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What is it?
#24693 01/05/13 11:03 PM
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I'm not sure in which forum to post this, but since it deals with OS X 10.8 functionality I'm posting here.

This software, which is obviously not official Apple, has apparently harnessed some Mountain Lion functionality in a some manner.

Can anybody explain what it's all about?

Thanks.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: What is it?
artie505 #24694 01/06/13 12:23 AM
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No magic or trick there that I can see. The functionality is contained in the Unix command resetpassword can which be accessed either through Disk Utility on the invisible RecoveryHD volume that is automatically installed on every Lion and Mountain Lion boot drive. Instructions are found in Apple Document DOC-4101.

If you would like to have the RecoveryHD functionality on a thumb drive follow the instructions in Apple Knowledge Base article 4848 or even more simply clone a Recovery HD to a thumb drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper (of course the trick in cloning is making the RecoveryHD visible to be cloned.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: What is it?
joemikeb #24695 01/06/13 12:42 AM
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Aaah! I was aware of your linked kBase article, but I didn't make the connection. Thanks.

OK, then, is the disc a bootleg item or one that is legally salable?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: What is it?
artie505 #24696 01/06/13 03:38 AM
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The question of whether or not it is legally sellable is one I would leave to the consideration of Apple's excellent staff of intellectual property attorneys. They earn a lot more than I ever did for doing exactly that.

My question is why would anyone pay $3.95 plus shipping and handling for something Apple has already installed on your computer if you are running Lion or Mountain Lion? On Snowy and previous versions it was available on the install disc. confused

FWIW I have a 32Gb thumb drive with a Mountain Lion clone, Drive Genius, TechTool Pro, and an assortment of other utilities I have found useful over the years. I keep it around for recovery Of course, being USB 2 (High Speed) it takes what seems like forever to boot, but boot it does. Now I am wondering if I can or should install a RecoveryHD volume on it? Maybe I will give that a try, the next time I get bored. smirk

Last edited by joemikeb; 01/06/13 03:48 AM.

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: What is it?
joemikeb #24697 01/06/13 07:54 AM
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> The question of whether or not it is legally sellable is one I would leave to the consideration of Apple's excellent staff of intellectual property attorneys. They earn a lot more than I ever did for doing exactly that.

I was just wondering whether I missed something obvious. (Having been taken down once by BSA (...vindicated, but it cost me a selling opportunity), I've since paid attention to what's being offered, such as Mountain Lion installation thumb drives, and I've been amazed at the fact that obvious bootlegs are getting by simply because their listings don't include any flagged keywords, such as "backup disc," like mine did.)

> My question is why would anyone pay $3.95 plus shipping and handling for something Apple has already installed on your computer if you are running Lion or Mountain Lion?

Actually, they're being offered for as much as $8.99 (delivered), and I'll guess that the buyers are either just plain ignorant about what they're buying and/or possessed of larcenous souls.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: What is it?
artie505 #24705 01/06/13 01:37 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
I'll guess that the buyers are either just plain ignorant about what they're buying and/or possessed of larcenous souls
…or possibly they are simply unaware of the RecoveryHD and/or what is available on it. The RecoveryHD is not a Gee Whiz feature for the average buyer, so it is easy to overlook or ignore.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: What is it?
joemikeb #24706 01/06/13 10:01 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Originally Posted By: artie505
I'll guess that the buyers are either just plain ignorant about what they're buying and/or possessed of larcenous souls
…or possibly they are simply unaware of the RecoveryHD and/or what is available on it. The RecoveryHD is not a Gee Whiz feature for the average buyer, so it is easy to overlook or ignore.

Your "unaware" is a more polite restatement of my "ignorant."


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: What is it?
joemikeb #24782 01/15/13 11:42 AM
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Those discs got taken down from eBay, probably by BSA. (Pirated Apple code, I'll guess.)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: What is it?
artie505 #24808 01/19/13 09:23 AM
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Sorry, my mistake; they're still listed.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: What is it?
joemikeb #24811 01/20/13 01:20 AM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
The question of whether or not it is legally sellable is one I would leave to the consideration of Apple's excellent staff of intellectual property attorneys. They earn a lot more than I ever did for doing exactly that.

Sadly, I don't think that's the way the world is supposed to work.

Judging from my own take-down (I got snagged because I used the term "backup disc."), I'll guess that BSA does keyword searches on eBay and elsewhere and/or relies on folks like us to report stuff such as the present discs (which I'll guess are not legit because they seem to be nothing more than pirated Apple code).

Apple's attorneys don't get involved in minuscule stuff like this unless they are approached by BSA (as in my case, when they declined to support them).

And BSA isn't all that up on things, either... By way of example, I've reported thumb drive Mountain Lion installers that were taken down from eBay within a couple of days, but this HDD

Quote:
You are bidding on a mint condition HDD that was taken out of an APPLE MAC BOOK PRO 17" Unibody Model 2009. The harddrive has been reformatted in Mac HFS Extended format. It works PERFECTLY! The HDD also has two separate partitions. One of them is 4Gb is size and is preloaded with the Mac OSX Lion Install files needed to install Mac OSX Lion Operating System onto your MAC. The other partition is empty and ready for install. (Emphasis added.)

which is loaded with bootleg software and is pretty much the same thing was left standing.

I don't mind being helpful to a degree, but I'll be damned if I'm going to make a career, or even an avocation, of it!


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: What is it?
joemikeb #24812 01/20/13 08:34 PM
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If I recall correctly, I started seeing the Recovery partition in my Finder windows after I enabled the debug menu in Disk Utility while using Lion. The Terminal command used to enable the debug menu may differ in Mountain Lion:

Enable Disk Utility's Debug Menu.

After the debug menu is enabled, you see more messages in the All Messages log when Disk Utility is open.

A command for Snow Leopard is given in a comment below this article:

Manage all partitions with Disk Utility in OS X


MicroMat Inc
Makers of TechTool
Re: What is it?
MicroMatTech3 #24814 01/20/13 10:02 PM
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Quote:
The Terminal command used to enable the debug menu may differ in Mountain Lion:

Nope, it's the same: I used the commands offered in your linked article to enable and disable DU's Debug menu. Choosing Show Every Partition from that menu revealed the Recovery HD, as expected, in DU's left-hand pane, but that visibility did not extend to Finder windows.



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Re: What is it?
dkmarsh #24815 01/20/13 10:38 PM
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Thank you for the clarification about the Terminal command, and for the fact that you are not seeing the Recovery partition in Finder windows. I wish I could explain why I am seeing it under Devices.


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Re: What is it?
MicroMatTech3 #24816 01/20/13 11:33 PM
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Oops...my answer was incomplete. Belatedly, I realized that the Recovery HD's dimmed state in DU's left-hand pane meant that it wasn't mounted. Upon mounting it, I find that it does indeed appear under Devices in a Finder window sidebar.

Could it be that once mounted by the user, the Recovery HD is mounted on successive reboots until unmounted by the user? I'm not ready to reboot at the moment, but I'll experiment next time I do.



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Re: What is it?
dkmarsh #24817 01/21/13 12:47 AM
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It has been my experience that the Recovery volume automatically remounts on later restarts and boots after initially being mounted by Disk Utility. I have restarted and rebooted several times since enabling the debug menu in Disk Utility, and have manually mounted the volume only once. I think we have pieced together the answer.


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Re: What is it?
dkmarsh #24819 01/21/13 01:02 AM
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When the debug menu is enabled in Disk Utility in Lion, output such as this appears simply as a result of launching Disk Utility (text can be scrolled to the right):

Code:

1/20/13 5:54:41.104 PM Disk Utility: **********
1/20/13 5:54:41.108 PM Disk Utility: Disk Utility started.
1/20/13 5:54:41.392 PM Disk Utility: module: Restore - loaded
1/20/13 5:54:41.442 PM Disk Utility: module: First Aid - loaded
1/20/13 5:54:41.467 PM Disk Utility: module: Erase - loaded
1/20/13 5:54:41.496 PM Disk Utility: module: Information - loaded
1/20/13 5:54:41.524 PM Disk Utility: DUDiskController needed [DMManager sharedManager], thread = 0x7fcd69419670 
1/20/13 5:54:41.548 PM Disk Utility: preBootEnvironmentFlag: DMPreBootEnvironmentEFI
1/20/13 5:54:41.549 PM Disk Utility: module: Partition - loaded
1/20/13 5:54:41.581 PM Disk Utility: module: RAID - loaded
1/20/13 5:54:41.606 PM Disk Utility: ## rebuildMasterList ##
1/20/13 5:54:42.882 PM Disk Utility: **********
1/20/13 5:54:43.024 PM Disk Utility: 		Disk:	disk0 (WDC WD1001FALS-40Y6A0 Media) - 0x7fcd6b15c5d0
1/20/13 5:54:43.032 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk0s1 (disk0s1) - 0x7fcd6c87f950
1/20/13 5:54:43.041 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk0s2 (Macintosh HD)    [* boot volume] - 0x7fcd6b17c7a0
1/20/13 5:54:43.050 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk0s3 (Recovery HD) - 0x7fcd694b2030
1/20/13 5:54:43.053 PM Disk Utility: 		Disk:	disk2 (G-TECH) - 0x7fcd6c87c420
1/20/13 5:54:43.062 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk2s1 (disk2s1) - 0x7fcd6b179510
1/20/13 5:54:43.070 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk2s2 (G-Drive_Q_232) - 0x7fcd6b179be0
1/20/13 5:54:43.078 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk2s3 (Recovery) - 0x7fcd694d4ca0
1/20/13 5:54:43.082 PM Disk Utility: 		Disk:	disk3 (G-TECH) - 0x7fcd6b15db90
1/20/13 5:54:43.082 PM Disk Utility: 		Optical Device: SuperDrive - 0x7fcd694c4e50
1/20/13 5:54:43.083 PM Disk Utility: 		Disk:	disk0 (WDC WD1001FALS-40Y6A0 Media) - 0x7fcd6b15c5d0
1/20/13 5:54:43.083 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk0s1 (disk0s1) - 0x7fcd6c87f950
1/20/13 5:54:43.083 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk0s2 (Macintosh HD)    [* boot volume] - 0x7fcd6b17c7a0
1/20/13 5:54:43.084 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk0s3 (Recovery HD) - 0x7fcd694b2030
1/20/13 5:54:43.084 PM Disk Utility: 		Disk:	disk2 (G-TECH) - 0x7fcd6c87c420
1/20/13 5:54:43.085 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk2s1 (disk2s1) - 0x7fcd6b179510
1/20/13 5:54:43.085 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk2s2 (G-Drive_Q_232) - 0x7fcd6b179be0
1/20/13 5:54:43.085 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk2s3 (Recovery) - 0x7fcd694d4ca0
1/20/13 5:54:43.086 PM Disk Utility: 		Disk:	disk3 (G-TECH) - 0x7fcd6b15db90
1/20/13 5:54:43.094 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk3s1 (disk3s1) - 0x7fcd694d5000
1/20/13 5:54:43.103 PM Disk Utility: 			Partition:	disk3s2 (H_G_Wells) - 0x7fcd694d5360
1/20/13 5:54:43.103 PM Disk Utility: 		Optical Device: SuperDrive - 0x7fcd694c4e50
1/20/13 5:54:43.628 PM Disk Utility: [DUDisk stringForOutlineList] - falling back to DUDisk for stringForOutlineView
1/20/13 5:54:43.629 PM Disk Utility:  0x7fcd694c4e50
1/20/13 5:54:44.124 PM Disk Utility: updateOpticalList for list containing 1 items
1/20/13 5:54:44.127 PM Disk Utility: ** Optical Device added ** SuperDrive
1/20/13 5:54:53.323 PM Disk Utility: module: Restore - loaded
1/20/13 5:54:53.327 PM Disk Utility: module: First Aid - loaded
1/20/13 5:54:53.332 PM Disk Utility: module: Erase - loaded
1/20/13 5:54:53.334 PM Disk Utility: module: Information - loaded
1/20/13 5:54:53.343 PM Disk Utility: preBootEnvironmentFlag: DMPreBootEnvironmentEFI
1/20/13 5:54:53.343 PM Disk Utility: module: Partition - loaded
1/20/13 5:54:53.349 PM Disk Utility: module: RAID - loaded





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Re: What is it?
MicroMatTech3 #24822 01/21/13 05:23 PM
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Originally Posted By: MicroMatTech3



thank you for that


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Re: What is it?
Virtual1 #24823 01/21/13 10:00 PM
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You are welcome.

I have taken another look at this question and have concluded that the volume that is showing up in my Finder windows is a volume I created using Disk Utility and named Recovery (for an experiment I have not done) and that the volumes named Recovery HD show up in Disk Utility and can be mounted using Disk Utility, and then appear in the Finder window. I do not see why they would automatically appear after each boot or restart, but will pay attention to that.


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