How To Create A Recovery USB Drive in OS X. After a little while you will have a bootable backup of your OS. An alternate method that dates back to the release of Lion is Disk Maker X, formerly known as Lion Disk Maker. This is a nice wrapper for a set of Applescripts that will also create a USB drive to back up from.
On every OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion there is a hidden partition to enable a method for Mountain Lion OS to be reinstalled on the machine, it is known as the Recovery Partition or drive and is 650mb in size.
If you bought a new machine from Apple you have OS X 10.8 already installed – but no back up disk! and since you haven’t bought the OSX Lion 10.8 App from the App store you can’t re-download it – so thats why you have the recovery drive as a partition in your main hard drive, to boot from it you need to restart the machine and when it starts to boot hold down “command” + “r” keys.
From the Recovery Partition Hard Drivr you can run Disk Utility, access the command line, get online help and do a restore from a Time Machine backup and re-install Mountain Lion leaving all your other files intact – it just replaces the core operating system.
You can make a bootable USB drive or disk from the Recovery Partition 2 ways – the easy way and on the Terminal
The Easy Way
1) Download OSX Recovery Disk Assistant and uncompress and launch it
2) Attach the USB drive that you want to copy the Recovery Partition to.
3) Select the drive and continue (All contents on it will be erased)
That’s it one external bootable Recovery Drive – this works on both OSX 10.7 and 10.8
The Terminal Way
1) Launch Terminal from /Applications/Utilities and run:
The main drive in this list is No.2 with the “Identifier” of disk0s2, the boot Recovery HD drive is disk0s3
We can also identify the Recovery drive by the name and the size – set at 650mb
2) Mount the drive by its Identifier:
Output should be:
Now the Recovery HD is mounted in the Finder and you can see it in the sidebar under Devices Navigate to it from the sidebar – Recovery HD/com.apple.recovery.boot/BaseSystem.dmg
recovery-finder-osx-lion
3) Doubleclick BaseSystem.dmg to mount it also in the sidebar. This will mount the volume ” Mac OSX Base System”
macosx-basesystem
4) Open Disk Utility in /Applications/Utilities
5) Put in a 2GB+ USB drive, let Disk Utility load it. The USB drive needs to be formatted as Mac OS Extended Journaled, if its not, its time to format it in Disk Utility…
6) Finally in still in Disk Utility, select the “Restore” tab – drag the mounted volume “Mac OSX Base System” into the Source field and drag the USB drive “Volume” (mine is called SuperBootUSBDrive) to the Destination.
restore-volume-osx-usb
7) Click Restore – 10 minutes later – One bootable USB drive
Your bootable USB drive will be called “Mac OS X Base System” after the restore is complete. Now to boot from it just select it as the Start Up disk in System Preferences or hold down option key on boot and select it from the choice of bootable devices.
If you have downloaded the OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion App from the App Store then you can also make a full bootable image of OSX 10.8 to a disk/drive, you need to make the boot drive/disk before you install the Mountain Lion App, as the installer is deleted after running it. That’s why the guide here can get you out of trouble.
Update For Newer Models – hidden BaseSystem.dmg – BaseSystem.chunklist
If you have the latest models from Apple that came already shipped with OSX 10.7, then you may not have the “BaseSystem.dmg” but instead see a “BaseSystem.chunklist” , the “BaseSystem.dmg” is there it’s just hidden.
To show it so you can see it in the finder – go to Terminal – and after you have mounted the Recovery Drive:
Now it will be visible in the Finder.
Aug 26,2019 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions
Do you know that mini heart attack you get when your Mac crashes or would not start? It is the worst feeling in the world, especially if you have a lifetime worth of work stored inside your machine. What should you do in these situations? As you are probably have been advised many times, backing up your data regularly is a great practice. For Mac users, setting up an OS X Recovery Disk would be beneficial when trouble strikes. For example, it is conducive to Mac file recovery while you find data lost.
What Is an OS X Recovery Disk?
The OS X Recovery Disk is a native but hidden recovery volume on your Mac hard drive. This feature can be used to start up your machine and perform emergency maintenance services such as repairing a corrupted drive by running Disk Utility, surf the Internet to assess the problem you might be experiencing or download any necessary updates. You can also use the OS X Recovery Disk to reinstall your operating system and restore lost data from Time Machine backup.
Part 1 How to Restore Mac with Recovery Disk Mac
Now that you know that your machine has a built-in recovery tool, you may ask 'How to use OS X Recovery Disk?' The feature allows you to do the following options:
Use Time Machine backup to restore your Mac.
Reinstall Mac OS X with recovery disk.
Get help online or check your internet connection.
Use Disk Utility to verify and repair connected disks.
Related: You can also use Disk Utility to resize volume on Mac.
Here is how to repair Mac disk and recover Mac with OS X Recovery Disk:
To put your Mac into Recovery Mode, restart your machine and hold down the 'Command + R' keys on your keyboard simultaneously. Continue to do this until the Apple logo appears.
When your Mac has started up, the OS X Utilities window will appear and prompt you to choose one of the four options listed above. (Note: if you do not see this, but instead see a login page, you will need to restart your Mac and do the whole process again).
Click 'Disk Utility' and choose the drive you want to repair on your Mac. Open the 'First Aid' tab. To check the problem your Mac has, click the 'Verify Disk' button. Click the 'Repair Disk' button to start fixing this button.
Part 2 How to Create an OS X Recovery Disk
Since OS X Mountain Lion, everything went digital and maintenance-minded. Mac users could no longer depend on physical recovery disks to help them fix any problems on their machines. But what how can you access this hidden partition if something goes wrong with your hard drive? You can always connect your machine online and initiate the OS X Internet Recovery feature, but realistically, you may not always have an internet connection. This method will also not work if you had upgraded an old Mac to run on a newer version of OS X.
In these situations, having your OS X Recovery Disk easily accessible on an external USB drive or SD card would be beneficial. It is really simple. Read on to learn how to create OS X Recovery Disk that you can easily access anywhere, anytime. Before you start, here are some of the things you need to adhere to:
To create an OS X Recovery Disk, make sure that your machine is at least running on OS X Lion or Mountain Lion and that there is an existing Recovery System on its startup volume. If you have a newer Mac, use Internet Recovery to get the system online.
An external USB drive or SD card with at least 1GB free space.
Once you have made sure both requirements are duldilled, follow the following steps to create an OS X recovery disk:
Download the Recovery Disk Assistant from the Apple website if you do not have it already in your Applications/ Utilities folder.
Wait until the download is complete and double-click on the file which should be named 'RecoveryDiskAssistant.dmg'. This will create the Recovery Disk Assistant.appfile - drag it into your Applications folder.
Attach an external hard drive or USB stick and launch the Recovery Disk Assistant. Agree to the terms and conditions and wait until the software detects your external drive.
Select the drive you want to use to create OS X Recovery Disk. Click 'Continue'. (Note: all data in the selected drive will be overwritten so that the wizard can install the needed data to make the external hard drive or USB stick into a recovery disk.)
It will take some time for the process to complete. When the software prompts you that it is done, click on the 'Quit' button. Eject the new recovery disk and keep it in a safe place. You will be able to use the disk when you need it the most. It is also a good idea to update this disk regularly.
Part 3 How to Recover Data on Mac Hard Drive
How do I recover files on my Mac for free?
If you just want to recover deleted or lost files from Mac hard drive, you can rely on a free data recovery program to help you do that. For example, Recoverit Free Mac Data Recovery. This file recovery freeware for Mac is dedicated in recovering data on Windows or Mac computer. If you want to retrieve data from an external device, like external disk or memory card, connect it to your computer and the stored data can also be recovered.
Recoverit - The Free Software for Mac OS Recovery
Recover documents, photos, videos, emails and more from Mac hard drive.
Recover 1000+ types and formats of files in different data loss situations.
Scan and preview the files before you recover them from all storage devices.
Video Tutorial on Windows and Mac Hard Drive Recovery
This free hard drive data recovery software is easy to use and user-friendly. Watch the video and you can get 3 simple steps to recover your data from hard drive.
3 Steps to Recover Files from Mac Hard Disk
Download Recoverit Free Data Recovery and take the next 3 steps to recover Mac hard drive data for free right away.
Select the recovery disk
To recover data from a Mac hard disk, please select the hard drive where you want to restore Mac data. Click the 'Start' button to move forward.
Scan the Mac recovery disk
Recoverit Mac Disk Recovery will start an instant and all-around scan on the recovery disk. All the lost, inaccessible or deleted files on Mac will be shown gradually.
Preview and recover data
Once the scan ends, all the scanned files will be listed according to the file formats. You can preview the files, select the wanted ones and click 'Recover' to get them back.
Having a built-in recovery solution is great, especially when you tend to lose or misplaced recovery disks. It would be great to learn how to use it and have a copy of it stored outside the machine so that you will be able to access it when you cannot do it straight from your computer. Fail to do it? Only want to recover data? Recoverit can help you. Download it and recover lost files for free.
Note: Recover Lost Mac Data under Mac OS X 10.13 (High Sierra)
Due to macOS High Sierra (macOS 10.13) requirement, Mac users are not allowed an access to the built-in system drive from any apps. Therefore, if you need to restore lost data from the system disk under macOS 10.13, please 'disable System Integrity Protection' first.
How to disable 'System Integrity protection'? Please follow the steps below.
Step 1On hearing the startup chime, reboot the Mac and hold down 'Command + R' keys simultaneously to boot OS X into Recovery Mode.
Step 2When the 'OS X Utilities' screen appears, pull down the 'Utilities' menu at the top of the screen instead, and choose 'Terminal'.
Step 3In the 'Terminal' window, type in 'csrutil disable' and press 'Enter' then restrart your Mac.