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.

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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

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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

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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.

How To Obtain And Use A macOS Disc Image (for OS X 10.7 or later)

• You made a backup copy of the 'Install macOS / OS X' installer package before installing macOS / OS X - click here
• You are about to purchase, download and install macOS / OS X - click here
• You have purchased and downloaded macOS / OS X but have not installed it yet - click here
• You have already purchased, downloaded and installed macOS / OS X - click here
• You have already obtained the macOS / OS X disc image and want to know what to do with the macOS / OS X disc image

Obtain the macOS / OS X Installer - macOS / OS X Not Purchased Yet

1. Go to Macintosh HD > Applications > App Store.
2. Go to Store menu and Sign In if necessary (using the Apple ID you purchased OS X 10.7 or later with).
3. From the 'Store' menu now select 'Search' and search for 'macOS'.
4. Locate the latest version of macOS / OS X e.g. macOS 11 Big Sur.
5. Click the 'Buy' button
NOTE: If the buy button is not available e.g. it says 'Install', 'Download' or 'Purchased' you have already bought macOS / OS X
6. Purchase and download the macOS / OS X Install installer package to your hard disk (it may take a while as it is 4.3GB+ in size).
7. At the point where the macOS / OS X installer has downloaded it will automatically launch and ask you to continue.
8. Do not click Continue yet.
9. Quit the macOS / OS X installer (yes, quit it).
10. Now go to Obtain The macOS / OS X Disc Image section below

Obtain the macOS / OS X Installer - macOS / OS X Already Purchased

1. Go to Macintosh HD > Applications > App Store.
2. Go to Store menu and Sign In if necessary (using the Apple ID you purchased OS X 10.7 or later with).
3. Alt-click on the Purchases icon. This will show you a list of all software previously purchased. The 'macOS / OS X' item in the list should have an 'Install' or 'Download' button to the right of it.
NOTE: If the button is greyed out e.g. it says 'Installed' or 'Downloaded' go to the macOS / OS X Already Purchased And Installed section below
4. Click the install or download button for macOS / OS X which will download the macOS / OS X Install installer package to your hard disk (it may take a while as it is 4.3GB+ in size).
5. At the point where the macOS / OS X installer has downloaded it will automatically launch and ask you to continue.
6. Do not click Continue yet.
7. Quit the macOS / OS X installer (yes, quit it).
8. Now go to Obtain The macOS / OS X Disc Image section below

Obtain the macOS / OS X Installer - macOS / OS X Already Purchased And Installed

1. Go to Macintosh HD > Applications and check for an 'Install macOS / OS X' item - if it exists go to the Obtain The macOS / OS X Disc Image section below otherwise continue with these instructions.
NOTE: If you have an additional compatible Mac running Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later that does not have the version of macOS / OS X you want already installed on it you could use that to download the installer again otherwise you will need one of the following external storage devices before continuing with these instructions:
• USB, FireWire or Thunderbolt hard disk
• USB stick
• SDXC card (if your Mac supports it e.g. recent MacBook Pro or Mac mini)
NOTE: The external storage device must be at least 8GB in size and erased/empty/formatted as a GUID Partition before use.
2. Restart your computer using the (Internet) Recovery mode
3. When the macOS / OS X Utilities window appears select the Install macOS / OS X option
4. Choose your external storage device as the destination
5. Let the installation start and watch the installation process carefully (it may take a while as it is 4.3GB+ in size)
6. When the Mac automatically restarts there will be a black screen for a moment - at this point unplug/eject/disconnect the external storage device
7. The Mac may stall for moment but then should boot normally to your desktop or login screen
8. Reattach the external storage device
9. There should be a folder on it called 'macOS / OS X Install Data' that contains a disk image file called 'InstallESD.dmg' - if this is missing, then you probably waited too long to unplug the drive. Go back and start this section again
10. Copy the 'InstallESD.dmg' file to your desktop or preferably to another disk/storage device or even burn it to a DVD so that you have a backup of it.
11. Now choose what you want to do with the macOS / OS X disc image

Obtain The macOS / OS X Disc Image

1. Go to Macintosh HD > Applications and locate the 'Install macOS / OS X version name here' installer package (e.g. 'Install macOS High Sierra') or find your backup copy of it.
2. Right/control click on the 'Install macOS / OS X' installer package and select 'Show Package Contents' from the contextual menu.
3. Navigate to Contents > SharedSupport and locate the 'InstallESD.dmg' file.
4. Copy the 'InstallESD.dmg' file to your desktop or preferably to another disk/storage device or even burn it to a DVD so that you have a backup of it.
5. Close all the windows.
6. You can now use the macOS / OS X disc image (InstallESD.dmg) to:
• Create an External Installation Device.
• Create an Emergency Boot Drive for macOS / OS X / Mac OS X you can use it to boot your computer and repair your hard disk and/or reinstall macOS / OS X / Mac OS X.
• Create an Install DVD (see instructions below).

How To Create An Install DVD From The macOS / OS X Disc Image

1. Obtain the macOS / OS X Disc Image (see instructions above).
2. Go to Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
3. Click on the 'Burn' button at the top of the Disk Utility window.
4. Navigate to the macOS / OS X disc image ('InstallESD.dmg' file)
5. Select the disc image.
6. Click the 'Burn' button.
7. Insert the blank/unused DVD-R or DVD+R disc.
8. Follow the on screen instructions.

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