Recovery Partition Question.

[IzzyJG99]

I've done a few re-installs of SL and Lion since originally getting Lion. I most recently did a clean install of Lion via the Recovery Partition. My question is..

Does the Recovery Partition ever get updated? When I've wiped my disk in the past I've only wiped "Macintosh HD" and nothing else. The Recovery Partition doesn't show up in disk utility. I guess if I selected my whole drive it would wipe it, but I never did that.

So my question really is each time you install Lion or any system updates does it create/and/or update a new Recovery Partition?

 

[Ruahrc]

If you are reinstalling from the recovery Partition then no it doesnt wipe it because it would be impossible to wipe the active partition. However, if you install via USB key then you should be able to wipe and recreate it.

I'm assuming that when an appropriate software update is installed, it updates the recovery partition if necessary but that is probably only rarely, as there isn't much need to do so.

 

[IzzyJG99]

If you are reinstalling from the recovery Partition then no it doesnt wipe it because it would be impossible to wipe the active partition. However, if you install via USB key then you should be able to wipe and recreate it.

I'm assuming that when an appropriate software update is installed, it updates the recovery partition if necessary but that is probably only rarely, as there isn't much need to do so.

I asked the same question over at the Apple Support Forums. Apparently every time you install lion (any which way) it recreates and if needed updates the Recovery Partition. Plus like you said the Recovery Partition does very little. So it either works or it doesn't work.

I've got a spare 8GB Thumb Drive sitting in my desk drawer. What I might do, if I do encounter problems after having just done this new clean Lion install, is boot that up as a Recovery Key and wipe and reinstall that way.