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Running Disk Utility from Recovery Partition tells me to run Disk Utility from Recovery Partition

steve62388

steve62388

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Apr 23, 2013
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I recently upgraded my MacBook and did a Time Machine restore with 10.12.6.

I am missing my Recovery Partition.

When running Disk Utility First Aid from the Internet Recovery it says:-

First Aid found corruption that needs to be repaired. To repair the startup volume run First Aid from Recovery.

WTF?!? How do I fix this?
 
I have found that downloading the full Sierra installer and running it will give you a fresh Sierra OS and install the Recovery partition. You can run the full installer on top of the current partition without effecting currently installed apps and accounts, BUT always have a fresh, good backup before any OS installation. I prefer full bootable clones in case there are problems.
 
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Try booting to Internet recovery with command-option-r at boot. Join your wifi then you will see a spinning globe while the recovery utility downloads. When the recovery screen presents, use Disk Utility to run first aid on the disk to repair it. Assuming that is successful, go ahead and quit Disk Utility then click reinstall OS at the top. That will reinstall the OS and create a proper recovery partition at the same time.

It will install the OS over top of the existing OS install while leaving your data alone.

Running Internet recovery this way has you booted to the recovery utility in RAM and not the disk based recovery utility. Often the disk based recovery won't work for repairing a drive issue like this because you are booted to that same drive.
 
Last edited:
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jbarley said:
This app "Recovery Partition Creator" has worked for me in the past. (top of the list)
http://musings.silvertooth.us/downloads-2/
Click to expand...

Tried that. It pops up one of several error messages which seem to change each time it's run.
[doublepost=1504127260][/doublepost]
Weaselboy said:
Try booting to Internet recovery with command-option-r at boot. Join your wifi then you will see a spinning globe while the recovery utility downloads. When the recovery screen presents, use Disk Utility to run first aid on the disk to repair it. Assuming that is successful, go ahead and quit Disk Utility then click reinstall OS at the top. That will reinstall the OS and create a proper recovery partition at the same time.

It will install the OS over top of the existing OS install while leaving your data alone.

Running Internet recovery this way has you booted to the recovery utility in RAM and not the disk based recovery utility. Often the disk based recovery won't work for repairing a drive issue like this because you are booted to that same drive.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I am in Internet Recovery when I get this error message.
 
steve23094 said:
Unfortunately I am in Internet Recovery when I get this error message.
Click to expand...
Gah!! I see you mentioned that in your OP. :oops:

If you are in Internet recovery and cannot get first aid to fix this, then your next option is to erase the entire drive and reinstall the OS. Then once the OS is installed and it restarts into the setup assistant, use Migration Assistant with the TM disk as the source to put your data back. Don't use a TM restore.
 
Carbon Copy cloner can create the Recovery Partition, only rub here is that you cannot be booted and running from the volume you are creating the Rec-part for.
I routinely boot from another partition and use CCC to re-create or update my Rec partitions.
 
Weaselboy said:
Then once the OS is installed and it restarts into the setup assistant, use Migration Assistant with the TM disk as the source to put your data back. Don't use a TM restore.
Click to expand...

I had used a Migration, I thought the terms were interchangeable. My mistake.
 
Weaselboy said:
Gah!! I see you mentioned that in your OP. :oops:

If you are in Internet recovery and cannot get first aid to fix this, then your next option is to erase the entire drive and reinstall the OS. Then once the OS is installed and it restarts into the setup assistant, use Migration Assistant with the TM disk as the source to put your data back. Don't use a TM restore.
Click to expand...

If I do this won't it mean I'm still missing a local Recovery Partition?
 
I came across a similar issue recently and they way I did it was to boot into recovery and use disk utility to erase the drive entirely and internet recovery to reinstall. Once the disk was erased it started clean on the internet recovery install.
 
CoastalOR said:
I have found that downloading the full Sierra installer and running it will give you a fresh Sierra OS and install the Recovery partition. You can run the full installer on top of the current partition without effecting currently installed apps and accounts, BUT always have a fresh, good backup before any OS installation. I prefer full bootable clones in case there are problems.
Click to expand...

This worked and I didn't have to reformat. Thanks.
 
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