You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later. The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same.

You’ll also need access to a Mac running Yosemite that includes an existing Recovery HD partition. Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility. To create a recovery disk, you need a USB flash drive or an external hard drive that has at least 1GB free space. The simplest solution is to put an external USB drive or SD card into service using the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant. However, if your Mac is not online, or if you’ve upgraded an older Mac to Yosemite, that method won’t work.

This recovery system is stored on a hidden partition on your Mac’s hard drive - but what if something happens to your hard drive? Well, if your Mac can’t find the recovery partition but it’s connected to the Internet via either Wi-Fi or a network cable, it’ll start the OS X Internet Recovery Feature. Start your Mac and hold Command + R to go into recovery mode, from which you can start Disk Utilities, restore from a Time Machine backup, or perform a clean install. I have been searching through Apple Support but am not getting past this.OS X 10.7 Lion did away with recovery disks, and these days, Apple provides a built-in recovery system within Yosemite. Next, I reboot and get back to the OS X Utilities window and select Restore, when I get to where I am supposed to select a startup disk, there are no options shown If I select disk0, all the buttons are grayed out After verifying, the button for repair disk is still grayed out. When selecting “Mac OS X Base System”, I do see Verify Disk as an option and when I click on that, it shows “the volume of Mac OS X Base System appears to be ok”. We have used command R to boot to the OS X Utilities window and have tried the following:įirst, Disk Utility, where it does show the hard drive as “disk0” and “Mac OS X Base System”. She has the flashing ? inside a folder when she turns on the mac. Tom Nelson is an engineer, programmer, network manager, and computer network and systems designer who has written for Other World Computing,and others. I am looking at a 13” macbook pro (2012 I believe) that belongs to a family friend who is not good at keeping backups. Repair Your Macs Drives With Disk Utilitys First Aid OS X El Capitan changed how Disk Utility’s First Aid works. Since you can have such a partition on each attached Mac-formatted disk, its interesting to know if they are all up-to-date.

Mac os x recovery disk utility