How to Recover Deleted or Lost Partition on Mac

To recover a lost partition on Mac using Disk Drill, follow these steps.

1. Download and install Disk Drill for Mac. Don’t perform the download and installation on the disk that lost a partition to protect the data from being overwritten or corrupted.
2. Launch the app and choose the device with the lost partition from the disk list. If you are recovering from an external device, connect it to your Mac computer before starting Disk Drill.
3. Click the Recover button to start scanning the device for lost files and folders.
4. Preview the files that can be recovered and make your selections. Choose a safe storage location for the recovered data that is not on the affected device.
5. Click Recover again to perform the recovery.

Here are the best software tools to recover lost a partition on Mac. Most of them are paid solutions but some apps will enable you to recover deleted partitions on Mac for free.

• Disk Drill Data Recovery for Mac
• Data Rescue 5 for Mac
• TestDisk
• R-Studio for Mac
• DiskWarrior for Mac
• Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery
• Ontrack Easy Recovery for Mac
• Minitool Power Data Recovery

Use these steps to recover data from a lost partition on your Mac.

1. Download, install and launch Disk Drill for Mac.
2. Select the partition from the list of available devices.
3. Click the Recover button to scan for lost data.
4. Preview the recoverable files and choose the ones you want to restore.
5. Click Recover again to finish the recovery.

The Mac recovery partition is an alternative method of restoring system software without the use of an installation DVD. The partition allows you to repair or erase your hard drive and install a new copy of the operating system. You can also use the partition to restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup.

By default, macOS is installed with a small recovery partition that can be used to recover data and software on your system.

Follow this procedure to recover your Mac’s recovery partition. You can also just reinstall the operating system on your machine which will also restore the partition.

1. Go to the App Store and download the Install Mac OS X installer application version that matches the software on your Mac.
2. Download the free Recovery Partition Creator.
3. Open the tool and select the drive on which you want to save the recovery partition.
4. Select the installer application from step 1 and follow the app’s prompts.
5. When the process completes, use Terminal to verify the partition creation with the diskutil list command.

Use data recovery software to recover the data from a RAW disk. Use these steps:

1. Download, install, and launch Disk Drill for Mac.
2. Select the RAW disk from the list of available devices.
3. Click the Recover button to scan for lost data.
4. Preview the recoverable files and select the ones you want to restore.
5. Click Recover again to perform the recovery.

Follow these steps to access your Mac’s recovery partition:

1. Boot your Mac and hold the Command and R keys after you hear the initial chime as the machine starts up.
2. Hold the keys down until you see the OS X Utilities window.

To verify that you have a recovery partition, enter this command in Terminal: diskutil list. If the partition exists, you will see it in the displayed list.

Use the following procedure to create a bootable recovery drive from your recovery partition.

1. Connect a USB drive or external hard drive to your computer.
2. Download the free Recovery Disk Assistant application from this Apple website.
3. Accept the license agreement.
4. Select the disk on which to install the bootable recovery image and click Continue.
5. Enter your administrator id and password to start the process which should take about five minutes.
6. Click Quit when the process completes.

Use the following steps to create a Mac recovery partition that can be stored on an external storage device.

1. Start the Terminal app and enter the command diskutil list to find the disk identifier of your recovery partition.
2. Locate the recovery partition and make note of its IDENTIFIER in the far-right column of the display.
3. Enter this command replacing DiskID with the recovery partition’s IDENTIFIER: sudo hdiutil create ~/Desktop/‘Recovery HD.dmg’ -srcdevice /dev/DiskID.
4. Supply your administrator’s password when prompted by the OS.
5. When the command completes, you will have the Recovery HD disk image on your desktop.

You can reinstall your Mac’s operating system without a recovery partition by using Internet Recovery with these steps.

1. Shut down your computer.
2. Hold down Command-Option-R and press the Power button.
3. Hold down those keys until you see the spinning globe and the message Starting Internet Recovery. This may take a while.
4. A progress bar will be displayed and will take some time to fill up.
5. When the process is complete, the macOS Utilities screen will appear.
6. Click Reinstall macOS and follow the installation process.

No, it does not. Reinstalling replaces the system files but leaves user data and most preferences alone.

Use the following procedure to delete your recovery partition.

1. Verify the presence of the recovery partition with this command entered in the Terminal app: diskutil list. You will see the recovery partition if it exists.
2. Enter this command in Terminal to enable the Debug menu in Disk Utilities: defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1.
3. Open Disk Utility and navigate to Debug > Show every Partition.
4. Select the recovery partition and click Mount to make it active.
5. Right-click on the partition and select Erase.
6. Select the Partition tab and choose the recovery partition. Click on the minus sign underneath it to remove it from your OS.
7. Enter this command in Terminal to turn off Debug in Disk Utility: defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 0.