A recovery volume, previously recovery partition, is a hidden section of a macOS or Mac OS X startup drive which contains software for macOS Recovery in case a user's installation of macOS or Mac OS X becomes corrupted or unbootable.
Contents
Stored as "Recovery HD", the contents are comparable to that of an installation DVD-ROM. If the recovery volume itself is damaged, the Mac will switch to Internet Recovery and download the software from an Apple server.[1][2]
The following utilities are included:[1][3]
- Restore from Time Machine backup.
- Reinstall macOS (by default the version that shipped with the computer).
- Safari, a basic installation for browsing Apple Support.
- Disk Utility, to repair or erase a corrupted drive.
History
Mac Recovery Mode was first introduced in 2011 with Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) and was stored in a hidden HFS Plus partition.[1][4] Starting with the introduction of APFS in macOS High Sierra (10.13) in 2017, the "Recovery HD" was stored in a hidden volume instead of a partition.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Mac OS X Lion Adds Recovery Partition Support by David W. Martin, Cult of Mac. 2011-02-25.
- ↑ Revive and restore Apple devices, Apple Support. Accessed 2021-10-25.
- ↑ How to reinstall macOS, Apple Support. 2021-10-25.
- ↑ How to use Mac Recovery Mode by Karen Haslam, Macworld UK. 2021-02-02.
- ↑ Cloning Apple's Recovery HD partition, Bombich Software. 2020-12-12.
