Cloning a new SSD drive, without the recovery partition

[Cassady]

Hello all,

Would appreciate some general guidance on a few questions.

I currently have a Crucial M500 240gb SSD, that I am replacing with a 480gb version.

My original 500 HDD is in the optibay, SSD in the main slot - HDD for extra storage and media, SSD has the OSX on it.

When I did the initial cloning and installation of the 240gb SSD, I slipped up, and failed to clone the recovery partition. It hasn't been problematic at all, sine I have a bootable USB drive, with Mavericks installed.

The few times I needed to boot into recovery, I simply ran disk repair off the usb, and it worked a charm.

Now for the silly questions:

I'm getting the new SSD tomorrow.

1.) If the USB option has been working so far, is it really necessary to worry about a recovery partition on the new SSD?

2.) Assuming it is a good idea to have the recovery partition installed, how would I do this?

a.) Can I point CCC to my external usb, and use that to create the new recovery partition, since it won't have one on the current OS SSD to clone?; or

b.) Is my only option a fresh install of Mavericks (off my usb), and then a TM transfer of the OS disc's data?

Would really appreciate some advice!

Ps - bit pressed for time, since I have a buyer lined up for the 240gb SSD - so which would be quicker/best as well?

 

[Weaselboy]

1. If you have no recovery partition, some OS X features like Filevault encryption and Find my Mac will not work. If you don't care about that, it will run fine without it.

2. Use this utility.

2a. Yes you can.

You could option key boot to the external that has the recovery partition, then from there use Disk Util to format the new SSD and also use Disk Util to clone the old drive to the new following this video.

 

[Cassady]

1. If you have no recovery partition, some OS X features like Filevault encryption and Find my Mac will not work. If you don't care about that, it will run fine without it.

2. Use this utility.

2a. Yes you can.

You could option key boot to the external that has the recovery partition, then from there use Disk Util to format the new SSD and also use Disk Util to clone the old drive to the new following this video.

Thanks for the info. Did not realise I lose some of the features without the Recovery. Given there's surely no guarantee Yosemite will be convertible into a USB, it might make sense to do this OS disk properly, recovery partition and all...

Will stay away from github, purely since it's a bit too complex for me - but will explore your second suggestion...

I guess 2A would be the simplest -- but will see what I can work out.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks for the info. Did not realise I lose some of the features without the Recovery. Given there's surely no guarantee Yosemite will be convertible into a USB, it might make sense to do this OS disk properly, recovery partition and all...

Will stay away from github, purely since it's a bit too complex for me - but will explore your second suggestion...

I guess 2A would be the simplest -- but will see what I can work out.

You also can just reinstall Mavs and it will make a recovery partition for you.

 

[Cassady]

You also can just reinstall Mavs and it will make a recovery partition for you.

Toyed with this. But have so many tweaks and custom-settings implemented, that I'm trying to avoid having to reinstall clean, if possible...

Will see what I can manage tomorrow.

Any ideas how one verifies that the recovery partition is installed and working? Do you simply try and boot in to it, or will it show up in disk utility?

 

[Weaselboy]

Toyed with this. But have so many tweaks and custom-settings implemented, that I'm trying to avoid having to reinstall clean, if possible...

Will see what I can manage tomorrow.

Any ideas how one verifies that the recovery partition is installed and working? Do you simply try and boot in to it, or will it show up in disk utility?

If you just reinstall Mavs over top of the existing install (without erasing anything in Disk Util) you will retain all your settings etc and it will install a recovery partition for you.

Just enter "diskutil list" in Terminal and that will show all partitions. You will see a 650MB Recovery HD partition there if you have one. It will look like this in Terminal.

Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB

 

[Cassady]

If you just reinstall Mavs over top of the existing install (without erasing anything in Disk Util) you will retain all your settings etc and it will install a recovery partition for you.



Just enter "diskutil list" in Terminal and that will show all partitions. You will see a 650MB Recovery HD partition there if you have one. It will look like this in Terminal.

Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB

If I understand you correctly, a fresh install (without prior deleting) simply pastes over the existing OS, but leaves everything else?

Really??!

Thanks for the tip re the partition in Terminal.

 

[Weaselboy]

If I understand you correctly, a fresh install (without prior deleting) simply pastes over the existing OS, but leaves everything else?

Really??!

Thanks for the tip re the partition in Terminal.

Correct... if you do not erase the disk first with Disk Util and just reinstall, it will not erase any of your settings or data.

You should of course backup first just to be safe.

 

[Cassady]

Cloning a new SSD drive, without the recovery partition

Correct... if you do not erase the disk first with Disk Util and just reinstall, it will not erase any of your settings or data.



You should of course backup first just to be safe.

I bought my MBP in mid-2012, and I am still learning all the time!

Have cloned tonight to 1 disk, and TM'ing to another tomorrow, so that should see me covered, regardless.