 3 weeks worth of setup...

Let's rewind, and let me explain a.) What my goals are, and b.) What I have done up to this point.

Debbie's Goals:
1.) Ability to *completely* rebuild my MBP - like it came out of the box - should there be a complete system failure, or I simply need to install a new HDD.

(In more "normal" times, I would just grab my "Mac Recovery DVD", pop it in, and wha-la, I'd have a machine just like the one Apple sent me!)

2.) Store a copy of the Mountain Lion "Recovery Partition" on a separate media device (i.e. USB Drive) to achieve #1

3.) Absolutely, positively *AVOID* ever needing to have to do "Internet Recovery" with Apple.

(Don't get me started on why I HATE this option, and why it does NOT work for me on many, many levels. I can point you to a former vent here on MacRumors if you're really curious...)

4.) I paid a couple grand for my Mac, and I want a PHYSICAL FRICKING COPY of Mountain, because regardless of what Apple and Apple's lawyers think, to me, I "own" on copy of Mountain Lion, and I want it within reach of my person at all times!!

And leading into my current dilemma...

5.) I want what I *thought* I had accomplished back in July when my life became interrupted by a job loss and move...

What I have done up to this point:
1.) Got my new 13" MBP in like March, and it sat, and sat, and sat because of everything else going on in my life, including me doing LOTS of research on MacRumors and online, on topics like...

- The new retarded policy of, "You paid for a new computer, but we really don't want you to have the Operating System"

- What to do if my Mac ever became corrupt, had a HDD failure, or I just needed to install a larger HDD

- How to do FDE

- How to strive towards Security that would make any NSA-agent weep!!

(This new MBP is for my new business, and it *is* my life. I take this entire endeavor more seriously than the CIA would!!)

2.) In July, I had gained enough knowledge from the brainy (and beautiful) people on MacRumors to be semi-dangerous and try to start setting things up.

And here - to the best of my memory - is what I did...

3.) Turned on my new MBP, set up a "Standard User" and an "Admin User", and locked things down as well as I could.

4.) Bought and installed Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC), and proceeded to "clone" my Factory HDD to a 32GB USB Drive.

Then did LOTS of testing...

5.) With no drives inserted into my new MBP, I booted up holding down "Option" - and as I recall - saw...

Code:

- My regular HDD (i.e. "MBP 01")

- "Recovery Partition"

Check.

6.) Inserted my USB Drive which the new "clone", booted up holding down "Option" - and as I recall - saw...

Code:

- My regular HDD (i.e. "MBP 01")

- "Recovery Partition" (from HDD)

- My CCC "clone" of HDD (i.e. "Factory HDD 2013-07-01")

- 2nd "Recovery Partition" (created by CCC)

Check.

7.) I *physically* removed my HDD, and then "Option" booted from my USB drive, and chose "Factory HDD 2013-07-01", and it was like the HDD was still there.

Cool!!!

8.) With HDD still out, I "Option" booted from the USB drive, and choose "Recovery Partition", and I was booted into the "Recovery Area". (This part is foggy to me, but I know it was doing whatever you'd expect your "Recovery Partition" to do?!)

9.) With HDD still out, I "Option" booted from the USB drive, and choose the 2nd "Recovery Partition", and I was booted into the "Recovery Area". (This part is foggy to me, but I know it was doing whatever you'd expect your "Recovery Partition" to do?!)

10.) So, it appeared that I had successfully created my first-ever "Bootable USB Drive Clone", and I also knew how to use the "Recovery Partition" on my original HDD, as well as from my USB Drive should there ever be problems.

As far as I knew, I now had a PHYSICAL COPY of Mountain Lion, and had met all of my "Goals" stated above.

Life was beautiful!!

11.) I installed a faster 750 GB Western Digital HDD, and used my USB Drive to install the "Factory HDD 2013-07-01" clone. Booted up, and it was like factory!!

12.) I used FileVault2 to encrypt my entire HDD.

13.) I also wanted to use FDE on my USB Drive.

Why?

Because if it wasn't encrypted, and someone got a hold of it, then they could easily boot it up - remember it had a "clone" on it - and have access to my User Accounts and Passwords and possibly some other basic info that should remain private.

And even if there was nothing to steal, Why not use FDE whenever you can?!

<<Anyways, I'm not here to debate that topic right now.>>

14.) After thoroughly reading the CCC Manual, I decided to use Mountain Lion to encrypt my USB Drive, because CCC mentioned that there was some extra flexibility doing it that way, versus through the CCC UI itself.

So, with a USB Drive with a Bootable Clone *plus* a Bootable Recovery Partition - to the best of my knowledge - I used FileVault2 to encrypt the entire USB Drive.

Things get *foggy* after this because I lost my job and haven't touched things in 2-3 months, but I'm pretty sure that where I left things off, I was able to "Option" Boot from my fully encrypted USB Drive, enter the encryption key, and then choose from either...

Code:

- My regular HDD (i.e. "MBP 01")

- "Recovery Partition" (from HDD)

- My CCC "clone" of HDD (i.e. "Factory HDD 2013-07-01")

- 2nd "Recovery Partition" (created by CCC)

Where I am now:

I just want to get back to where I am pretty sure I was in #14 above.

Assuming I have my "Factory HDD 2013-07-01" clone, and my "Recovery Partition" on my USB Drive, then I am totally backed up, in my mind, and if anything ever happens to my new MBP, I can just pop in the USB Drive, and wha-la, I have a way to restore things back to "factory"!!

I spent all of this time trying to attain that, thought that I did just that, but when I "Option" Boot with my USB Drive in, all I see are two icon labeled...

Code:

- "MBP 01"

- "Factory HDD 2013-07-01"

What happened to the "(Factory) Recover Partition" on my HDD, and what happened to the "(Cloned) Recovery Partition" made by CCC on my USB Drive???

What I had originally hoped to do this week was...

- Confirm my USB Drive was as I thought it should be

- Make another "Bootable Drive" (including all of my Apps and Settings) on a *new* 64GB USB Drive

- Transfer Data from *this* old MacBook to my new MBP

- And get on with my life!!!!!!!!!

But if I "broke" my original "Bootable USB Drive" then I need to get that fixed before I move any farther forward, because once I start transferring data over, then I lose my ability to have a "picture-perfect image" of how my MBP looked out-of-the-box!!!

Follow what I am trying to do??

Exasperated,

Debbie

benwiggy · Oct 15, 2013

Debbie

I'll admit I skimmed.

1. Both the Recovery Partition on the disk AND the Recovery Firmware Partition download the latest files from Apple. The recover partition on the disk is only 650Mb, and not a full installer.

2. If you want a bootable, physical device from which you can reinstall OS X, then there are plenty of instructions on the internet about how you can make a USB installer from the Install app in the App Store.
That disk will only have the OS X system and installer from Apple, so no need to encrypt it. The NSA already have a copy.

Bear in mind that to keep your installer disk up-to-date, you'll have to keep downloading the complete latest app from Apple everytime they release an update, and put that on the USB.

If you bought your Mac with 10.8 installed, then for this convenience, instead of using the Recovery Firmware Partition and downloading the latest build of your OS, then you may need to buy 10.8 again from the Store. If you're going to buy 10.9 when it comes out, then you can do it then.

3. Alternatively, any clone of your current disk should be able to get cloned back onto any future replacement hard drive. I'll admit I don't know how FileVault affects this.

doubledee · Oct 15, 2013

benwiggy said:
Debbie

I'll admit I skimmed.

Not sure your response really helps or talks about what I described...

Debbie

doubledee · Oct 15, 2013

Weaselboy said:
It looks different because you have FileVault turned on. What you are seeing is normal on a FileVault enabled system. The main OS volume is now a encrypted core storage volume that can only be seen when unlocked after booting to the recovery partition. A default boot on a FileVault system is a boot recovery where you see the login screen. After entering login info you are handed off to the now unlocked main volume.

Not sure I follow you...

So you are saying that when I turned on FileVault2, that now my MBP boots off of the "Recovery Partition" instead of my "Main Partition"?

Debbie

Dark Dragoon · Oct 15, 2013

doubledee said:
Not sure I follow you...

So you are saying that when I turned on FileVault2, that now my MBP boots off of the "Recovery Partition" instead of my "Main Partition"?

Debbie

Correct, FileVault2 encrypts your main partition so it is not bootable anymore. Instead the unencrypted recovery partition is used to start the boot process so as to let you unlock the encrypted partition.

This means that to boot into the recovery partition itself you have to hold down Command+R at boot, as you cannot access it by pressing Option/Alt.

doubledee · Oct 15, 2013

Dark Dragoon said:
Correct, FileVault2 encrypts your main partition so it is not bootable anymore. Instead the unencrypted recovery partition is used to start the boot process so as to let you unlock the encrypted partition.

This means that to boot into the recovery partition itself you have to hold down Command+R at boot, as you cannot access it by pressing Option/Alt.

Do I care that this happened?

Did I break anything?

This morning I tried "Command+R Booting" my MBP, and I got this screen with all of these foreign languages scrolling from right to left and a List Box asking me to select a Language...

Does that mean my MBP is trying to boot from the "Recovery Partition" on my HDD?

Sincerely,

Debbie

Weaselboy · Oct 17, 2013

I think you are fine and the reason the Recovery HD does not look like you expect it to is because you have turned on FV2 on both drives. FV2 modifies the Recovery HD partition and it works differently with FV2 turned on.

Recall our previous discussion of FV2 and how with FV2 on the machine actually boots to the recovery partition and the login screen is presented by that partition. Only AFTER entering the PW from the recovery login screen is the main OS partition mounted.

Boot from the HDD then after that plug in the USB cloned drive. Now type "diskutil list" (without the quotes) in Terminal and post the output here so I can take a look. I suspect this command will show your recovery partition is there on both drives.

If you have FV2 on with the internal HDD you are running from, I am certain the Recovery HD partition is there otherwise the machine would not boot.

Weaselboy · Oct 17, 2013

doubledee said:
Not sure I follow you...

So you are saying that when I turned on FileVault2, that now my MBP boots off of the "Recovery Partition" instead of my "Main Partition"?

Debbie

Exactly... and Dark Dragoon is right on target. If you turn on FV2 and option key boot all you will see is the main OS partition to boot from. With FV on you can only access the recovery partition by doing a command-r boot.

I don't want to try and do this in two threads... so can we direct further discussion to your other thread.

doubledee · Oct 17, 2013

Weaselboy said:
I think you are fine and the reason the Recovery HD does not look like you expect it to is because you have turned on FV2 on both drives. FV2 modifies the Recovery HD partition and it works differently with FV2 turned on.

Recall our previous discussion of FV2 and how with FV2 on the machine actually boots to the recovery partition and the login screen is presented by that partition. Only AFTER entering the PW from the recovery login screen is the main OS partition mounted.

I just booted up my MBP. No USB inserted. There is a gray screen, with an Apple top-center, and then beneath it are two icons labeled "user1" and "user2". At the bottom-center are "Restart" and "Shut Down" buttons.

"user1" is the Admin, and "user2" is a Standard account.

If I click on "user1", then "user2" disappears, and a Password box appears.

Since FileVault2 is turned on, you are saying that all of this is happening from the "Recovery Partition", right??

So I log in to the Admin account, and am taken to user1's Desktop.

Somewhere along the way, you are saying that I am SWITCHED from the "Recovery Partition" to the "Main (??) Partition", right??

*************
Yesterday, I did what research I could and found this tutorial...

View & Mount Hidden Partitions in Mac OS X

So, while logged in as Admin, I typed this...

Code:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1

When I go into Disk Utility, I see this...

Code:

MBP 01
	MBP 01
	disk0s1
	MBP 01
	Recover HD
SuperDrive

What does each of those entries mean???

And why does "MBP 01" appear 3 times???

("MBP 01" is what I called the 1 Partition I set up when I formatted this *new* HDD before installing the "clone" that I made with CCC from my Original Factory HDD.)

If I click on each one, respectively, I see the following...

MBP01

Code:

Name: MBP 01
Type: Logical Volume Group
Disk Status: Online
Capacity: 749.16 GB
Available: 16.8 MB
Used: 749.15 GB

MBP 01

Code:

Mount Point: /
Format: Encrypted Logical Partition
Capacity: 748:83 GB
Available: 721.29 GB
Used: 27.54 GB

disk0s1

Code:

Mount Point: Not Mounted
Partition Type: EFI
Capacity: 209.7 MB

MBP 01

Code:

Mount Point: Not Mounted
Partition Type: Core Storage Physical Volume
Capacity: 749.16 GB

Recovery HD

Code:

Mount Point: Not Mounted
Partition Type: Apple Boot Partition
Capacity: 784.2 MB

Again, could you please explain what all of that *above* means??

Weaselboy said:
Boot from the HDD then after that plug in the USB cloned drive. Now type "diskutil list" (without the quotes) in Terminal and post the output here so I can take a look. I suspect this command will show your recovery partition is there on both drives.

I'll come back to the USB Drive after we talk about what is described above from my Laptop's HDD.

Weaselboy said:
If you have FV2 on with the internal HDD you are running from, I am certain the Recovery HD partition is there otherwise the machine would not boot.

Well, good point, but I still have several questions related to this, after we talk about what I posted above.

Sincerely,

Debbie

Weaselboy · Oct 17, 2013

doubledee said:
Okay, everyone, we are no walking over to this thread...

Where Is My Recovery Drive??

Sincerely,

Debbie

You other thread is now locked, so I assume you asked a mod to close the wrong thread?

From that thread:

I just booted up my MBP. No USB inserted. There is a gray screen, with an Apple top-center, and then beneath it are two icons labeled "user1" and "user2". At the bottom-center are "Restart" and "Shut Down" buttons.

"user1" is the Admin, and "user2" is a Standard account.

If I click on "user1", then "user2" disappears, and a Password box appears.

Since FileVault2 is turned on, you are saying that all of this is happening from the "Recovery Partition", right??

So I log in to the Admin account, and am taken to user1's Desktop.

Somewhere along the way, you are saying that I am SWITCHED from the "Recovery Partition" to the "Main (??) Partition", right??

Exactly. That is how FV2 works.

Yesterday, I did what research I could and found this tutorial...

This is why I gave you the diskutil list command. It would have given you that exact same info in a nice text format in Terminal without fussing around in Disk Util.

From what you have posted your system is setup as it should be for a normal FV2 install.

The EFI partition is used by your Mac to install firmware updates. You know what Recovery HD is. And the HD1 is there twice because one is a logical core storage (encrypted) volume of the real HD1 partition.

doubledee · Oct 17, 2013

Weaselboy said:
You other thread is now locked, so I assume you asked a mod to close the wrong thread?

The Mods just did the "Thread Hokey-Pokey"!!!

Okay, picking up where we left off...

Weaselboy said:
Exactly. That is how FV2 works.

This is why I gave you the diskutil list command. It would have given you that exact same info in a nice text format in Terminal without fussing around in Disk Util.

From what you have posted your system is setup as it should be for a normal FV2 install.

The EFI partition is used by your Mac to install firmware updates. You know what Recovery HD is. And the HD1 is there twice because one is a logical core storage (encrypted) volume of the real HD1 partition.

If you don't mind, since I typed up all of these pretty tables, can we go through each one, please?

If I click on each one, respectively, I see the following...

MBP01

Code:

Name: MBP 01
Type: Logical Volume Group
Disk Status: Online
Capacity: 749.16 GB
Available: 16.8 MB
Used: 749.15 GB

What is this??

This is pretty much the entire 750GB HDD...

Maybe this represents the PHYSICAL HDD????

MBP 01

Code:

Mount Point: /
Format: Encrypted Logical Partition
Capacity: 748:83 GB
Available: 721.29 GB
Used: 27.54 GB

I am thinking this is my encrypted FileVault2 "Main Partition", right? (i.e. My Encrypted HDD as I know it?!)

disk0s1

Code:

Mount Point: Not Mounted
Partition Type: EFI
Capacity: 209.7 MB

From what I have read, I am thinking *this* is where my Mac boots from...

I thought I read something about FileVault2 residing at the "EFI-level" which is like at the firmware level.

I also think this is why FileVault2 *may* be considered "hardware encryption" because it happens at the "controller level"...

Could be way off here?!

MBP 01

Code:

Mount Point: Not Mounted
Partition Type: Core Storage Physical Volume
Capacity: 749.16 GB

This apparently has something to do with Apple's "Core Storage" thingy, of which I know nothing!

Recovery HD

Code:

Mount Point: Not Mounted
Partition Type: Apple Boot Partition
Capacity: 784.2 MB

I guess this is my "Recovery Partition"...

But what is the *difference* between "disk0s1" and "Recovery HD"??????

Sincerely,

Debbie

Dark Dragoon · Oct 17, 2013

doubledee said:

MBP01

Code:

Name: MBP 01
Type: Logical Volume Group
Disk Status: Online
Capacity: 749.16 GB
Available: 16.8 MB
Used: 749.15 GB

MBP 01

Code:

Mount Point: /
Format: Encrypted Logical Partition
Capacity: 748:83 GB
Available: 721.29 GB
Used: 27.54 GB

disk0s1

Code:

Mount Point: Not Mounted
Partition Type: EFI
Capacity: 209.7 MB

MBP 01

Code:

Mount Point: Not Mounted
Partition Type: Core Storage Physical Volume
Capacity: 749.16 GB

Recovery HD

Code:

Mount Point: Not Mounted
Partition Type: Apple Boot Partition
Capacity: 784.2 MB

In order:
1) CoreStorage Logical Volume Group, its purpose is to contain various logical partitions but it isn't the drive itself.
2) The encrypted root logical partition where all your data is stored, it should be in the previous CoreStorage Logical Volume Group (1).
3) EFI partition that is normally hidden, necessary but not really used for much but is created with any GUID OSX drive. Could be used for some software that works with the EFI and for software firmware.
4) Core Storage Physical Volume, this should represent the physical drive that is a member of the CoreStorage Logical Volume Group (1).
5) Recovery HD, this is what you are normally booting from, this is where that grey screen with your accounts comes from and is what is used to unlock your encrypted root partition (2). You can also use Command+R to boot into the recovery software located on this partition instead of the normal login screen.

Personally I would have used the "diskutil list" command, or for more information on the CoreStorage setup of your machine "distil cs list".
The way you've listed it makes it harder to understand.

Where is my Recovery Drive?

macrumors 6502

macrumors 6502

macrumors G3

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