macOS Data Recovery

Mac computers have a built-in recovery system. This is called macOS Recovery.

If it encounters issues or needs to be restored, it provides several tools and options to troubleshoot and repair your Mac. Depending on the version of MacOS installed, the Recovery can be accessed by restarting your Mac and holding down a specific key combination.

To access MacOS Recovery you will need the following Key combinations:

 

Command

Action

Command (⌘) + R

To start up your Mac in recovery mode you will need to use this combination. It will load the built-in recovery system from a particular recovery partition on your Mac’s storage.

Option ⌥) + Command (⌘) + R

You could start up your Mac in internet recovery mode with this combination. It will connect to Apple’s servers over the internet to download and load the recovery system if your Mac lacks recovery partition or if the recovery partition is damaged.

Shift + Option (⌥) + Command (⌘) + R

This installs the version of MacOS that came with your Mac when it was new.

 

When you access your MacOS Recovery it will give you many options to chose from such as reinstalling MacOS, restoring your Mac from a Time machine backup, disk utility for disk management and repair, firmware password utility and more. These can help to troubleshoot problems, repair disk errors, reinstall the operating system, restore from backup, or access other useful utilities.

 


Further reading

Fixing a degraded RAID

DELL PowerEdge multiple drive failure

Seagate NAS rescue & repair