We don't recommend erasing the recovery partition due to the benefits of having a separate boot partition that is independent of that which holds the bootable copy of macOS. When you are running out of space every single free bit counts, so you might be looking for data that can be removed to allow you to use the regained space to store other, maybe more important files and data. How to Delete the macOS Recovery Partition This step is highly recommended before selling a Mac, because that's how you can make sure none of your data is left on the startup disk. MacOS Recovery is used to scan, verify, and repair the built-in and connected drives using Disk Utility, and in most cases it is also used to format the disk ahead of a clean install of macOS.

Startup is complete when the macOS utilities window appears, giving you the chance to address the issues that have been noticed. To boot into the built-in recovery partition of the Mac, hold down the Command + R keys immediately after starting up the machine and release them only after you see an Apple logo. The difference between the two is denoted by Apple with different logos: Internet Recovery is signaled by a spinning globe instead of the company logo. Macs released after 2011 feature the built-in recovery – which occupies space on the startup disk – and recovery over the internet, which will require an internet connection as it will download the recovery disk image from Apple's servers. Some of these features include restoring data from Time Machine, reinstalling the operating system, getting help online, repairing or erasing the disk, and more. MacOS Recovery is a separate partition on the startup disk, independent from the bootable OS, and includes utilities that you will need in hard times such as a startup disk failure.

Longtime Mac users may recall that this was when Apple moved the operating system from an installation disk to the App Store. Every Mac has included a partition called Recovery ever since OS X 10.7 Lion was introduced.

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