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We highly recommend creating a bootable copy of the macOS installer on a USB thumb drive.

But what if the recovery partition gets damaged, for instance Enter Internet Recovery Mode, an Internet-based version of Recovery Mode found on newer Macs, which loads recovery tools from Apples servers.

With Internet Recovery Mode, you can reinstall macOS and troubleshoot issues in the unfortunate scenario of your Macs startup disk having become corrupted or completely unreadable.

However, Internet Recovery Mode allows you to reinstall the macOS version that was factory-preloaded on your Mac at the time of purchase.

RELATED: How to start up your Mac in Recovery Mode To sum up, in Recovery Mode you can install or reinstall the most recent version of macOS that was previously present on this computer.

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Internet Recovery, on the other hand, will download the version of macOS that originally came with your computer, which in most cases wont be the most up-to-date macOS version available.

In addition, Internet Recovery will automatically run a quick test of the Macs memory and disks to check for hardware issues.

Things you can do in Internet Recovery Mode Like standard Recovery Mode, Internet Recovery Mode lets you: Scan, verify and repair connected drives with Disk Utility Erase, install or reinstall OS X that was factory-preloaded Restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup Check your Internet connection or get help online using Safari If both your Macs startup volume and its recovery partition have become corrupted or physically damaged, the computer will automatically enter Internet Recovery Mode.

How to enter Internet Recovery Mode To enter this mode at any time, do the following: 1) In the Apple menu, choose Restart or power on your Mac.

Tip: If you own a Mac notebook, make sure youre using the built-in keyboard to enter Internet Recovery Mode as the keystroke may not register on external keyboards.

In the next step, a Wi-Fi menu appears.

Internet Recovery needs an Internet connection to load the recovery tools from Apples servers.

Click the menu to display the available Wi-Fi networks, and then select one to connect to.

Tip: If youre using an Ethernet connection, you dont have to connect to a Wi-Fi network during Internet Recovery.

If this isnt an open Wi-Fi network, youll have to type in your password.

Press Enter on the keyboard or click the checkmark symbol to continue.

After your Mac has connected to the Wi-Fi network, itll download a recovery system image from Apples servers and start from it, giving you access to the recovery tools.

Depending on your Internet connection, this may take anywhere from a couple of minutes to up to an hour, or longer.

Connect your Mac to the power adapter so that it doesnt run out of juice whilst its loading Internet Recovery from Apples servers.

If all goes well, youll see the macOS Utilities window.

Choose the option you want to use in this window or via the Utilities menu.

The recovery tools let you: Reinstall the version of macOS that originally came with your Mac Restore the computer from a Time Machine backup Check the connected disks for errors with Disk Utility Search for help online using Safari Internet Recovery Mode requirements Some Macs that came with OS X Snow Leopard can use Internet Recovery after installing OS X Lion or later and a firmware update, notes Apple.

Requirements for installing macOS in Recovery Mode After entering Internet Recovery Mode and choosing to install or reinstall macOS, your Mac will need to download the installer for the version of macOS that came preloaded on your Mac when you took it out of the box.

If OS X Recovery is used for reinstallation, your Mac must use DHCP on a Wi-Fi or Ethernet network and WPAWPA2 as a security method on Wi-Fi.

You cannot reinstall macOS over a Wi-Fi or Ethernet network that uses the following authentication protocols: WEP WPA-Enterprise Certificate-based authentication 802.1x Proxies (where specific proxy servers must be configured in network preferences) Captive Wi-Fi networks (where you click an Agree button to access the Internet) PPPoE (where there is no router handling the PPPoE connection) The network requirements listed above also apply to the version of Safari that comes with macOS Internet Recovery and standard Recovery Mode.

If your Internet connection has requirements that are unsupported by macOS Recovery, change the settings to a supported configuration for the duration of the macOS installation.

What to do when Internet Recovery is unavailable If the recovery partition on your Mac has been damaged and you cannot enter standard Recovery Mode and Internet Recovery is unavailable, you can still start the computer from an external drive with a bootable version of OS X.

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