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Recovery mode not working

I have a mid-2011 iMac 21.5" running High Sierra.


When the OS started acting weird, running slow, and not loading thumbnails for photos and screenshots, I decided to reinstall the OS, but Command + R does not work to open recovery mode. Option key does not open the Utilities either. Option + Command + R did open Internet recovery, but after the spinning globe progress bar finished, I got only the Apple logo for 24 hours.


So I reinstalled High Sierra from the App Store, and it did run faster and fix the thumbnails. But still no access to recovery mode for the future.


In Terminal I ran diskutil apfs list and got "No APFS Containers found."


Then I ran diskutil list and got


/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *250.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Untitled 249.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3


So apparently there is a Recovery HD volume, but it's not APFS?

In Disk Utility, no Recovery HD volume appears.


Anyone have any ideas how I can repair this problem and restore access to recovery mode?


Thank you



iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jul 11, 2022 9:20 AM

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5 replies

Jul 11, 2022 10:52 AM in response to yogaman28734

You don't need APFS to run High Sierra.


Notes...


If you never installed macOS Sierra 10.12.4

If macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later was never installed on your Mac, macOS Recovery works differently:

  • Command-R is still the recommended way to start up from macOS Recovery. This combination makes sure that the installation isn't associated with your Apple ID, which is important if you're selling or giving away your Mac.
  • Option-Command-R installs the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.
  • Shift-Option-Command-R isn't available.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904 


Jul 11, 2022 2:27 PM in response to BDAqua

Sorry, maybe I didn’t make it clear: I cannot get into recovery mode with Command + R, which suggests there is something wrong with the Recovery HD volume. I need help fixing the Recovery HD volume. Reinstalling MacOS High Sierra from the App store did not give me a working Command + R, so I presume it did not recreate the Recovery HD volume. Does that explain better? Keyboard has been tested, it’s fine.

Recovery mode not working

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