Creating a Recovery HD without re-imaging (10.7, 10.8, 10.9)

[benjamin_michae]

Hey all,

I have seen it several times where computers could not be encrypted with FileVault 2 as there was no Recovery HD on the machines. In many cases, end users are already actively using the machines which makes re-imaging a hassle. Due to that, I have been looking for a way to create a functioning Recovery HD without re-imaging. The Googles have not given me much to go with until I found this yesterday:

http://musings.silvertooth.us/2013/10/recovery-partition-creator-3-7-updated-for-mavericks/

Tried it out yesterday on a 10.9.2 Macbook Pro 13" and it worked flawlessly! Keep in mind you'll need a copy of the Install OS X Mavericks.app on the machine to in order to grab the InstallESD. I was able to encrypt via FileVault 2 once everything completed. Please note that I don't know the creator (@csilvertooth) nor claim to back the scripts he has made. Just wanted to share this out as it worked perfectly for me and thought it could benefit others.

-Ben

[rtrouton]

Another tool that's great at helping recreate recovery partitions is Per Olofsson's Create Recovery Partition Installer:

http://github.com/MagerValp/Create-Recovery-Partition-Installer

[Josh_Smith]

Here is a solution that has worked for me in 10.9.2 without any 3rd party tools:
source: Lloeki, http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/52916

Status before:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *128.0 GB disk0 1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 127.8 GB disk0s2

Get Lion Recovery Update v1.0 (431.91 MB)
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1464

Mount RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg

$ hdiutil attach ~/Downloads/RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg
Extract data from RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg

$ pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Mac OS X Lion Recovery HD Update/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg ~/Desktop/RHD
Mount RecoveryHDMeta.dmg (in the RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg package)

$ hdiutil attach ~/Desktop/RHD/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg/RecoveryHDMeta.dmg
Run tool that will finally resize current partition and create recovery

$ ~/Desktop/RHD/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg/Scripts/Tools/dmtest ensureRecoveryPartition / /Volumes/Recovery HD Update/BaseSystem.dmg 0 0 /Volumes/Recovery HD Update/BaseSystem.chunklist
Creating recovery partition: finished

Status after:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *128.0 GB disk0 1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 127.2 GB disk0s2 3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

[Banks]

Please don't use that old 10.7-era package if you want machines released after 10.8.0 to... boot from it, or just in general add recovery partitions for older versions of the operating system if you are going to use features like filevault. The fact that upgrade installs make sure there is a complimentary same-OS-version recovery partition should be a tipoff that it is the most QA'd/approved state to be in.
Allister