Use the Recovery HD Volume to Reinstall or Troubleshoot OS X

The Recovery HD volume can start up your Mac in an emergency and provide access to troubleshooting utilities as well as allow you to reinstall OS X.

April 15, 2025 · 1 min · 56 words · John Marquez

Install DVDs are history; OS X is now available as a download from theMac App Store.

All of these capabilities were formerly available on the install DVDs.

But the Recovery HD volume is only created on your Mac’s internal startup drive.

If anything should go wrong with that drive, you could find yourself in a pickle.