How to re-create a missing recovery partition in OS X

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Last Updated: 4/26/2017

Note: The original version of this post was referred to OS X Yosemite, but the same procedure is generally valid, regardless of the specific OS X/macOS version installed in the system. Some changes were also needed due to the new Disk Utility features introduced by El Capitan.

If you've happened to use a clone created with software like Super Duper!  to restore OS X from a rocky situation, you may find yourself with a system working smoothly but not having a Recovery Partition.

Though you could always restore the clone image in case of problems, this is not an ideal situation.

In fact, a minor problem could be more easily solved by repairing the disk  through Disk Utility/First Aid from OS X Utilities menu, instead of overwriting the whole drive.

Your recovery partition may be present but not show up.  In order to make sure it's actually installed, you can enter the following command in the Terminal:

diskutil list

The above example shows both a system partition and a recovery partition and it's what the output of this command should look like.

What if the above command doesn't return any Recovery Partition?

Solution

The only way to solve this problem is to download the latest installer from App Store and re-install OS X 10.10 on your system.

You could use an old copy of the installer in your possession but, if so, you might have to update OS X to its current version. The latter step isn't needed if you already have the latest installer version.

You may simply reinstall OS X, like you would do with an upgrade, or go for a clean reinstall. In both cases, it's warmly recommended to backup all of your files and to save a copy of OS X installer to another location, for safety's sake.

Once it's been successfully run, in fact, the installer will disappear. 

Steps

1.  Download OS X installer: From App Store, go to Purchases and click Download. A pop-up warning will alert you have already downloaded the file. Click Continue to perform a new download.
2.  
2. Re-install Yosemite OS X to your system: If you opt for a reinstall without formatting the hard drive, double-click Install OS X Yosemite El Capitan.app and go through the whole installation procedure, which will last just about 30 minutes. Afterwards, you'll be able to access back your data with a refreshed OS. If you choose a clean reinstall, you need to create a USB installer by using a pen drive having a minimum size of 8 GB, according to the directions found here. In the latter case, after booting your system from the USB installer, you have to access Disk Utility from OS X Utilities menu, as explained before, and erase the current partition on your internal hard drive (Macintosh HD).

Note: the below screenshots are referred to Yosemite, but the same procedure is valid with regard to the latest OS X / macOS version.

    

In my case, I reinstalled OS X without formatting and the Recovery Partition has been correctly created, solving the problem. I also could benefit from having a refreshed OS.