Unable to boot into recovery mode

Armaan786

Registered
Hello,

I have a macpro Dual Core-Intel Xeon. I am on Lion 7.5. I have rEFIt installed. I am trying to login to Recovery Mode, but am not able to do so. When I check diskutil list on the command line, the recovery partition exists:

"Apple_HFS Mac OS X Lion Recovery... 588.6 MB disk1s3"

When I restart the machine and hold down Command +R, it does not take me into recovery mode. it simply goes to the rEFIt screen and restarts again.

I have ran disk permissions and that did not help.
I have Boot Camp installed. Here is what my partition looks like:

*** Report for internal hard disk ***

Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
2 409640 5859263591 Mac OS X HFS+
3 5859263592 5860533127 Mac OS X Boot

Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 4294967294 ee EFI Protective

MBR contents:
Boot Code: None

Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)

Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 5859263592:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Mac OS X Boot
 
I expect that the rEFIt boot loader has messed with your recovery system.

You'll likely have good luck by booting to your Lion partition, then downloading Lion through the App Store.
It will not let you look at the Lion software page, but the App Store will let you download it. Just click on the download button in your list of purchased software. Your system will complain that it is already installed, but just download again.
You can run the installer when the download completes, or just quit the installer, and save that full download somewhere - a good choice!. You can use that download to easily create a Lion installer (which has the full install, not just the normal Lion install which then has to download all the system files during the install). If you have the full install, then you get a much quicker install. I have the full Lion install on an 8GB flash drive.
When you boot to that install then, you get exactly the same choices that you would get with the normal Recovery system, but without the potential difficulty with rEFIt not allowing you to boot to the normal recovery partition....
Good stuff, eh?
 
Thank you. The App Store will not let me download or re-download it. It keeps saying my OS is newer than what I am downloading.
 
When I attempt to download Lion on my Mac which already has Lion installed, I get this message:
Would you like to continue?
OS X 10.7 is already installed on this computer. Are you sure you want to download it?
Continue or Cancel.

Is that the same message that YOU get?
Choose Continue, and Lion will download...


If it is NOT the same, what is the exact text?

Also, go to About this Mac (under your Apple menu), and click once on the OS X version line. You should then see the build number.
You can also click on the "More Info" button, and look at the Software line in that window, which will show both the OS X version, and the build number.
What is your build number?
Current build number will be 11G63 - which is for OS X 10.7.5

Let me know what you have.
 
If you have the installer on a separate drive/flash drive - then no need to "boot into Recovery Mode".
Just boot to the installer, which gives you the same functions as booting into the Recovery system, with the additional advantage of having ALL the system files, if you want to continue to reinstall.

That install SHOULD also get your Recovery system working - as I think yours is incorrectly installed (too small! you said 588.6 MB, when the correct size should be 650 MB)
 
Thanks!

I created an installer on my 16GB flash drive. I booted into it by holding the option button down as I restarted the system. I then choose the installer and clicked OK. At that point, OS X was reinstalled (I didn't see an option to view the System files). Once the installation was complete (took 36 minutes), the system rebooted... but I see the OLD mac OS... not a fresh installation. All the problems I was having still exist (including not being able to boot to recovery mode)... What did I do wrong?
 
If you did, in fact, reinstall, you would get a short install of the basic system (probably less than 10 minutes), then your system will reboot automatically, and then continue with the rest of the install, and 36 minutes sounds about right.
It does NOT wipe your drive, and the final restart will get you the same screen that you would expect to see.
All that has happened with that reinstall, is that the existing system is replaced, along with the support files inside the system.
YOUR files, and your user, remain - as that's not part of the reinstall.

Did you want to erase the hard drive first? The installer doesn't do that, unless you choose to do that first, using the Disk Utility.
I can help you with that, if you are not sure how to proceed...
 
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