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Enable Find My Mac without recovery partiton

5

5t3f4n

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 1, 2011
207
17
So in Mavericks GM, under iCloud preferences, Find My Mac is greyed out saying "Recovery partition required."
How can I enable Find My Mac under Mavericks without a recovery partition?
I installed from USB and apparently it doesn't create a recovery partition with that method, and I wiped my old one before installing.
I don't really want to have a recovery partiton at all, so if there's any other solution than creating one I would love to hear it.
 
Apple has set it up so its required. See this KB article. There's been a fair amount of dissuasion with this in prior versions of OSX, apple has built it in, because of locking the Mac and wiping it.
 
maflynn said:
Apple has set it up so its required. See this KB article. There's been a fair amount of dissuasion with this in prior versions of OSX, apple has built it in, because of locking the Mac and wiping it.
Click to expand...

I don't necessarily need the lock and wipe functionality. Location only would be fine. Any way of faking having a recovery partition or something? I also read it may be required for FileVault to work but I don't need that either.
 
5t3f4n said:
I don't necessarily need the lock and wipe functionality. Location only would be fine. Any way of faking having a recovery partition or something? I also read it may be required for FileVault to work but I don't need that either.
Click to expand...

Nope... you are going to need a recovery partition for that. When you but the release version of Mavs from the app store and install it that will create a recovery partition for you.
 
Weaselboy said:
Nope... you are going to need a recovery partition for that. When you but the release version of Mavs from the app store and install it that will create a recovery partition for you.
Click to expand...

I doubt it'll let me "upgrade" from GM to final since it is (most likely) the same thing.
So I'd need to install over USB again, and I'd miss out on the recovery partition again.

Is it possible to create the recovery partition on a USB drive or something and then just toss it once you've enabled Find My Mac?
Or delete the partition afterwards if you create it on the local drive.

Does it always check to see if it's there and/or otherwise becomes unusable if you remove it?
 
5t3f4n said:
I doubt it'll let me "upgrade" from GM to final since it is (most likely) the same thing.
So I'd need to install over USB again, and I'd miss out on the recovery partition again.

Is it possible to create the recovery partition on a USB drive or something and then just toss it once you've enabled Find My Mac?
Or delete the partition afterwards if you create it on the local drive.

Does it always check to see if it's there and/or otherwise becomes unusable if you remove it?
Click to expand...

I am fairly certain you will be able to install the release version right over top of the GM even if it is the same version. You can do that now with Mountain Lion and people often do it to fix things they have messed up.

The bottom line is FM is not going to work without a Recovery HD partition.
 
Weaselboy said:
The bottom line is FM is not going to work without a Recovery HD partition.
Click to expand...

Yeah I guess I've come to accept that.
But is it really (really) required to work, or is it an artificial limitation set by Apple?

Could one make a tiny partition named Recovery HD and fool it into thinking there is one, or does it have to be functional?
 
5t3f4n said:
But is it really (really) required to work, or is it an artificial limitation set by Apple?
Click to expand...
Its really required because apple has made it so. Whether is an artificial constraint or not is immaterial. You need it, because apple designed it that way.
 
5t3f4n said:
Yeah I guess I've come to accept that.
But is it really (really) required to work, or is it an artificial limitation set by Apple?

Could one make a tiny partition named Recovery HD and fool it into thinking there is one, or does it have to be functional?
Click to expand...

It is really required to function. When you turn on FMM it creates a sort of dummy "Guest" account on the login screen. The hope is the thief will login to that Safari only guest account and thereby connect to the Internet... and at the same time allow your FMM lockdown message to be received. That Guest account actually runs on the Recovery HD partition.

Why are you so opposed to the recovery partition being there. It can be a useful troubleshooting tool. Is your disk space that tight?
 
maflynn said:
Its really required because apple has made it so. Whether is an artificial constraint or not is immaterial. You need it, because apple designed it that way.
Click to expand...

I was thinking maybe it was possible to create a very tiny partition named Recovery HD with just the required file(s) for Find My Mac and nothing else on it. It seems plausible if one could just figure out what those files are...

----------
Weaselboy said:
It is really required to function. When you turn on FMM it creates a sort of dummy "Guest" account on the login screen. The hope is the thief will login to that Safari only guest account and thereby connect to the Internet... and at the same time allow your FMM lockdown message to be received. That Guest account actually runs on the Recovery HD partition.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I don't really need that functionality though.

Weaselboy said:
Why are you so opposed to the recovery partition being there. It can be a useful troubleshooting tool. Is your disk space that tight?
Click to expand...

Not really. But I deleted it because I was upgrading from Mountain Lion to Mavericks and expected to get a "fresh" one after the Mavericks install. It's not that I'm opposed to having one. But now I don't - and I'd like Find My Mac to work anyway. Simple as that.
 
5t3f4n said:
Not really. But I deleted it because I was upgrading from Mountain Lion to Mavericks and expected to get a "fresh" one after the Mavericks install. It's not that I'm opposed to having one. But now I don't - and I'd like Find My Mac to work anyway. Simple as that.
Click to expand...

Ah... gotcha. Like I said, when you install the final release from the App Store that will make a Recovery HD partition for you and fix you up. Hopefully we get the release today. :)
 
5t3f4n said:
...
Not really. But I deleted it because I was upgrading from Mountain Lion to Mavericks and expected to get a "fresh" one after the Mavericks install. It's not that I'm opposed to having one. But now I don't - and I'd like Find My Mac to work anyway. Simple as that.
Click to expand...
Updating the OS should update the Recovery partition. there is no need to go in and delete it. This just leads to more opportunities to create problems by clicking on the wrong thing.

This falls under "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.".
 
Bear said:
Updating the OS should update the Recovery partition. there is no need to go in and delete it. This just leads to more opportunities to create problems by clicking on the wrong thing.

This falls under "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.".
Click to expand...

I went with a clean install from a USB drive, which apparently doesn't create a recovery partition.
So if I didn't remove it beforehand, I would be stuck with an outdated one instead.
Not sure if it'd still allow for Find My Mac to work, but it's not optimal anyway.
 
Turns out the method I used is now deprecated.
If I had used this method instead, I would have gotten the recovery partition.
 
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