I just purchased a Mac mini 2011 version. There is no recovery partition. I have not cloned the drive or done anything to it, other than add external hard drives. I am not able to reinstall Lion because there is no recovery disk. Can anyone help?
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Tyler
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Lion Recovery Partition Missing
Comments: 6 Responses to “Lion Recovery Partition Missing”
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First, how do you know that there is not a recovery partition? Have you tried booting with the Option key held down to see? Remember that the recovery partition does not show up with Disk Utility.
The simple thing to do is to not re-install Lion. Do you need to do that for some reason. You don't mention any details in your question, so I'm not sure what the need for a recovery partition is. For normal use you should never need it. I've got several Macs, as you can imagine, and am a heavy push-the-limits user, and I haven't needed to re-installLion once.
Now Apple has been issuing updates via Software Update to add recovery ability to many Macs. I can't remember the state of the 2011 mini, but there may be an update, or one in the future.
You also have Lion Internet Recovery, which is in firmware, not the hard drive. See "Lion Internet Recovery" at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
I actually don't have a Mac keyboard. Its a keyboard made for a PC. So, I'm not sure if that's the issue. I've tried to hold down the Option key, or what is mapped to the option key during reboot and nothing pops up. I prefer to perform a clean install of all of my computers when I first get them. Can you recommend another course of action? Thank you!
The ALT key on a PC keyboard is what maps to Option.
So you just got a new Mac with Lion on it and you want to do a clean install? Why? You are just asking for spending a lot of effort and time to get what you already have. There's no reason for it. Save yourself a lot of pain and don't do that.
Thank you for your quick responses, Gary. However, I guess the question is now why, when I restart and hold down the option key, does my computer not show the boot screen that allows me to change the boot drive. Again, I have a PC keyboard and when I restart, I immediately hold the ALT (option) key, but nothing happens. It boots into the desktop like normal. This keyboard is a wireless USB keyboard. Do you think that has something to do with it? Is there anything I can do? Thank you, again.
Ah, yes. A wireless USB keyboard would probably not work. Apple Bluetooth keyboards usually work, but that is a very different thing. Perhaps try getting a cheap USB keyboard to do this.
FYI, Gary, the USB keyboard worked. Thank you for your podcasts. I'm an avid follower and listener. Thank you, again.