As many owners of Apple devices know, on computers running the MaC OS operating system, a recovery mechanism is provided in case of problems with loading the OS, system errors, improper operation of programs, erroneous user actions or malfunctions in PC hardware. It is thanks to this development of Apple specialists that users are able to restore the computer after a system failure.
MaC OS Recovery Environment
The recovery environment is a complex of system utilities with various functionalities aimed at restoring system health. Each of its constituent programs performs a specific task. This can be a return to the factory state of the operating system, deployment of the previously created image, restoration of the boot sector of the disk, as well as obtaining help information on solving problems with the device.
Using Time Machine
Despite the fact that the Apple technique is known for its fault tolerance (both hardware and software), it is more advisable to hedge yourself and create a backup copy. On MaC devices, the Time Machine software component is responsible for this. It allows you to save and then restore both MaC OS and all user settings, applications, as well as files located on the system partition. It is recommended to resort to such a recovery method in case of any problems with loading, since it assumes minimal user participation in the process and deploys a fully working configuration with the correct system parameters and the absence of boot problems. In addition, this function will be useful to those who decide to transfer data to another computer, as well as those who have encountered hardware problems of their PC, and after repair received it from a remote MaC OS, which you will have to recover yourself. Of course, this recovery section will help only users who at one time were concerned about the timely creation of a backup copy, as well as maintaining its relevance.
How to restore MaC OS from an image
The recovery tool on the MaC computer is launched using the keyboard shortcut. On the device turned off, you need to press the power button and simultaneously hold down Command and R. The keys should be held pressed until the display shows the Apple logo. Immediately after this, the computer will boot into the recovery environment, one of the menu items of which will be "Restore from Time Machine Backup."
Further actions are as follows:
- If the backup data is on an external drive, then you need to connect it to the computer. If the system image was saved on the internal disk, you do not need to do anything.
- At the bottom of the screen, click Continue.
- In the next window, you will be prompted to select the image storage volume, and then, after the next click "Continue", a list of all previously created backups appears. Keep in mind that the system will only place full images containing all MaC OS system files on the recovery list. It is not possible to restore separately saved user files from this menu, since there will be no backup copies of the files themselves in this list.
- Place the cursor on the line with the desired backup, click "Next" again.
- The next page allows you to restore MaC OS to both the current system partition and another. The choice in this case may depend on the specific situation.
- Having decided on the partition on which the system image will be deployed, click the "Restore" button.
- The recovery process starts, it can take quite a long time, up to several hours. It depends on the number of user applications and files packaged in the image when it is created.
- Wait for the operation to finish, then reboot the device in normal mode.
Features of using Time Machine
Using Time Machine, it will be possible to restore Mac OS, as already noted above, only to users who have not neglected the capabilities of this utility, and at least once connected a prepared external drive and launched the backup utility. An important point will be to restore the system to a new or repaired media from which all information was deleted: for successful restoration of settings, you will first need to install Mac OS on the computer, which can be done using the recovery environment.